This Year is Our Year for Success!
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We had a very nice time in NY state with our friend. There were 10 of us for dinner. We didn’t really consult on the menu but everyone brought something different. We start our drive tomorrow stopping overnight in Delaware. We’ll be in Virginia Tuesday night and arrive at my brother’s house Wednesday afternoon. I hadn’t planned to do any driving Wednesday but it just worked out that way. We take I 95 to Lumberton and then get off and drive state roads the rest of the way. It’s more scenic and I’m hoping it’s less traffic than staying on the Interstate.
Have a good visit with your brother! Here's hoping the trip isn't too bad. I'm not doing anything Thursday except feeding and making us a turkey dinner.0 -
Happy Thanksgiving Maryanne and Helene! I hope we all enjoy the day, our families, and the holiday feasts we will have before us. I’m very thankful for my friendship with you two, as well as the absent Jean.0
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Happy Thanksgiving! The turkey's in the oven, chicken livers (to put in the gravy) are thawing (because I forgot yesterday), everything else is ready to roll! This is Simon's first Thanksgiving; we're curious to see what he thinks of turkey.
I'm very thankful to have met the three of you and hope Jean's okay!0 -
UPDATE: Simon thinks turkey is the best thing EVER!!!!0
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The visit is going really well. Dinner at my sister’s house was delicious. We met her significant other’s daughter in law and 2 of his grandchildren. Oliver had just turned 13 and Finley is 15. They were very pleasant company. We’d each heard about each other over the years. We have to call the electrician Monday to find out if we have electric service yet or if it’s coming soon. I sent in the form to reconnect the water last week so hopefully we have water now.0
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The visit is going really well. Dinner at my sister’s house was delicious. We met her significant other’s daughter in law and 2 of his grandchildren. Oliver had just turned 13 and Finley is 15. They were very pleasant company. We’d each heard about each other over the years. We have to call the electrician Monday to find out if we have electric service yet or if it’s coming soon. I sent in the form to reconnect the water last week so hopefully we have water now.
Sounds like a great visit! Have you had any information yet on the "on the ground" situation where your house is?0 -
We’re up to electrician number 3. We got him through our old real estate agent who sold us the house 36 years ago. He sent me a text to ask how we were and if he could help. I told him about the difficulty finding an electrician who actually showed up. He made a call on our behalf and his electrician reinspected us Friday and we passed. Makes me wonder if the company who failed us was just looking to make expensive repairs we didn’t need. They have to send paperwork to the power company certifying we passed and then we get in line for reconnection. If we’re lucky, maybe that will be in the next week. We’re still hanging out with my brother in SC.0
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Fingers crossed for you Helene! I’m so hoping that when you finally get there, you find minimal damage.
It’s been pretty quiet and dull around here. I’m attending twice a week OT sessions where they tell me I’m making good progress. I’m not really seeing much progress in function yet or the return of feeling. The therapists measure things like how far I can bend my fingers and wrist and overall grip strength and they get excited over gains in those areas. I am less excited because I don’t see that translating to improved functioning in my day to day activities. I still struggle with gripping a knife, stirring something, or using a curling iron, for examples. Clearly, patience is not my strong suit!
Today I will attempt to make an appetizer for a birthday party we will attend Thursday night. It’s basically a cheese log, so making it ahead of time improves the flavor. I may also attempt to make biscotti to give to my friends as a Christmas gift. Those activities should give my hand a workout as there will be lots of chopping and stirring involved.0 -
My Fitbit discharged during our travels and I don’t remember which bag or box I packed the charger in. I was about 5 days off and the time was hours wrong when I finally used my brother’s charger. I couldn’t figure out how to reset date and time and it was driving me crazy since I use the Fitbit as a watch. Family tried to help without success. This morning, I removed my Fitbit from IPad and reinstalled. I was able to synch it and everything is back to normal. I’ll be sure not to let it fully discharge again.0
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Pam, patience is hard and progress can be so small that it’s hard to see day to day improvements. If your therapists can see it, believe you’re moving in the right direction. It hasn’t been that long since your surgery and restarting therapy. Believe that you have more improvements coming.0
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Helene - fingers crossed you get good news about the house!
