Not many days left...............

Not many days left till the moving van take the boxes all away.  Waiting  to see when driver can help us.

Jack's infection seem much better, got a prescription for hopefully last pill.

We looked and found perhaps a better cushion for Jack to sit on for 1200 miles.  We have 2 loho pillows that are very good but just don't do the job for that distance. The tech looked at Jack's chair, and we had asked for a seat that was soft like the back, and he said no.  The chair seat was designed for a cushion to prevent sores,etc to that part of the body.  So he would not even discuss a cushioned seat but a different cushion. 

We had Chinese today for the "Best Wok".  That is one thing we will miss, those available choices in foods so close.  I will have to do more cooking and it will probably be enjoyable since I have been really too busy and too tired for awhile.

We listed the house today.  Higher than we think it will bring but as the realtor said we can always reduce the price.  We are hopeful that something good will happen before we leave.

Garage sale on Saturday.   Make me an offer will be the rule of thumb!

I hope to get things cleared out---the realtor will arrange for cleaning and carpet cleaning when we are gone.

Over and Out!

 

 

 

Not much in the way of change.  Jack has an infection that we need to clear up before we set out on our vacation of several months. 

 

Jack might have gotten the message incorrectly, but the nurse didn't come today.  Oh well, all that time of waiting and nothing came of it.

I am tired!

It  has been awhile, but nothing new is happening.

We purchased a  new Grand Caravan Entervan and hope to take delivery today.  The tagging, taxing, titling, and all that stuff should be done.  Here in California we also have to have the vehicle smogged.

The mountain of boxes are growing and our estimate was somewhat off.  I think I am adding the lazy boy recliner since I have enjoyed sleeping in it so much lately.  

Jack is still battling the fungal infection, we will be Parkinson's  physician this week, and primary doctor next and then I guess we will begin the count down.  This is really difficult.

My mother is getting eager for our arrival and doesn't seem to understand the magnitude of this operation and especially without any help.   I am going to find someone to clean house today, it actually isn't dirty but I want it all done in one fell swoop.  I need to do some more things in the yard also.  So onward and upward.

Did I say that things looked better?  Must have been someone else! LOL

Jack has a fungal infection that is keeping us in-----getting out in the heat only makes it worse, itching, hurting,etc.

Have new leg wraps and they seem to be helping.

Jack has some bad days with me packing and now he is helping with the taping of boxes and that sort of thing.  I told him I needed support now whines! LOL so things seems better today, maybe only because he finally got some sleep last night.

Moving boxes and furniture, heavy and awkward shaped, seems to make shoulders, legs, and all the rest of the body parts ache.

Onward and upward! LOL

 

 

 

 

A twist toward better maybe.....nurse called and a new set of leg wraps will be ordered.  We pay the 20% but that isn't too bad. About 100.00. 

Picked up Morphine perscription and gave Jack first dose of liquid.  Wow, no wonder that stuff is adictive.  It worked, he could stand on his legs without  the terrible pain,etc. 

 He was even feeling like doing the bank statements,etc. today.  Well, wonders of wonders.  Maybe I should have a dose of that stuff! lol  I have felt rotten all week from lack of enough sleep.  My fault for worrying about moving,etc.

Had discussion yesterday about nursing facilities and how Jack felt about them.  He is facing the reality that I won't always be able to take care of him.  This was not an up day.  He says that walking is becoming so painful that he just can't face taking each step.  Pain pills are not really taking care of the pain.  On a scale of 1--10 he never gets below 2 or 3 and that is miserable.

Nurse comes this afternoon with some new ideas, hope they work.  Take care all of you, Jack and Sue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two steps forward and three backward.  Have home health nurse again for bedsores and legs.  Lots of pain that is out of control.  Oh life gets tegious sometimes!

 

 

 

 

TEARS/PAIN

Some days are filled with tears.  I have difficulty keeping my cool when Jack is in lots of pain.  I do what I can but often there is nothing that I as a caregiver can do to help.  I don't believe even a doctor or nurse could help.  The pain is just there!  I try to not let him see the tears, it makes him realize the hope factor is so personal.

GRAB YOUR HAT.....................

While reading another journal I realized I hadn't talked lately about the positive part of our situation.

Jack has a serious illness, actually two, but those don't always stop him from doing things.  He and I control what he does and I have reached the point of insisting on him grabbing his hat and going with me.

There are things I want to do, and places I want to go within reason and the only way I can do this is take Jack along.

We go to the senior center in our small town.  Second Harvest has a food distribution for seniors, the only qualifying option being  a senior and just living in our town.  Some don't realize that the food will be distroyed if not distributed to those who will take it, so Jack and I go pick up the interesting assortment of items that we might not buy ourselves.

