2021: Think Positively for a Better Year!
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This law professor says that some states use age as a tie breaker when two patients are competing for care. Well, drat! He argues for the use of vaccination status.
https://wapo.st/2ZueosT0 -
There was no one at the supermarket pharmacy so I stopped to ask about boosters. The pharmacist told me they have a conference call at 4:00 today to talk about the new guidance.0
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I had a pretty miserable night due to body aches that made it impossible to find a comfortable position for sleeping. I’m a little better today, but still feel achy. DH was also having a difficult night with lots of coughing and wheezing, so neither of us slept well. We are supposed to join our friends for happy hour and pizza on the patio at a nearby restaurant, but I’m not sure if we will go unless I begin to feel better by this afternoon.0
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I had a pretty miserable night due to body aches that made it impossible to find a comfortable position for sleeping. I’m a little better today, but still feel achy. DH was also having a difficult night with lots of coughing and wheezing, so neither of us slept well. We are supposed to join our friends for happy hour and pizza on the patio at a nearby restaurant, but I’m not sure if we will go unless I begin to feel better by this afternoon.
Oh, wow, I'm SO sorry!0 -
Doctors on the news have said it’s okay to mix vaccines but people might have more side effects from a combo. Maybe that’s what happened to you? I won’t be at six months until late October.Maybe Moderna boosters will be approved by then.0
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Our governor has already made an announcement adopting the new guideline.
Walgreen's website says you can make an appointment starting tomorrow online or by phone. That's where we got our first shots. I thought I'd be clever and call but was rather summarily dismissed by their AI answering system. LOL!0 -
I didn’t mix my vaccines and I was at 7 months. I was a little surprised that it hit me so hard after more than 24 hours. I felt bad after about 8 hours with the second dose, so I thought I was home free after 24 hours of feeling fine. I’m feeling a lot better now, but very tired after not sleeping much at all last night. I decided to cancel on the happy hour as I don’t think I would enjoy it and getting ready to go out just seems like too much work right now.0
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Maryanne, you will probably have better luck using the on-line system. I found it very easy to use, both for CVS and Walgreens.0
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Walgreen's updated their web site overnight as their news announcement promised. DH woke me up at 5:30 to get an appointment.
Yesterday was my 6-month vaccine anniversary; tomorrow is DH's. I have an appointment today at 12:15; he has one Monday.
I'm thrilled; no idea what the anti vax crowd is smoking.0 -
Interesting piece on breakthrough cases:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/breakthrough-covid-vaccinated-alabama-delta-variant_n_610f29c2e4b041dfbaaaa7870 -
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I watched the first episode of Ordinary Joe last evening. I had printed out the TV Guide summary ahead of time so I was sort of prepared but i enjoyed it. Doesn't hurt that the main character is super handsome (LOL!).
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/09/20/ordinary-joe-review-nbc-show-could-been-disaster-but-works/8377185002/0 -
Today I’m feeling human again. Hopefully you won’t have as much of a reaction as I did, but be prepared for the possibility. I did notice that I was absolutely starving all day yesterday, which I believe was related to the lack of sleep the night before. As I understand it, the hormone that regulates hunger is manufactured in the body during sleep, so no sleep = feeling excessively hungry. I tried not to give in to the hunger by drinking extra water instead and although the scale didn’t go down any this morning, it also didn’t go up so I consider that a win.
I’m starting to get excited about the trip I have coming up with my sister and cousin. My cousin and I leave a week from today to go to my sister’s place and spend the night. The next morning we are driving to Laurel, MS where my sister’s favorite HGTV show is filmed. We will spend 1 night there and look around the town the next day before starting the next leg of our trip to the Raleigh-Durham area to visit our cousin. We plan to drive about 3.5 hours to the Montgomery area, then on to Raleigh the next day. We will stay with our cousins for 3 nights, then drive up to Williamsburg, VA to see my niece and her family for the weekend. We will then drive to Pigeon Forge, TN and spend 3 nights there, exploring the Smoky Mountains before driving to Nashville. My cousin loves visiting presidential homes, so we will be visiting Monticello on our way to Pigeon Forge, and The Hermitage while in Nashville. After Nashville, we are planning 1 night in Memphis before heading back to my sister’s place and then home. It’s a lot of driving, but hopefully with the number of stops we are making it won’t be too taxing. We are taking my cousin’s new Buick Enclave, so it should be quite roomy and comfortable.
