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About this blog

New to blogging (ha)

Entries in this blog

One of the best E-Mails I have received

Hope this works. If not, go to YouTube and look for Auld Lang Syne, pictures and words beautiful, plus sung by Sissel.               Just too beautiful not to pass on....                             . YouTube: Auld Lang Syne  

thejule1

thejule1

All I want for Christmas

First, I want the weather to be good so our families can travel safely. I don't care if it is cold (well not too cold), just not ice and heavy snow. Second I would like our family to be healthy, happy, and prosperous this coming year. Third, I hope Larry will improve and have no further health issues. I hope I can continue to stay healthy. There are more wishes, but those are the main ones I can think of.   We have had warmer than usual temps this week. It was 62 yesterday and today in 5

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thejule1

Larry called me on his cell phone

The only thing is, I was in the house when he called. lol Saturday I told him I was going down in the basement to go through some Christmas decor to donate. I got a phone call and was on the phone for a few minutes. I came upstairs and Larry said "where were you?" He forgot I was in the basement. All he had to do was walk around, look down the basement and yell. We keep the basement door open for the cats. He thought I might have gone out. I never do that unless I tell him. I told him h

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thejule1

GAMES OVER!

We lost last night but the Red Sox were determined to win. They have not had a World Series win in Fenway since 1938. Congratulations to Red Sox.   The leaves have turned and are beautiful colors of orange, yellow and red. It is raining here all day so I sad for the trick or treaters. I will put the candy out on the porch with a sign "please take 1" I cannot open the door as my cat will run out. Also, Larry will be in the family room and it is too far from the entrance unless he gets

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thejule1

A social event for Larry

Last night Larry's Core Engineering group met at a restaurant for their annual event. These are men and their wives who were co-workers and retirees. In Larry's case, two of the friends Larry car pooled with for three years. Larry definitely wanted to go from the start, so we went and I think he enjoyed seeing all his friends and they also were happy to see him. Most are retired and all in good shape except one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He and his wife were there and they plan to

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thejule1

We won game 6, on to the World Series! Yahoo!

While things are about the same for Larry health wise, we have been watching the Cardinals clinch game 6. We beat the LA Dodgers 9-0 last night. :jig:   We play the Detroit Tigers or Boston Red Sox next, whoever wins that title. Tickets for the World Series game are $300+ for standing room only to $5,000. We have home field advantage so the game will come back here Friday.   Go Cards!   Julie

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thejule1

TV OFF

Well we have been watching baseball as our Cardinals are in the playoffs for the World Series. :goodjob: We beat the Dodgers twice and are now two games out to enter World Series playoffs. We play the Dodgers in their homefield tomorrow evening.     Today after Larry had his nap, he switched on the TV. I said "no, we are going for a drive". We went to Lone Elk Park where the deer, elk and buffalo roam. We saw bison, elk, deer and two raccoons. lol It was a beautiful day again. We wo

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thejule1

Nice start to fall

While Debbie is mentioning winter coming, the weather here is perfect for the first days of fall. The weekend has been so nice with temps in the 70's. My flowers are still blooming even tho we have had little rain.   I was deciding what to do today since we had gone to church last night. Larry sang every song in church. This was good for his throat muscles and also good in many other ways.   The mornings are slow and we can't get out before lunch time it seems. Larry has to have his nap

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thejule1

Larry and his challenges to swallow

The new speech therapist called yesterday and said she was hesitant to grant more therapy for Larry as Medicare has put a cap on this benefit. It is up to the therapist to allow more coverage but she has to show a reason for more. I guess choking or chance of aspiration doesn't enter in to it. Medicare does not seem to realize the importance of the E-Stem therapy and they have denied the Experia E-Stim therapy on a claim recently. I don't know if I will get stuck with that payment or not.

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thejule1

Caregiving headaches

My daughter came in last Saturday for one of her short visits. Larry and I always look forward to seeing her. We decided to go to one of the new outlet malls in our area. Big mistake! Since it was the holiday weekend, thousands of people were there plus it was so hot. I may take Larry back as it would be a good place to wheel him around when it gets cooler. The rest of the weekend we did laid back things like cooking out, walking or just sitting out. We celebrated my son's birthday with a

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thejule1

Doctor's appts., results and renewals

Monday I went to get the stitches out from my skin cancer surgery. The nurse took them out and I got the pathology report saying the doctor got all of the cancer out. Thank you doctor and enjoy your vacation to France. Yes, he did go there. : )   Tuesday I took Larry to his dentist appt. The dental hygeinest said it wasn't too bad, but I know Larry scared her with a coughing fit. He has trouble with the water. She is the best hygeinest there and I always ask for her for Larry. He need

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thejule1

Update on Larry and more

I took Larry back to the dietician. I needed some help as to how to get more weight on Larry and she was helpful earlier this year. The problem is Larry can eat a mechanical soft diet but he likes only certain foods. He likes his meat but he does not like it ground up or pureed. That is one problem. He likes his milk and will drink the "Boost" type drinks, milkshakes and eat ice cream. So, he does stay hydrated at least. The dietician came up with a product called Benecalorie which I can

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thejule1

Almost too much stuff to handle

I went to the dermalologist for my 6 month review and she said the mole on the left of my chin looked different. I have had this mole for all my life. She said I could watch it or have her biopsy it. I said take it off and biopysy it as I already had a skin cancer removed a couple of years ago that was basil cell. This involved plastic surgery as I had the right nostril reconstruced. Well, the biopsy came back with cells that were potential Melanoma. This scared me. I went to my skin canc

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thejule1

Going backwards

I feel as though we are going backward lately. It has been 3 1/2 years since Larry's stroke. I was looking forward to getting out and doing more and going on a weekend trip. This week slowed us down even more. Larry has just finished a PT session and a then Speech session for his swallow problem. A few days ago he choked on his lunch and was not able to breathe. I was about to try the Heimlich on him when he coughed up the troubling piece of bread and ham salad. Yesterday he fell getting

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thejule1

Doctors, therapy, tests and "are we having fun yet"?

