Hey there! This is your friendly neighbourhood Queen of West Procrastination, and I'll be your host this week. So, bear with me if I'm slower than usual at the regular programming.
The whines in this household are of the Classic Toddler variety: we had a fun weekend, but too little sleep and too many disruptions to the regular routine, and now the household toddler is sad that Fun Daddy is back at work today. This all means that I'm posting from my phone, buried under a clingy child. The weekend's fun activities mean that the house needs cleaning, but right now E will only allow either colouring on the floor together, or cuddling on the couch while watching Elmo.
But! She's clothed and she didn't fight clothes much! Last week's Toddler Clothing Boycott may be over!
That is this week's dispatch from Classic Toddler World. How are things in your world?
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We have a Classic Kindergartner Whine: strep throat. Again. It began with (unrelated, the doctor tells me) a massive asthma attack in the wee hours of Saturday morning and progressed to fever last night at midnight. She is quite unhappy with his recommendation and my agreement that a shot was the best treatment option.
We will join you on the couch watching tv, but we'll sit at the opposite end so as not to infect you, QWP.
More strep?! Yes, the shot at least gets all the medication out of the way at once.
NOTE TO UNIVERSE: No more germ deliveries to Esperanza, OK?
QWP, good that E has moved on from the "nude beach" view of clothing.
We'll supposedly get a discharge plan from the hospital today, for SIL. It looks like she'll go to a nursing home for a while. I have mixed feelings -- another change is more disruption; but her behavior and mood are ongoing problems, and likely to be exacerbated by the surgery. I really do not want her to get kicked out of another placement because she's more than they can manage.
So, I'm working on a letter for the nursing home, with explanations, her own history and peculiarities, and contact info for her neurologist and PCP. Most people, even medical people, do not really know about her kind of dementia. Every time she sees a new doctor, goes to the hospital, moves to a new care facility -- there is so much they need to know.
This is doing nothing for my deadline.
I went to the memorial for my friend, which was beautiful, joyful, sorrowful, and PACKED. We were in the over-flow room.
He was only 64. Fireplacing cancer can just fireplace itself.
((( Liz ))) Fireplacing cancer. xoxo
(((Liz)))
(((Liz)))
(((kathy)))
Boo to all variety of germs and the sick - enough already!!
AW: I'm on my way to a meet and greet with the leader of my party. We aren't often a stop on the political tour, so this is kind of cool. Also, I remember when I was very young having a sign on our lawn to elect his father.
W: Dang, I'm pretty old then.
It's a friend's birthday, and I'm pretty sure it's his 58th. Somebody wished him a glorious 65th on the book of visages! (I'm waiting to see how a true gentleman responds...)
You're just loyal and experienced, Sue. ;)
AW: SIL is calm today! AW: Return to the care home might be back on the table. W: Nobody's decided nuttin', and getting any info from a hospital is like pulling teeth over the phone, blindfolded and dancing backwards.
Sue: you're meeting him! That's really cool and exciting!
AW: I finally came up with an activity that distracted E from her "I miss Fun Daddy" melancholy: we baked a cake for Mr. Q! She and I were going through a cookbook, looking at pictures of interesting cakes and cookies, and she asked if we could make a cake (since yesterday was her uncle's birthday, and she was a bit disappointed to discover that he opted not to have cake). She was pretty surprised when I told her we could make a cake! We baked in the morning, and as soon as she wakes up, we're making peanut butter frosting. I need to remember to surprise my kid with magical things a little more often.
Cooking with kidlets is the best!
The ability to think of Magical Moments is inversely related to the number of days one has spent in the house with said toddler.
W: The doctor is just plain wrong. She will not be able to go to school tomorrow. She is still running fever tonight and can't do anything but lay on the couch.
Daughter, my middle child, turned 17 today.
W: the birthday girl is angry that I'm making her stay to the end of her college course tonight.
W: there is a(nother) party here next weekend to celebrate her 17 trips around the sun.
AW: This could all be much worse so I'm celebrating the positive right now.