The cousin we are visiting is the one I’ve mentioned here who has had tumors removed from his brain. He’s currently recovering from his 3rd surgery for this. We all fear that he’s living on borrowed time at this point, so that was the inspiration for the trip. While we are there, we are planning to take over the kitchen and make a big Tex-Mex family dinner for them in hopes of giving his wife a little break from cooking. They have 2 adult daughters and 2 granddaughters, so it should be a fun evening. I’ll be making Key Lime pies and my sister and cousin plan to make 2 kinds of enchiladas, Spanish rice, and probably beans and guacamole. There may or may not also be some Margaritas served, lol!0 -
That sounds like a wonderful trip. My sister used to live in Durham. Duke University has the most beautiful gardens on the grounds if you have a little free time. It’s worth the time to walk around.0
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Helene, my cousin gets all of his medical treatments there at Duke University Medical Center. The last time I visited we went with him for one of his scheduled treatments, met some of his doctors, and walked around a bit. We visited the chapel, which is beautiful. I was very impressed with the campus and the excellent medical treatment he is receiving there.0
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Pam - I'm glad you're feeling better. So far no side effects for me - knock on wood!
That does sound like a great trip except for your poor cousin!0 -
A beautiful sunny day here in Baltimore. Just got a food delivery from a store that I've never been to. Not really local. I'm surprised they deliver. Even more surprised there's nowhere on the web site to put a tip (although the delivery fee is fairly significant).
I'm meeting another volunteer at the storage unit later to unpack some boxes. By the end of the year it will be TWO YEARS since we did a cat show or flea market. Feels like forever.
I have to get the raffle mailing organized, boxed, and ready to go downtown to the "bulk mail dudes" next Saturday. I haven't done that myself in probably a decade. I remember it well, though. It was always me and all these guys with their tractor trailers full of junk mail. They were being paid by the hour so they'd always let me go in front. LOL! Fran prefers to go on Saturday. No tractor trailers.
At the same time I'm starting to write the holiday newsletter. I have SO many adorable cat/christmas tree memes that I'm tempted to make it an 8-pager. Silly reason, huh?
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Maryanne, I hope you are still feeling well after your booster.
I’m starting to prepare for my trip this week. We will be gone 2 weeks but I plan to take advantage of the laundry facilities at my cousins’ home or at my nieces’s home, so that will simplify the packing some. The biggest variable will be the weather, so I will probably try to take things I can layer up or down as needed. I did purchase a rain jacket from Amazon last week that I will take. It will also serve as a light jacket when needed. The comments on the jacket mentioned a bad odor and when I opened it I had to agree. I hung it up outside for about 24 hours and the odor dissipated, so I think it will be fine.0 -
I'm still feeling okay physically. Reeling a little otherwise.
The woman - let's call her S - with terminal cancer whose colonies I am going to take over has been (or is going to be) hospitalized. She was in a clinical trial which was working but seems to have caused MAJOR side effects. They were having trouble finding a bed for her (EVEN HERE damn the anti-vaxxers).
The other woman - let's call her L - responsible for the colonies - but who lives too far away to do it daily - is going to be having a diagnostic procedures for ovarian issues next week. I'm trying to buoy her spirits but just between us I'm concerned by the symptoms she's describing.
S also thinks L should be taking care of her house cats INSTEAD OF HER SON AND HIS WIFE. I've told L I'm not getting involved in that except possibly to help hire a cat sitter. It's not a neighborhood I want to go to or a situation I want to be personally involved in.
As far as we can figure out S has made no provisions for her cats after her death (or transfer to hospice) which, if true, I would find to be the height of irresponsibility.
Anyway, at a minimum, I will be feeding more days. I told L we'll deal as each issue comes up.
One thing I'm good at is planning in a crisis. Although grown men have been known to flinch when I say "I have a plan". Evil grin.........
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Wow, that’s a lot you’re adding to your plate, Maryanne! Hopefully both ladies will do the responsible thing for their animals.
