Saef - walnut bread is lovely. Gosh, Lotte Berk! I knew someone back in the early 80s who did her exercises. She was gorgeously fit and elegant, and she moved like a dream. I'd go to one of those classes, I think, despite not being a class person.
I did Pilates one-on-one (introductory sessions for someone starting a studio) on the machines for 3 sessions. After the first my abs ached for 4 days straight. After the second, my thighs. After the third my arms.
OY! Enough already! I like workouts that leave you pleasantly sore for the next day or so. I don't need to feel like I've been run over by a truck thanks!
The dog is ominously quiet. I think I better go check on her.
Allison, thanks, those look luscious, and I think I'm going to try that squash recipe this weekend. Birchie, thanks also for mentioning walnut bread, as I love baking bread.
Dagmar, I know about that ominous silence. It's amazing how quietly utter destruction can take place when you least suspect it.
Wow! I have this dog under control in 2 days. I sat with her when she was 8 months old and it was horrible. She is now almost 3 years and, once I set up some rules and physical boundaries, this is proving to be a good experience.
I'm also finding it a relief to be away from DH. I needed a break from him. Going home for a quick dinner tonite but then coming straight back, walking the dog, and going to bed. No destressing (is that a cromulent word?) eating!
Instead of TV every night I'm reading a Martha Stewart bio - interesting!
Saef, I am going to have to look up that type of exercise...
Carter is starting to be more active. We took him for physical therapy on Monday and they put him on the underwater treadmill. Pretty goofy looking! Now we have a little obstacle course for him in the house and are supposed to take him for two 5-minute walks per day. He's still knuckling one of his feet so we have to put a bootie on it when going outside, but he's doing it less every day.
Now the problem is that he keeps getting up. He'll get out of bed, take a few steps, then just stand there. What is he doing? What's going on in his doggie brain? I can't figure out if he's just tired of laying down all the time or he has something he wants but not enough strength to go get it. He also keeps wanting to go up on the sofa (can't let him do that for quite a while yet) or go up on the bed (he's never been allowed on the bed!). Last night we had to lock him in his play pen to get him to stop trying to get on the sofa. He's also still getting up needing to pee at 2 or 3 in the morning. Tonight I'm going to take his water bowl away after he eats his dinner (around 5-ish). Hopefully that will let him sleep all night without having to pee.
Oh my. My sister called last night. She went to visit our parents last week and she wanted to update me on their situation. You all know my mom broke her leg a couple of years ago and has had two open heart surgeries. She's unable to walk without a walker and frankly does better with a wheelchair. She has terrible neuropathy in her legs which causes tremendous pain at times. My dad has had one open heart surgery and recently has been hospitalized for various things. He's now on a permanent catheter because the doctor said his bladder is stretched and hard and cracked and if it bursts, he'll die. I can't remember his other ailments, but his speech is slurred, he has no sense of taste and has had recurring diarrhea for several weeks. My sister said he fell twice while she was there--once on the front porch step and couldn't get up (he shuffles, does not "walk" normally). No one knew he was outside (and it's cold there). Finally, since he'd left the door open, someone noticed the cold and my sister was able to help him up. She says it's only a matter of time before we'll have to "do" something with them. Mom will move into an assisted living center in a heart beat but my Dad is so *&^% stubborn we doubt he will and he needs it! He's lost 30 pounds since Christmas and Mom is worried but I also reminded her that we've been worried about her weight loss as well...
(((sigh)))
Thanks for letting me vent a little.
I hope everyone else is doing well. Glad Carter is on the mend. Have a nice dog-sit, Dagmar. Hi to everyone else!!
Allison,
I feel for you having been through this with both of my parents. As they say, we are the sandwich generation.
We didn't think my dad would go into assisted living but we didn't give him the choice. Unfortunately, as parents age, sometimes roles start being reversed and you become the caretaker. I would suggest you all "do something" sooner rather than later. My dad's health improved greatly after he moved into assisted living (both of my parents are now deceased) as he received regular meals, baths, and his medications were regulated. So sad.
Jessica-- so glad to hear Carter continues to be on the mend! Hooray for Carter and glad that you and dh can start to get back to your normal routines.
Assisted Living is not a prison cell, they have very nice apartments available but are made more accessible for people with walkers, wheelchairs, etc. And caregivers are available that may do the laundry , tidy up the apartment and give general assistance, whatever is necessary.
To add to what Bargoo said, yes! They can do your laundry. They also took my dad bowling, out to lunch, to Wal-Mart, the bank, etc. when his mobility took away his ability to drive. He grumbled and complained sometimes about living there (usually about the food though they offered plenty of choices), but I estimate he lived at least an extra 5 years. We "put" him into assisted living after my mom passed away knowing there was no way we could care for him ourselves and he couldn't care for himself and stay in their home. His health was extremely poor and we didn't expect him to last a year-- he ended up living over 7 more years.