Happy Birthday to Miranda's daughter!!! (And the house is clean-ish for the next party, too!) xoxo
Update: a gentleman does not respond to being declared a much older geezer, but notes which year it is in the celebratory photo of a meal at the restaurant. ;)
SIL is going to a nursing home for some period of time; details such as where and when and rehab plans TBA.
Yes, we are leaving all the decorations up. We also have another gathering here the following weekend. If I can stay on top of laundry, this will turn out okay.
I really hope the disruption in residences doesn't cause your sil too much cognitive upheaval. Hugs.
Happy Birthday, Miranda's daughter! I once tried to get out of a final on my birthday, but the professor didn't think that was a good idea.
((Liz)) Fireplacing cancer.
((kathy a)). Hoping things go as smoothly as they possibly can for all. And that you get to get back on your albatross soon.
AW? Sweet asleep at 6:20 pm. She'll be staying home tomorrow.
I am double-jointed almost everywhere, and usualy this is more of a "party trick" sort of thing, rather than a "pain in the ass" thing. But, I have been having problems with my hip joints for the last year or so. It started a year ago Christmas -- I walked with my GS troop in the local Chrimbo parade, and afterwards, it felt like my hips were being compressed (and rather vigorously, at that) in a vise. Ever since then, they tend to lock up and need to "crack", like cracking your knuckles. I have to stand on one leg, and swing my hip out and my body down to free the joint. It doesn't always work, and sometimes it FREAKING hurts.
I had a child that absolutely REFUSED to get up off the floor today, making herself deadweight. I could not get her up off the floor because I wrenched my hip. Now, my hip is killing me, and I have no meds except cold/flu stuff in the house. I may just take that stuff anyway and call it a night.
Sending Liz a hug for the memorial. I hate cancer. (Remind me to tell you all about cancer and the show I'm in later.)
Happy birthday to Miranda's daughter!
Oh, I'm sorry that your hip is giving you so much trouble, KLee! And deadweight kids: definitely hard on the back. (I understand with both things, a little too well.)
Kathy a: I really hope that SIL gets the continuity of care that she needs at the nursing home, and (as Miranda said) that these upheavals don't get her more confused.
Happy birthday to Miranda's daughter!
W: more cluesticks are needed for the flaky house builders, please. They are finally, slowly finishing painting in our stairwell (all of which means we've had no handrail to our suite for a couple of weeks). They said that they might work in our suite tomorrow. Maybe. They'd evaluate where they were at by the end of today. And then the builder and project manager didn't show up today (they were going to fix the messed-up laundry room), and didn't say whether they're coming tomorrow. (Keep in mind that, in order for most work to happen in here, I have to get E out of here, since it isn't safe.) I talked with my cousin (our landlady), and told her to tell the builder that they can't enter the basement suite without a day's notice. We're renters! (Okay, mostly I'm mad about all those times where I was away from home for a whole day and they didn't show up, and then I had to be gone for the next day too.)
QWP - that is SO frustrating!! Here's hoping the builders are done and gone very soon.
(((esperanza))) Poor Mom, Poor Sick Kidlet.
KLee, sorry about your hip. OUCH! Does heat help at all?
Happy Birthday Miranda's daughter!
QWP, that's just obnoxious.
KLee, hope you're moving better soon. That sounds very ouchy.
AW: Sweet is much better today. Home from school, but feeling better.
Oh, I'm so glad that Sweet has improved today.
AW: I have successfully gotten E busy colouring egg cartons, as a craft! You guys! I managed to do a craft with my kid!
W: my box of craft supplies are missing. I suspect they're deep within our storage shed (I could see myself saying "We're not going to use any of these do for ages!" And now my kid is interested in this stuff, and there's a pile of snow around the shed. I think I'd rather go buy new stuff.
Glad Sweet's feeling better!
Oh, KLee -- ouch. xoxo
Cluesticks to the contractors.
and OOOOH, egg cartons! Little kids tend to like sticker projects -- like, even the dots and stars from the drug store stationary aisle. Oh, and pasta crafts! (I miss little kids.)
Go get more, QWP, and dig out the other ones in the spring. You'll use 'em.