It looks like DH’s mother needs to be moved to a memory care unit now. She has been in assisted living for around 10 years now, but it seems like she has really declined mentally in the past year. COVID likely can be blamed for some of that, but she will also reach her 94th birthday at the end of October, so not unexpected news. My SIL will go tomorrow to check out the available rooms and choose the one she feels will be best for her. The facility will take care of moving her things, but I suspect she will be very angry about it because she really likes the apartment she is in currently. And she will likely not think she needs to be moved to memory care, though it’s pretty obvious to the rest of us. SIL is also going to research funeral arrangements because when the time comes we will be returning her body to El Paso for a graveside burial service and we need to know what the steps are for making that happen. I offered to go down (after my trip) and help with that part but SIL declined my offer. I hate for her to have to do it on her own, but I wasn’t looking forward to going back so soon, especially for such a sad reason. I think DH and SIL don’t expect their mom to live long after this move, but we’ve been fooled several times about her longevity at this point. Memory care is almost double the cost of her current care, but fortunately her finances will cover it — just.0 -
Pam - that's really rough! For someone at that age to have to leave their apartment - after no doubt having had to leave her home earlier - I can see how that would be traumatic.
I can't believe DH and I missed all that with all 4 parents! I guess it doesn't happen often0 -
Pfizer vs Moderna:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/4-charts-show-why-moderna-164556540.html
As if any of us had a choice in the early days.....0 -
Pam, that’s rough with DH’s mom going into memory care. I hope she can adjust but at 94, that’s going to be a hard adjustment. I don’t think I mentioned we had to evacuate the neighborhood on Saturday. There was a gas link two houses down the street. The fire dept advised us to leave. They didn’t have to ask us twice. You could hear the hissing and smell gas. We left for 3 hours since we didn’t know how long it would take to fix the leak. It was all clear when we got back.0
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Wow, Helene! That must have been a scary night for you guys.
My SIL checked out the available rooms today and was quite shaken by the experience. Her current room is pretty large, with a small kitchenette and enough room for a sofa and a couple of chairs as well as a couple of end tables, lamps, etc., and a double bed and nightstands. The new rooms are substantially smaller, with room only for the bed, a nightstand, a chest of drawers, and 1 chair. There is no closet but they provide an armoire and recommend that she only keep about 6 outfits there. She will not be allowed to have scissors, microwave, coffeemaker, etc, which she currently has in her room. They did agree to let her have a dorm size refrigerator if we provide it. Who knows why, but whenever she is angry about her circumstances she tends to blame SIL for it, so she is dreading having to tell her about the move. I told DH I think he should go down and present a united front when they tell her she’s moving. I don’t know if he will or not. He tends to take the path of least resistance in difficult matters involving his mom, which is probably why his sister gets blamed and bears the brunt of their mom’s anger. He did say he knew he needed to “grow a pair” but didn’t say any more after that. He is holding out hope that her dementia is related to a persistent UTI, but I think that isn’t the case. SIL did request a urine culture test to determine if there is in fact an infection before we will agree to the move and we are waiting for those results now.
It would be easier if MIL was really confused most of the time, but she actually isn’t. She is growing increasingly agitated and anxious, particularly in the evenings, which is known as “sundowning” and is common for people with dementia. Since she is fairly lucid much of the time, I know she will deeply resent being forced to move to memory care and give up even more independence, and I can’t blame her for that. However, I also can’t deny that she is confused and irrational at times and those times are becoming more frequent.
And then there is the issue of who we can get to move her things. My fireman nephew and a couple of his friends are more than willing to come and do it. It would likely take them 2 hours or less to move the things she will be using and load up the rest to take to SIL’s house, but the facility says it has to be professional movers. That makes no sense to us, especially since they want her moved within the next week and most moving companies are booked out at least 2 weeks in advance. Also, most professional movers require a minimum of 4 hours to take the job. We are trying to get clarification on this issue as it really doesn’t make sense to us. My nephew is a realtor in addition to being a firefighter and he owns several rental properties so he is incorporated as an LLC. He said if necessary he could get a magnetic sign made with the name of his LLC on it and put that on his truck and call himself a moving company. He’s a problem solver, for sure!0 -
Some people are problem solvers. That is for sure. I love your nephew's suggested solution! Having to have professional movers to move into such a small room makes no sense from the outside looking in.