Assisted living is the ideal situation for my parents. I know that once he got there, my dad would be fine with it, but he's the most stubborn person I've ever known. I don't know if I could properly explain his stubbornness. Thankfully he FINALLY agreed not to drive! But he won't get rid of their cars. They own their house, so why move? The worst is that they've made a couple of bad financial decisions in the past year or so. They bought a "policy" that gives them in-home "care". It cost $4000 for the year and basically it allows them to have their house cleaned every other week. My sister said the service doesn't do that great of a job and the paperwork involved each cleaning almost assures that at some point Mom won't fill it out right and they won't be reimbursed (she pays the cleaner, fills out forms and mails them in to be reimbursed). It'd be a lot easier to just get Merry Maids to come in...And they signed up for an HMO a few years ago (after I warned them not to) and after Mom was hospitalized, they decided that the HMO wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but can't go back to Medicare so they changed to an even worse HMO. It's hard because my Sister, SIL and I are either in the health care field or were in the field. We know the dangers to look for and try to guide them but they won't ask for assistance.
Allison, I agree with what everyone else said. You must get your parents into assisted living. Don't ask your dad to make the decision to go -- tell him the decision has made and he has no choice in the matter. We waited too long with my grandmother -- I expect had she gone into assisted living a year or two earlier, she might have lived a few years longer in better health. Unfortunately by the time we realized the extent of her dementia and got her into assisted living she had been mixing up her pills for months, forgetting to eat, and having all sorts of other problems. She was very resistant to going when we first suggested it but once she was there she loved it. Her assisted living facility had social outings, transport to/from doctor's appointments and shopping, an in-house salon to get her hair and nails done, good food, and plenty of help available to make sure she took the right medications and that her hygene was attended to. She was able to get a nice large apartment and move in all her own furniture and the comforts of home.
When we had finally gotten her into the assisted living facility my sister and I made our parents agree that if she and I told them it was time to move to assisted living they wouldn't argue. They saw how hard it had been for my grandmother and how nice the assisted living place was and agreed that when they are old enough to need to go to such a place they should trust their children's judgement.
Allison - I'm so sorry that you are having to deal with all of this. I know it is hard for everyone involved. The Medicaire/HMO thing is unfortunate. People just don't understand the ramifications of those kinds of changes sometimes.
Jessica - I'm glad that Carter is still recovering nicely!
I'm tired today. We had DSS Tuesday night, where he was up later than normal because of a late afternoon nap at his mom's. Then I worked from home with him on Wednesday as he is on winter break, then we had him again last night. He was angry and frustrated pretty much all day, screaming and fussing for a good part of it. I finally pinned him down and asked him why he was so mad at me, that I hadn't done anything to him - he told me that he missed his daddy, and that he was supposed to be there all day playing XBox with him. His mom had told him that he would be hanging out with his dad all day on Wednesday, had apparently pushed it along with some schedule changes that took some time he had planned to be at our house, pumped up the 'playing with dad Wednesday' angle. She didn't realize until halfway through the day yesterday that it was me with him and not DH. So, DSS was bitterly angry at me all day, thinking it was my fault that his daddy wasn't there. It left me pretty worn. Then, some kids in the neighborhood rang our doorbell and ran off, pranking I guess. DH went out to check and they were skulking around the backyard in dark clothes and camo carrying a black plastic toy gun. He explained to them that in GA you can shoot someone if you feel threatened and get away with it under the 'stand your ground' law, and not everyone would make the time to determine if the gun wielded by the kids in camo in the back yard was real or not. 12-13 years old, and I hope that they heed our warning.
I'm there with those who have stubborn parents. My dad is almost 88 now and refuses to even discuss any sort of living arrangement outside of his own house. He is managing ok (and I am too p*ssed off with him to argue) but when the time comes he won't have any choice in where he goes. There are waiting lists for all the better nursing homes and he blew all of his retirement savings for his "farm" in Estonia so a retirement residence is too expensive for him.
Maybe I'll suggest he just stay in Estonia when he goes there this summer. That would solve a lot of things.
I think I'm getting tired at the dog sit. I had a shower after I got here today and lay down for a 15 minute nap. Woke up 2 hours later - I never nap like that!
I ate a lot of sugary cr*p last night so that may have had something to do with it.
And I'm sooo ready to quit the diet pop altogether. I'm thinking this weekend will be the time. DH will be far enough along in his caffeine withdrawal that we won't kill each other with crankiness.
Anyone have constipation issues?
I have never had them-- usually the opposite in fact. The past few months I have had issues though and my weight keeps creeping up. I'm thinking the two are related as most of the weight seems to be centered in my stomach. I've taken some laxatives and they help but I'm worried about them causing issues. I don't know how often I can/should take them.
I'm eating plenty of fruit, drinking water, exercising. Any other suggestions? Sorry for the gross subject matter!