W: Well crap. Sweet running significant fever again tonight. This means 3 days at least out of school this week, which is stressing me out. Pretty sure I'm taking her back to the doctor in the morning.
Further W, very whiny division: this also means the possible number of days this week I might have some time to myself has decreased to one. (Mini doesn't have preschool on Fridays). Mr E did stay home for a while, and i got out to...go to the grocery store. Yippee.
What?? She got the SHOT!!! This is so not right.
You could definitely use a bigger backup bench, Esperanza. Grocery shopping all alone has its virtues, but... It.Is.Not.Enough.
I have kind of flunked my albatross, and am begging for mercy. Which might or might not work.
SIL is going to a nursing home today. She doesn't have a lot of continuity of mind, but the director of her care home is visiting tonight at the nursing facility. And I've written an informative letter about her history, condition, useful info, how to deal with the oddnesses.
Again. In under 2 years she has had the diagnostic evaluation and a followup; had various court-ordered evaluations; been in the hospital 3 times; seen numerous doctors; been in 3 long term care facilities; and now a short-term rehab placement. The same letter doesn't work for all circumstances. If I added in the day to day correspondence, it is a freakin' novel by now.
She shares your righteous indignation about the SHOT. As do I.
You are also very right about the backup bench. My long distance backup bench (aka my mom) reminds me that this very same scenario happened last time she got strep throat. An ear infection quickly followed. Same # of days and everything. He looked at her ears yesterday..."there's some fluid, but no infection," he said. I suspect things will look different tomorrow.
My hip is a little better today. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered me to heft her up off the floor since she's only 4, and she's not all that big; but she's messed her foot up in a bicycle accident and has on a cast that weighs a ton. Usually when I pick her up, like to get her in and out of her wheelchair and to the bathroom, she's actively helping me, but yesterday, she WAS NOT going to help, and I warned her that if she didn't stand on her feet, I was going to drop her. And, drop her I did. But, I told her mother what was going on, and she didn't seem concerned.
I plan on asking the doctor next time I go what's going on, and what I can do to combat it.
A/W -- Offspring sent me a text, and she got a letter from her school, informing her that she is this year's recipient of an endowment scholarship. She did not apply for it, but the letter said she was chosen for "academic excellence", and she was completely taken by surprise. I am anxiously awaiting the email that explains it further, and lets us know all the details, like -- is she getting more money? :)
I only have about three more weeks before my current show, "Steel Magnolias" opens. I have got to get my lines in my head! I am hoping it goes well. I'm sure that we will be posting pictures on La Book de Faces, if anyone is interested.
Oh, KLee, you are definitely a Steel Magnolia! How fun!
And yay about the academic endowment! I'm pretty sure that means money is involved.
Call. Your. Doctor. xoxo
Yay for crafts and Boo for fevers, infections, and hurting bodies!
W: What does a person have to do to get a snow day around here? 25 cm last night, the driveway at our building wasn't plowed, but my little car managed to get through it. For a split second I thought I caught a break and could work from home at least. I heart my little car, but the snow tires are a bit "too" good, ya know?
Wah.
Oh, and Yay and Hooray for your daughter's scholarship KLee!! How exciting!
KLee, "endowment" and "scholarship" both say $$$ to me, not of the pay-it-back variety, but I understand why you don't want to get ahead of yourself on that.
Kathy a, hoping for good news as to your SiL's new placement. This is your side albatross, not to mention the one you get paid to deal with. You have a plenty full plate.
Indeed. Ear infection, possible bronchitis. She doesn't care. She's just happy that she didn't have to get a SHOT today. Crossing fingers for no fever, so she can go back to school tomorrow.
Sue, doesn't seem right to have all that snow and never a snow day.
Esperanza, they should just give your family a dedicated bench in the doctor's waiting room. ;) Glad it's clearing up.
The nursing home has excellent ratings. Crossing fingers that things go OK there.
