Well, onto the next dilema. Husband's work insurance finished on Sept 5. We have not received any offer for cobra or other insurance from them yet, so this leads us to a strange perdicament.
No one will accept you without insurance, even if they do say they will pay it backward. This brings up another interesting problem. Retirees leave there with their insurance ready to go the next day, but the disabled who actually need ongoing care RIGHT NOW, are left in a purgatory of types. If I tak
Well, my life has been a blur of trying to get insurance and such going. Phone calls from hell, that eat the whole day. I was telling the girl that called to tell me the LTD had been approved that we had taken his pension early, at a lower amount, just so we could afford to pay our retired/disabled insurance rates. To which she informed me that I needed to send her a copy of that, because our LTD would be diminished by that amount. So... we took our pension early, at a lower rate, just
Thru the magic of the internet, the images from Debbies "VIRTUAL" Retirement Day are ready!
Debbie's last day of work:
She was so excited when she walked into our surprise retirement party:
We might have eaten too much:
Perhaps there was a LITTLE too much wine:
Maybe the party games did go a little too far:
Bruce enthusiastically celebrating Debbie's retirement. Please don't try this at home, when you're sober.
The next day was a slow easy day, to m
We are expecting low temps with wind chills of -20 one night and -40 the next. (farenheit) So, did my BIG shopping today. First went thru and bought $80 worth of depends, bedpads, wipes and then hauled that all out to the car. Filled the front seat. Went back in and bought $244 worth of groceries of all types, including 2hr fire logs, never know when the electric will go off. On the way out with that load, I stopped at the Subway at the entry way and got us a subway to split. Driving
Last Wednesday, Dec 4, we went to a stroke group meeting where the subject being discussed would be bladder and bowel control. It has been a real pain and hinderance to not be able to go anywhere to speak of because of the 2.5 hr window of time before he needed to be changed. Most places it took nearly an hour just to get there, and the only option once there was a multi stall women's room. This lead to us missing many things. So, we seemed to be the only people interested in the extern
NOW FOR GOOD NEWS: There have been some positive things happen that has affected Bob greatly! Remember the chair lift we got, that I had hoped would start him into more action? Well, 3 things happened, that I think has had a great affect on him:
1. The blessed chair lift, which made it possible for him to get up and down at will, = freedom and more mobility creates more mobility
2. Getting to see son & fiancee, was an upper
3. Seeing everyone doing and working made him want to ge
I am officially crazy now and the entire fleet has turned out to give me an honorary medal into the navy, since I have surpassed the requirements to be able to 'curse like a sailor'. No, it's not Bob who I'm cursing at, it's me, it's everytime I nearly break my toes off AGAIN, it's the cat that has torn a hole in the screen door, and the stray cat that sprayed same door, which seeped into the cracks of the metal door (did I mention this stray is not a fixed cat, so has full tomcat odor?) and I c
Most probably a neurologist will want to take new mri/cat scans of hubby's brain. Since one of the insurances I'm looking at is high deductible, does any one know just what an MRI and a catscan cost, so I could figure out what 20% of that would be.
Last night it all hit the fan, just after I got into the chat room. I started getting phone calls and had to start getting Bob ready for an early bed, get the pets ready for the night, and tear out of here. My mom was supposed to get a pacemaker Thursday morning, but Tuesday night began to have such irratic episodes that she called 911. When I got there her blood pressure was 240/110. Then a few hours after getting nitro, we saw the top number say 157 and thought it was good, but looked
Yesterday started with me in fine spirits, planning lots of work to get done. Bob had to poop right out of bed, so we went to my bath room off the bedroom, instead of his. I wonder if we'd made it to the other bathroom, would the day have went differently? Afterward, figured I'd get him in the shower, since my bathroom is where we do that, and he was already half naked. Seemed too much water on the floor. I usually only have 3 towels to sop up, but needed a lot more... what's happening...
Having a little trouble adjusting to the next phase of my life and how I will attack it. Much work to do, but it is all HERE, don't have to go to the other house.. well, there are 2 lockers... we won't go there. Today I finally decided to get back the meals on wheels. I had thought when the house was done, I'd be able to cook like before and go back to my vegetarian diet, however, the last 2 weeks I've spent most of my time in the kitchen and still manage to have so many dishes I can't keep
The last few days have been a whirlwind. The real estate person I talked to initially, gave me another call and I had told her before, I needed her to come over and look at things and give me some ideas on how much she thought to list it for. She knows our situation, so didn't really bother to give me ideas on things to do to make it more valuable, which would require more time and energy from me. Well she came and looked and I thought it was going to be just that, but somehow I got a 'wha
Oh my! I can't believe it was this simple! You know when you are eating a wrap or a burrito how you have to hold the back end with one hand to keep everything from falling out, while holding the front with the other hand? You can't do that when you only have one working hand! Today I puzzled over the problem, as I miss the flatouts (brand of wrap) I used to make. I made 2 up and stood there wondering how in the world he would be able to hold it together to eat it. Then I had a lightbulb moment!