Pam - trying to regain function must be SO frustrating, especially when the function you want is so different from what the therapists are measuring!
Weird item that seems to have disappeared - decent sugar snap peas. Giant Food discontinued my beloved Mann brand and substituted inedible Green Giant brand. I'm sure they got "a deal". I keep going to different stores and trying their brand. Those peas were the cornerstone of my evening raw vegetable snack. I've still got baby carrots and peppers and sometimes cauliflower but I miss my sugar snaps!!!!0 -
I used to buy Mann veggies too. I haven’t looked to see if they are still showing up in other stores. I agree they are the best.0
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It's a chilly day here in Baltimore.
I fed this morning and then settled in to work. Year end is always crazy.
I've also got to keep working on my personal and CROM Christmas lists. I'm definitely behind again this year. At least i have DH's presents.0 -
I have almost all of my Christmas shopping/ordering done. Almost everything is an on-line with free shipping purchase so it was relatively easy, but not really much fun. I always enjoyed going to stores to pick out items in person, especially after I retired and could go at non-crowded times. All I have left to do is a trip to the bookstore to pick out a couple of large print books for MIL and a couple of things I want to get for DH. It’s hard to shop for him, especially since he’s my chauffeur.
I’ve mixed up 3 different types of cookies dough and they are currently resting in the fridge. The two OT people that I’ve worked with for the last year will get some. One likes chocolate chip and the other likes peanut butter, so I made a batch of each. The other type is orange cranberry shortbreads, which I made for the first time last year and loved. I’ll finally get to try out my new ovens, lol!0 -
All cookies are baked and turned out well. The new oven works great. I especially like that one rack in each oven has a feature that makes it slide in and out easily, even with something heavy on it. I was planning to take some to my OT people but my appointment for today was cancelled. We had some bad weather roll through this morning with a tornado that did damage near their location and took out their power. We weren’t affected but there is a good deal of damage in other parts of our city.
I am officially done with all of my Christmas shopping. I have to pick up the last items at Barnes & Noble and wrap them, but they should be ready and waiting for pickup whenever my driver can take me there to get them.0 -
Pam - okay, color me impressed! Shopping AND banking done! WOW!0
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Trivia:
Tonight's the 3-hour Survivor finale.
Shocker! tWitch committed suicide! (contestant and later judge on So You Think You Can Dance) and apparently employed by the Ellen show.0 -
It's sleeting here in Maryland. I surely hope it changes to rain so I can feed!
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DH says this afternoon!
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Maryanne, thank you for the Jacquie Lawson holiday card! Her cards have such beautiful artwork and I really enjoy them. I gave up sending cards several years ago, but I do enjoy receiving them. I’ve noticed this year that not many people are sending them now.
Today I have occupational therapy, then DH and I are taking MIL Christmas shopping. She has a very hard time making decisions, so I’m not anticipating this being a fun outing, but I’ll hope for the best!0 -
Pam - good luck on the therapy!
A friend is about to start p/t. She had surgery on both hands. One was "just" carpal tunnel but the other involved removing tendons from an upper arm and implanting in the hand. I'm not sure I'd ever have both hands operated on at the same time. Especially since her husband travels for work. She hasn't said she regrets it though.
I sent out cards to (1) people who make donations to CROM (I do that all year), (2) CROM volunteers in whose honor I've made contributions, (3) vets in whose honor I've made contributions, and (4) personal friends. All have gone out except #4 which I'm hoping to finish up this weekend. I know not many people send cards but if I don't send cards I don't hear from many of these folks even once a year (maybe that should tell me something LOL!)0 -
Maryanne, I love the Jacque Lawson cards too. Thanks for including me. I haven’t sent any cards and my niece texted me a copy of the card she’ll be mailing to me. Right now, Sanibel mail is being held at a postal annex in FT Myers. We must have a month’s worth being held. She wasn’t sure where to send it. I spent 40 minutes on hold today with the power company trying to find out if we have power. I got a very nice woman who had to put me on hold several times while she checked several departments. Good news- we have electricity. I called the water company and we have water too. We’ll be there on Wednesday.