I haven't blog lately as I just was so discouraged with the last therapy session with Larry. He started up with problems in swallowing again this year and the internist sent us on a round of ENT exam, Speech pathologist therapy with a new E-Stim Experia therapy, and lastly, the barium swallow test.   Larry went to two therapists after the ENT exam. The one he had last year gave him an eval and then 2 sessions and then told us she was moving to Denver with her family. She recommended another

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thejule1

Why does everything happen at once?

I have had the roofer scheduled, along with my deposit, since April. We have had a lot of rain, so my roof has been rescheduled twice. They finally came today at 6:15 a.m. The cats were freaked at all the noise. I have always been like "the project manager" because Larry worked, and now he is unable to help. Five men were here all day and half will come back tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. to finish. Now I have gotten several bids, picked the type and color of shingle and made sure I had the old ven

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thejule1

Larry's new swallow therapy

As you all know from my postings Larry is having swallowing problems again. It started last year, 2 years after his stroke, and then reared up again this year, only worse. He is now to take thickeners, which are tasteless but messy, and is now on a mechanical soft diet. So, it is difficult to get Larry to gain weight with all this in addition to his poor taste for food!!   We went to a speech pathologist this time who is in the same group as the ENT Larry went to for his test. She examined

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thejule1

Me and the new technology just don't jive

I think I mentioned we received a new HDTV from the kids for Christmas. It took 5 cable techs to finally install it right! We had no problems until recently. The blankety blank thing blinks off and then comes back on. The problem is it went off a couple weeks ago and then did not come back. The cable box was on so I thought I would call Samsung first rather than pay a service charge to our cable company. By telephone the rep had me give the model number, etc. and ask about the cable box, li

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thejule1

A ray of sunshine in a cold rainy weekend

The ray of sunshine is my daughter who came to visit this past weekend. She lives in Michigan and comes 3 or 4 times a year. She is going to England (3rd time) with her boyfriend this month to visit his parents. It would be hard to visit her as her condo has BRs upstairs and only 1 handrail.   I had a project for her this visit (as usual). lol We went shopping for new drapes for the bedroom and she put them up for me. I am all thumbs when it comes to doing this so all I could do was help

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thejule1

Tornado season plus more problems with Larry

We had a major storm blow through last week and I had to take Larry to the basement. We have a railing and I held on to him for dear life! Slow but sure! The tornado passed us but went north and one community had extensive damage to homes blown away. Thankfully, no one was hurt. We had over 100 mile winds, rain, and hail in some areas. Why can't we just have nice warm weather?   Larry has been going to his PT and trying to learn not to drag that left affected leg. His balance was teste

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thejule1

Paramedics getting better acquainted with us

Okay, I lost my last try so here goes. I must have hit the wrong key!   Larry has been going to PT and his therapist has been trying the orthotic and walking Larry around and around the gym. She also tried some kind of contraption using the stretch bands. She had Larry raise his foot up and down 3 steps 15 times each foot. He was exhausted at the end. Not use to this much. Friday he refused to go and said he had a headache. Me thinks he really didn't want to go but did his exercises ove

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thejule1

Okay maybe Larry will listen now about exercising

Larry had been complaining of his left affected leg being weak. He has also fallen a couple times in the last three weeks. One was a half fall onto the couch, thank goodness! I decided to take him to the rehab Dr. for a checkup and to get more PT. It wasn't easy as she is very busy, and we had to wait about a week to get the appt. She is also in a different location, which is hard to get to so I brought Larry in his transport chair. I haven't used it for months but didn't think he would mak

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thejule1

Larry's Up's and Larry's Downs!

Larry went to have his carotid ultra sound a couple weeks ago. All is well there with no change or need for surgery.   Larry had seen a dietician who was great. She not only said "you need to eat more" but offered suggestions, and spent an hour and a half evaluating his history and diet. He tried the suggestions and has gained 7 lbs. in two weeks. He still struggles with things he doesn't like but at least it is on the upside!   Larry then went to his periodontist as he has gum disease.

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thejule1

Had to share this story

I saw this on our Fox2 station last night. A man lost 3 finger tips below his nailbed in an accident. He was looking under his car hood and the belt snap them off. Someone was able to save the parts but the fingers were too damaged to attach. He said he really didn't feel the pain too much, just was in shock! A doctor at St. Louis University Hospital said there was another option where he could try to use the medical powder (pig bladder) to help the fingers grow back. He had to apply it se

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thejule1

Our week so far

Larry is still struggling with his appetite and food intake. This was compounded last year due to a new swallowing problem. He just had his 3 year stroke anniversary and this was not a problem until last spring. We have seen many doctors, including a speech pathologist. We follow her instructions every day. He has lost 11 more pounds since last year. I didn't know what else to do for him as no meds worked, and some he could not take. I finally decided to see a dietician but was skeptical

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