As many of you know, after Bob's massive stroke Feb 2012, he suffered from several things that caused him to not be able to read.
1. not being able to follow a line across and his eye kept picking up words from all over the page
2. latching onto one word in a sentence and repeating it every 3 words (an aphasia thing)
3. cognition issues of trying to think how to force his brain into working and following directions
4. visual cut which causes you to miss what's on the right side
5. nearly
I can't remember if I mentioned this or not... we decided to cut back to one day of therapy a week. After some careful consideration, we realized that our whole lives were about doctors and therapy, and that left no time for real living. I'll have to add that I have fibro and he is only awake 8 hours a day, divided by a nap! What if he dies this year...or me? and we had never taken time for doing things again? We needed to start actually living, rather than being like the fat person that i
Well, my mom's better(pacemaker installed), and back to torturing me again. I've always loved her, that's never been the problem, but she is soooo cruel. Anyway...
When I would go visit her at the rehab, I'd leave Bob with the phone, as he recently learned how to answer it. I called to check on him and got no answer, so had to go home. I had been there about 4 hours, but the clock in the room was malfunctioning and didn't realize it was time anyway. The second hand moved, and the
I promised better news today, so I'll keep my word. Hate to just blog when my head is spinning around like in the movie The Exorcist.
1. When I went to get the insurance papers looked over by the senior service lady who helps with paperwork, I was telling her how we were going to tell his doctor that he needed one of those lift chairs, so he could stand at will. That would make him stronger to where maybe he could start crippling around the house. The way it is, he has to wait for me
Today I, once again, asked him to try to move his finger/s. Nothing. I slipped my index finger into his hand and asked him to try to squeeze it. He worked with all his arm, AND.... he put pressure on my finger! This is not the reflex that closes it tightly when he doesn't do it, this was really him doing it, and he's managed a few more times today! He can't open it yet, but this is the very beginning, getting the muscles to do anything at all in his hand!
Something odd happened this morning. When Bob had just gotten up to sit on the side of the bed, his head had a little tick in it, right, left, right, left, right, left. I asked why he was jerking his head, he said he wasn't. I sat on the bed beside him, watching for a few minutes, and it stopped, but I could see his eyes were still going back & forth. He asked me what I was waiting for (as far as getting him up and start changing/dressing).
I'm sure you all know what I'm afrai
This came up in another post, and originally I put it there, but figure it might not get seen there after people already looked at that post, so am transferring it here. It concerns journaling and his aphasia.
I wish he could journal. I have him write a little each day, but even he doesn't know what it means when he gets done. He knows while he is writing, I think, but when he gets done and looks at it, he says this is all jibberish. There are litterally, not 2 words together that make sen
I think what makes this SOOOOOO hard, is I have 3 rooms that need new flooring. Let me break it down.
We are a ranch on slab. Originally, there was armstrong sheet vinyl in the kitchen, tv room, dining room & master bath. All the same. It's kinda old and the floor shows uneven places underneath it, as no one bothered to try to even anything out when this was put in, probably around 1985. Laminate was put over the conjoining tv room & dining room. Since the washer is located in
I got this small lightweight hand 'splint' (rolyan) and it has been a huge help in keeping his hand loose. It is so light and easy to wear that he does, all day & night. His hand has responded very well to it, and the new OT loves it!
So, Bob is finally strong enough, and stays awake long enough, that we can make the trip to a further rehab, which has OT, unlike the last 2. He had his eval on May 21 and 1st OT on May 28. Since she is a real OT, she is not afraid to stretch h
It certainly seems like we've all been getting our butts kicked lately, whether things in general going wrong or pet loss, or even family lost. It's been terrible here too, I've felt like I was barely keeping my head above water while treading as fast as I could. Things just kept breaking here, and things going wrong - nerves shot.
Well, we've lived thru those so far, and so will skip right ahead to show you Bob's new toy, Lite Rider PTC:
We did not go thru insurance, as his current
Well, as I've mentioned before, every few weeks I have a dream that I see my husband move his hand and do something small, without thinking about it, and without even realizing it. This is encouraging to me, because I've had dreams thru-out my life that were predictive.(word?)
Anyway, so Monday he calls to me, with my REAL name (Sandra, instead of Mom) and I go running to him, alarmed. He said something's happening. I asked if he was sick or felt pain, he said, no, not like that. The
Yesterday, Bob tells me "he's back!" - he feels like himself again, and feels like he could do anything, if not for the stroke parts that can't work! Today I was working in the bedroom and heard a strange clanking noise. Having a suspicion it had something to do with Bob, I rushed out. Sure enough, he had lifted the walker from behind his wheel chair's front wheels and was walking toward the bedroom to see what I was doing! He has not used a walker before, because of his only having one w