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Maryanne, I love the Jacque Lawson cards too. Thanks for including me. I haven’t sent any cards and my niece texted me a copy of the card she’ll be mailing to me. Right now, Sanibel mail is being held at a postal annex in FT Myers. We must have a month’s worth being held. She wasn’t sure where to send it. I spent 40 minutes on hold today with the power company trying to find out if we have power. I got a very nice woman who had to put me on hold several times while she checked several departments. Good news- we have electricity. I called the water company and we have water too. We’ll be there on Wednesday.
Texted you a copy of the card? That's too cool!
I'm glad you have power and electricity. Does that mean you are sure you can stay in your house or are you just going to see if you can?0 -
I’m exhausted today. We spent the night in the ER with MIL, who in the end, had nothing wrong with her. She called DH around 12:30 saying she thought she was having a stroke. He told her to pull her emergency cord by her bed to get a staff person to come to her room. When they got there they asked which hospital we wanted her transported to and called an ambulance. We raced to the hospital and actually arrived before she did, then sat and waited for 6 hours while tests were run. Her BP was elevated but eventually came back down to a normal reading. The only lab test that was not normal was a low platelet count, but it was not dangerously low. So she was discharged at around 6 AM and we took back to her apartment and got her settled in bed then came home. I went back to bed and slept a couple of hours, but I’m still feeling really tired and foggy. I had planned to finish up the cookie baking for the gift platter for her assisted living staff, but that will have to wait. I don’t trust myself not to burn everything today!0
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Pam - Wow! What a night! I'm glad she was okay but sorry everyone had to go through that! Maryanne0
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Your night in the ER sounds awful. Did you ever find out why she thought it was a stroke. I can understand why the assisted living staff felt they had to call an ambulance once she said stroke.
We start the drive to FL tomorrow. It’s a 12 hour drive so we’ll stop overnight in Jacksonville. That’s about half way. We’ll be on Sanibel Wednesday. We expect to stay in the house. I confirmed we have power and water with phone calls Friday. Comcast is still out so we won’t have TV or internet. Comcast says to check if the modem is getting power. If so, our services might work. If not, we have to make an appointment for a technician to come out. I can only imagine how long the waiting list for that it.0 -
Helene, good luck and fingers crossed that you find minimal damage and power to your modem! I imagine you are both really anxious to see how your second home faired in the storm.
I think MIL’s greatest fear is having a stroke so whenever she doesn’t feel well she assumes she’s having a stroke. She does have hypertension but is on medication for it. She tends to worry about her blood pressure and when the staff checks it and tells her the reading she gets worked up if it’s even slightly above normal, then her anxiety kicks in and she spirals up and decides she’s having a stroke. I contend that if she’s able to dial the phone and coherently tell DH that she thinks she’s having a stroke, she probably isn’t. But the staff have to err on the side of caution (and protect themselves from liability) so if she says she having a stroke, they will call an ambulance. If or when it happens again, we will go there and assess the situation ourselves instead of calling for a staff member to come and check on her unless it’s obvious that she’s in an acute health crisis.0 -
That sounds like a good plan of you and DH going and assessing her so an ambulance isn’t called if it’s just anxiety. And maybe you can talk her down when she’s in that state.0
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Your night in the ER sounds awful. Did you ever find out why she thought it was a stroke. I can understand why the assisted living staff felt they had to call an ambulance once she said stroke.
We start the drive to FL tomorrow. It’s a 12 hour drive so we’ll stop overnight in Jacksonville. That’s about half way. We’ll be on Sanibel Wednesday. We expect to stay in the house. I confirmed we have power and water with phone calls Friday. Comcast is still out so we won’t have TV or internet. Comcast says to check if the modem is getting power. If so, our services might work. If not, we have to make an appointment for a technician to come out. I can only imagine how long the waiting list for that it.
No internet? Wow, I'd find that tough!!! Good luck on the drive and with the house issues!0 -
I was able to get out and feed today before any precipitation started. The weather forecast for today and tomorrow has been all over the place. Hopefully tomorrow will just be rain but I left a lot of extra food today in case tomorrow's bad.
Now I'm ready to settle down here and get some work done (interspersed with chores).0