We go out to breakfast to several places that are willing to accomodate someone in a power chair or wheel chair.  It is amazing how you can judge a restaurant by the way they treat the handicapped.  People with us have commented how accomodating the ones we frequent have been.

We go shopping for various items, like we did do van shopping and found what we wanted a little steep! lol   With the employee discount the van was 45,000 and then there was the sales tax, and adding the lift and other adjustments would be about 15,000.  Of course this was a customized conversion van (top of the line in quality and size lol).

We can go to large discount warehouse stores like Costco, but we have to choose our times since there are always lots of people and Jack tends to want to get around without having to deal with those who stand and daydream in the aisles.  We don't usually go to grocery stores together because when we want to go is their stocking time and the aisles are congested with boxes,etc.

We took the wheelchair that he uses mainly for sitting in the a equipment center and had the seat replaced.  They do wear out we found. That was an interesting trip.  The store had an elevator  so the handicapped could shop in the lower level of the store.  However it was out of service! lol  The wheelchair area was on the ground level.

One of the places I love to go is the casino that is only 20 minutes from our home.  Jack takes great delight in watching people.  He has only consented to go with me recently.   I wanted him to see how easy the parking is, entry into the casino, the wide isles, how he can park his chair right beside me, and there are heavy chairs for him to pull up with and stand when the seat gets tired.  He just informed me if we were going tomorrow we needed to get started early in the morning.  Sometimes we go for breakfast other times we eat at other places but tomorrow we will probably have a light breakfast at home.  We stay about two hours.  The power chair doesn't really have a comfortable seat.  It is a hard composition material, and even with the Roho high profile cushion it still makes the backside a little tired.

We go for walks to feed the wild animals, birds, quail, bunnies, and other wild things.  LOL  He is eager to see how many animals are out each evening and he has been consistent in getting me to go.  We go up a rather long hill and back down and then around the parking lot.  We keep extending our distance and it is very good exercise for me and he is getting out to see people he hasn't seen in years.  Every night someone stops to talk, some nights we spend a lot of time chatting and this is excellent for Jack. 

People are always asking how he is doing and he tells them sometimes a new development like it isn't easy to form words and sentences  as fast as he used to.  I find that sometimes he finishes a thought when the rest of us have gone on to another subject.  This is just a part of Parkinson's Disease.

In this hot weather we don't go any place where Jack has to wait any length of time.  Like the pharmacy, if I go in without him I better hurry or he gets awfully hot, so we watch where we stop.

These are all rather recent changes, because for a while Jack only went out to the doctor.  Then we started the breakfast  several times a week to just get him out of the house.   Now we don't do breakfast as much but go different more interesting places.  In fact last week after our "bunny run"  I told Jack I need to go get gas in the car, want to come along?  Yes, he did and we made that short trip but he got to see something different,  and he is a people watcher.  Heseemed satisfied with our outing and I was glad I mentioned it. 

I do have an advantage.  We have an enter-van that makes Jack able to drive his power chair right up into the van himself.  With the wheel chair I was not able to  push him up the ramp so he would walk out of the house and to the van and sit in the wheel chair or on the back seat.  Returning home he would walk out of the van and into the house.   His ability to walk has lessened to the point that he walks a little in the house from one chair to another or to the table to eat or do business.  I guess the power chair has contributed to the less walking or maybe it would have happened anyway.  I was getting tired of the pushing a wheel chair everywhere we went.  Jack was reluctant to GO because he knew it was difficult for me to do all the pushing.  He isn't a little guy.  He has never been able to push the wheels himself because of surgery on his hands.

Jack is a history buff and he enjoys the History  Channel on TV as well as all the old western movies that he was in and the ones that he knows most of the actors.  That is a different story!  We have TV on 24/7 for white noise and now it is difficult for me to sleep in a quiet room!  He reads magazines and papers but doesn't get involved in novels or other books.  Interest span I think is the problem.  They eyes too play havoc with him.  Most of the TV he listens to instead of watching.  Parkingson's patients have vision problems.  He has prisims in his lenses.

We use our time together to watch TV, I read while he snoozes.  I try not to do noisy cleaning while he naps since he doesn't sleep well at night and needs all the snooze time he can get.

  For a while I had to get up and help him to his wheel chair in the night so he could change his position.  He sleeps in a lift chair instead of his bed because the hip replacement his given him so much discomfort.  But lately he has been able to get into the wheel chair on his own and then back to the lift chair.  Often without even waking me.  This is wonderful for me and  a real boost to his ego and self reliance. 