DH and his brothers pretty much left everything about their mom and dad to their sister. I was thrilled when my baby brother stepped up to help dad. I told him once I hoped he wouldn't take it the wrong way but mom would have been proud of him.
What a horrible situation all around. I think the worst stage of dementia must be when you know you have it but haven't gone completely off the cliff.
I have clients who run nursing homes. They are real estate dudes because that's who has gotten in the nursing home racket. They view if as owning real estate. I visited both my grandmother and my aunt in nursing homes - horrible, horrible! I will not go in one. Period. I have made sure that I have the means to prevent it should the situation arise.0 -
Pam, at least the gas leak happened mid day so we could se what was happening. It was over by 4 pm. I feel for your MIL. Being aware that you’re losing it must be terrifying. I’m sure she has friends in the facility. She’ll lose the connection to them as well. The bit about professional movers sounds like a scam. Could she have a Kourig coffee maker in her room? It doesn’t seem to have the same risk as a coffee maker. Your husband should definitely go down to help his sister to talk to their mom. Too many women end up carrying the burden of elder care; physical and mental.0
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Pam, at least the gas leak happened mid day so we could se what was happening. It was over by 4 pm.
I'm glad your crisis was over by 4 pm.
We lived in central PA during Three Mile Island. One of our cars was in the garage. DH was at work. I was home, packed, and ready to evacuate with no car. That is one memory from that time that is pretty clear. We ended up not leaving and lived to tell the tale.
During that time we lived in a townhouse (one of 12) located in a flood plain. During Hurricane Eloise we were actually ordered to evacuate. We didn't. Instead, everyone went around helping empty out basements. We got several feet of water from that storm (less than they got during Agnes when apparently the basements were almost filled).0 -
Maryanne, I get confused nowadays by all the different levels of care for the (primarily) elderly. Around here, we have independent living, assisted living, memory care units, and skilled nursing facilities. We expect that MIL will end her days in this memory care unit of the assisted living facility she’s been in for the past 6 years. I remember how horrible nursing homes were in the past, but I haven’t been in one in at least 30 years, so I have no idea what they are like now. The assisted living facilities aren’t horrible, but of course, I’d rather be in my own home as long as possible.
Reflecting back on MIL’s assisted living history, each time she’s moved it was into a smaller apartment than the previous one, with this next move being the most extreme change. I remember the arguments when we moved her into the first apartment. She was so angry as we asked her to choose the furnishings and clothes she wanted to have in her new place. It was not her choice to go into assisted living, but we could not let her return to live alone in her house. It was at least a year before she let some of the anger go and probably 3 years or more before she admitted that she was better off there than at home on her own. Initially she did participate some in the activities such as playing bridge or going to the grocery store on the bus with other residents, but as her hearing declined she gave all of that up. Now she rarely leaves her room and often doesn’t even get dressed. It’s a very sad existence in my opinion.0 -
My aunt was in a two-bed room with a chair, bathroom (which she couldn't use because she was bed bound), and a TV (having someone else able to turn on a TV 24/7 alone would do it for me).
My grandmother was in a three-bed room with a couple chairs. One of the three women was on a morphine drip. Occasionally it would get pinched or clogged and she'd wake up and scream. I don't remember a TV.
And both of those were quite a few years ago. I can't imagine it's gotten anything but worse. The claustrophia alone associated with the room you're describing would get me! Plus - NO CAT!!!
Like I said, I'm not going. Period. End of discussion. (I casually mentioned that a lunch one day to a group of friends and was surprised they were shocked. I guess they never pictured me consciously prepping for something like that.)
One of our friends probably belongs in assisted living but there's no one to force her and she doesn't see it. She's trying for a senior apartment but is missing much of the paperwork they require and, of course, the pandemic has made replacing some things (like a driver's license or social security card) extremely difficult so who knows if/when it will actually happen. At the moment she's without water in her home and without a vehicle. The county is finally involved and doing what they can (as have we).
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If the county is involved, things may move a little more quickly. Perhaps they can cut through some of the red tape.0