One of the odd things to explain is that SIL talks *constantly* about her first ex -- he's coming at 3:00, when is he coming, they're going to get married, oh no he's not coming. The hospital actually asked her care home when he is coming! And the true answer is NEVER, they've been divorced over 15 years, they have not been in touch at all for a couple years. But what we say is, I'll call and find out. Or, I don't know. Her nurse uses "maybe he got stuck in traffic."
I learned this working at the state mental hospital one summer: though the delusion/hallucination/obsession may not be "real," the emotions that come from that delusion are very real. And if the sane(r) person can respond to and care for the emotions, it helps everybody. Easier said than done many times, but I've found it helpful in other situations as well.
Yes, exactly. Another helpful saying is "don't confront the delusion" -- so we talk around it, defer and divert, try to move along to something else. If someone says "he's not coming," that person becomes part of the problem.
Due to some blipety-blop, we just found out that Medicare will only pay fully for 20 days at this nursing home, and then there is a giant daily co-pay. Like, even if we weren't already paying for the place we hope she returns to, this is well out of budget. So, everybody cross your toes!
Oh boy, I hope they can transfer her back to her regular place within twenty days!
Sue: we have the same thing here: huge pile of snow, but never a snow day. (The last snow day I remember here was a bad blizzard almost fifteen years ago. We had two such blizzards - - the same year Halifax had to have the army come and dig them out - - and it was the first and second time the local university closed for weather, since it opened in 1968.) I miss living on the West Coast, where the lightest sprinkle of snow meant that school was cancelled.
W: no nap yesterday, and she's fighting it again today. My resolve to cut back on caffeine is waning.
W: oh, and related to the snow whine, my parents keep trying to come over to help, but the extreme weather means that it isn't safe for Dad to leave the house. (It also means that I'd prefer not to drive as well, and it's too dangerously cold for us to play outside.)
Is anyone else reminded of the line from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. "Always winter, never Christmas"
Liz for literary genius.
Bringing the bodily fluids: so, E never napped, but just pleasantly chattered to herself in the dark for an hour. I went to get her and found that she'd disrobed, removed her diaper, and had thoroughly peed on one corner of her bed. The mattress pad was insufficient.
We are going to Big Evil Store to buy a vinyl mattress cover.
Oh no, QWP!
AW: no fever, much improved. She is so very definitely going to school tomorrow. And we are reminded for the millionth time that homeschooling is not for the Esperanza family.
Yay, school!
Yay, waterproofing!
AW, I think -- there have been 5 calls about SIL today. Dudes, they have a geriatric neuropsychologist AT her nursing home! And the care home director went by to see her, take some clothes; he was impressed with the psych. Knock wood!
W: finding it hard to deal with my neuroses around germs right now, after something that happened at school today. yuck. there is just not enough soap in the world right now. i am going to go drown my sorrows in a book; if only I hadn't noticed a weird smear on the pages of the one I'm reading, I could relax more as I read.)
OK, now you know I am truly wacked.
seriously, it's just as if I can see those little invisible germs getting tracked everywhere....
ugh
also, lots of chapped hand fissures, from--you guessed it-- all the hand washing....
I am boring even myself....
--Neighbor Lady
Over two weeks with no pain in my ankle now. I can run again. In fact I went running the past two days. It feels amazing. I cannot whine at this time. I just cannot.
Also, I now know two women who want to go out on a date with me. They are both younger than me and reasonably good at conversation. Yes, one is very unstable and not particularly bright, and the other is most definitely happily married and just looking for a side fling, but still. Two women! One week!
And since I'm particularly chipper tonight, and indulging in obviously serious forays into romance, may I point you in the direction of Dave Barry's review of Fifty Shades of Grey?
http://time.com/3030375/dave-barry-50-shades-of-grey/
Oh Andy. Dating is a struggle.
I did something hard yesterday. Really hard. I have the constant company of Pain and Sadness to remind me of the magnitude of my decision.
I would like to sleep and wTch movies all day but I have a giant albatross to put together plus one more, unrelated, really painful thing tonight.
I'm going to be be okay. Im going to be okay.