We talk a lot and reminise.  Since we are planning a move in the very near future we have been cleaning out boxes and these projects have been painful but interesting for both of us.  While he watches TV, I am usually on the computer, cleaning house, paying bills, or slipping out to do some yard work.  I still do all chores at this house except seasonal tree trimminig or rose bush pruning.  I don't have  a housekeeper or a cleaning lady as some people do in our neighborhood.  I actually don't even have a working dryer.  But that is because I just haven't had the time, energy or incentive to go buy one.  I do laundry and hang it on hangers and put in on the patio.  We are not supposed to do that in our housing area but things dried outside smell better and absorb more vitamins from the sun.  One day I will get around to the new dryer.

So much for all of this entertaining information!  lol 

 

 

c

A week later and nothing has improved.  We had an awesome storm and the storage room that we had repaired is now wet again.

I had to haul out all the boxes and stuff and start fans on the wet carpet. Talked to a neighbor and she had wet carpets in her house and she said it was the worst storm she can remember here.  So the wet carpet in the storage room is a neusense but can be handled I guess.  It will take days with the fans but what else can I do.

All the contents of the wet boxes are now in the house and I have difficulty living with  MESS!  In addition to the storage room fiasco, Jack was feeling really bad yesterday and said he felt like he was slipping away.  Oh geesh I really need a Physic degree to deal with the depression.

I thought the legs were better  till yesterday and they seem about the same, only maybe wetter if that is possible.

We didn't go out yesterday together, I went to get a few groceries, to the bank, and postoffice.  Then of course to hardware store to get some sealent to put around the base of the storage room, but believe the water came from around the window.  Who can tell.

I keep saying I will survive.   My mother isn't really improving with the back, and yesterday she heard that the brother to her  husband(who recently passed away) was very ill, heart, and was sent home because there was nothing they could do for him.  My daughter called with a  problematic day and I feel like I need to have a shingle to hang out to listen to the problems of the world!  I  am looking for a piece of wood to make that shingle.

Well, the day has begun, it is 4:16 and I have been up over an hour so might as well stay up.  Surely I can find something to do.

This heat is getting us down!  Jack's pain is unbelieveable and nothing seems to help.

I called the home health nurse(about Jack's legs seeping) that was on Jack's case and she called from home on her day off and gave me some suggestions and they seem to be working.  However, she said call and put  them back on if there is need.

We are now getting calls from Realtors of the people who want to buy this house.  I feel like I am being pushed out! lol

My mother is seeing a doctor for some treatments for her back. She said that she has aged in the last  two weeks since the back pain is getting so bad.  I am familiar with what pain can do to you, and she is a woman that takes only vitamins and no other medications.  She is now taking tylenol on occasion.

We are still doing the attack, sort, toss, repack, and label for moving.  The moving boxes are growing into a mountain.

No other news, we will survive this!

 

 

I wonder if we will find ourselves in this rubble!

We have been going through a mountain of boxes this week.  Boxes of mementoes and pictures.  When you are in the 70's you accumulate lots of stuff.  We have thrown away tons of pictures and just things we thought we couldn't live without.  The standard is: If someone else looked at this, would they know what it is, appreciate it, want to keep it?  Usually the answer is no, no, no! So we toss it.  Some things we just could not throw----so we still have it.  These boxes are labeled unorganized pictures and personal mementoes and just plain stuff. lol

Jack's legs are open and seeping again.  We may have to have home health again.  This is getting old.  The bandages are hot in this tripple figure heat.  Jack is becoming more independent, says I will have my hands full with my mother so he is helping in his own way.

We have found several places where we meet other powerchair people.  One is the casino dining areas.  The upscale restaurants are really nice and friendly.

As you can see I hit the space bar accidentally and am off the print again!

 

 

 

 

Years of accumulation seems to grow not deminish.

The storage room and all the debris seems to be getting undercontrol. The workmen have finished, the carpet is laid, the paint dry, and all the stuff back in the room off my patio, but a big give away or  sale is definately in the near future.

The next big change is starting today.  Sometime back I talked with someone about Jack's music and entertainment equipment.  Thinking some young person might like it to start a career.  But last night we found a man who is doing the exact same thing that Jack was doing and needs some of the stuff we have.  There is a God out there  organizing this much better than we are.  He is supposed to come today and look at sound tracts, he can burn these onto disc for his work.  I don't know if he can use any of it, but it is starting the change over.  This is highly depressing for Jack but knowing it is going to someone who did what he did is helpful right now.

My mother is doing something similar, going through  clothing, etc of my step-father who passed recently.  We can't move till she makes  room for us...so we all have our jobs.  We have also been going through pictures and discarding some that no one else could understand or appreciate.  School pictures from 40 years of teaching, travel pictures of trees and mountains and strange roadsides. LOL  This still an emotional task!

Each day is a change and a new step in our future.