(((Miranda)))
(((Miranda)))
Kathy, I just realised I didn't say this before, but I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling with your albatross. I hope that you get the mercy you need (especially in the midst of all this stress with SIL). And I hope that the neuropsychologist provides the help SIL needs.
Andy: I'm so glad your ankle is better. And your life certainly isn't boring right now!
NL: Ugh. Schools are so gross sometimes.
Esperanza: how is Sweet this morning? Was she well enough to go to school?
(((NL))) I hear you. Sending virtual non-irritating hand sanitizer and a good hand cream.
((((Miranda)))) Hugs, lots of hugs.
Glad to hear about the ankle Andy! Interesting news on the dating front - reason to hope that someone less complicated will be along any time now.
Sweet is at school, not feeling 100% but definitely well enough to be out of my hair!
((Miranda))
NL, my imagination is running wild. Gloves, stat!
And Andy, what Sue said about the dating front. I don't know squat about dating, except to know enough to be grateful I don't have to do it.
Oh and kathy--I'm in awe that a nursing home has a geriatric neuropsych on the staff! Add that to the list of things that will never happen in this state. Fancy.
((( Miranda )))
NL, eek! I'm sorry about the hands, too, because that hurts. Vaseline and cotton gloves at night might help heal.
Andy, glad the ankle's better, and that the dating prospects at least give you hope!
Hooray, Sweet!
Neuropsychs look at all kinds of brain functioning. SIL's case is probably interesting because her dementia is fairly rare, and the neuropsych already called Big Teaching Hospital to learn more.
This is solely to help staff better understand SIL's deficits. Which, you know, is a lot better than just classifying her as a PITA.
In albatross land, the urgent request for mercy was turned away because of a picky technical detail. Which means we try again, but GAH!
Gah indeed, Kathy! I'm sorry that it's been adding so much to your stress! (And it makes such a difference when the staff is working to understand a patient, instead of viewing her as a PITA.)
AW: we have a napping toddler!!! I was worried she would still fight the nap, even though she was exhausted, and so I put the old blackout cover on her window. That child is like a budgie: she can't help but sleep when it's completely dark.
QWP for mullet for: "That child is like a budgie: she can't help but sleep when it's completely dark."
My cousin Danny has the fireplacing cancer. Mass on his chest. Lesions in his brain.
So, so sorry, Liz. You lost a cousin several years ago, didn't you? Fireplace it all.
Oh, Liz. xoxoxo
Yes, I lost a cousin from my mom's side. This one is from my dad's side. Both awesome people.
Oh Liz. I'm so very sorry.
Oh no, Liz. I'm so sorry. That fireplacing cancer.
((((Liz)))))
((((Miranda)))))
--Neighbor Lady
frickety frack fireplace. the nursing home wants to kick my SIL out, after all the wooing yesterday. i got way too happy for a minute there.
(((Kathy)))
Oh no kathy...frickety frack fireplace indeed.
Oh for pity sake. That's ridiculous, Kathy!
What? Idiots.
I'm not totally sure of the reason -- they left a message on my husband's machine late afternoon. My top guesses are that she's unable to cooperate with PT, and/or her behavior is agitated.
I know this isn't a good thing, but perhaps, if she's unable to do PT, then it's best for her to be in the placement that better takes care of her other needs?
Yes, think that's right, Liz. My worry on that front is that they wanted her to do at least a week of recovery elsewhere. She may be more agitated than before the fall, too.
Would medicare pay for a FT nurse for a week?
No, I don't think so.
I am sorry for whining so much. This is like the neverending story, with some fresh hell delivered every time we think things are settling down.
No apology needed kathy. ((((hugs))))
My cousin is going in for surgery today to remove one or two of the lesions that are blocking the flow to his brain. They will also test some of that tissue to help come up with a treatment plan. They did a biopsy on the mass in his chest yesterday, and will get more info on that later.
I just feel so fireplacing angry and sad.
((( Liz ))) Sending love to everyone. xoxo
((((Liz))))
((((Kathy a.)))))
---Neighbor Lady
I will not get too excited this time, but somehow, a visiting nurse will be going by after SIL goes back to her place tomorrow.
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