Giving Thanks For Fifteen Again

1. Hubby is walking again around the house. He willing uses a walker when we go out. When we seniors fall, it can mean broken bones and I am grateful he accepts that walker. 
2. Chiropractors that helped hubby walk.
3. Kenny who has come into our lives last spring. Kenny is a remarkable volunteer caregiver who enables me to continue to work. At the beginning of November, despite his own surgery, Kenny has continued to be there for us, and has even brought his mom into the picture. We are so grateful for these neighbors.
4. Wayne and now Pharis who have taken up the challenge of our 7/10 of an acre. Hubby doesn't think a wife should mow the lawn, and the front and back yards were the place where in my blogging through the book The House That Cleans Itself  I have been hung up. 
5. Professionals such as Carole Larkin and Dr. Mary Newport. 
6. Support from The Alzheimer's Association.
7. Our friends Sally and Jake (not their real names).
8. The Plant City Senior Center where Jake and hubby go one day a week. 
9. Bloggers who regularly comment on this blog and who provide fun and inspiration for me when I read their blogs. I would name you all, but I might forget someone. 
10. Students I substitute for who provide such hope for the future and who have encouraging my becoming MC AC The Rap Lady. 
11. My niece and nephew who started my YouTube rapping channel.
12. Progress on my seminary counseling dissertation on caregiving even as I battle caregiving issues myself and people who provide feedback for that dissertation. 
13. Having out-of-town guests for Thanksgiving.
14. Having a great dog, Ziggy, that is a wonderful companion for my husband and me.
15. My faith that sustains. For example, I am so grateful for the LORD's sustaining us through hospital trips for me in 2012 and for hubby in 2013.

Last year I posted 15 I am thankful for HERE  and I continue to be grateful for items on that list.

Also last year I posted 15 things a caregiver can do 

to be joyful HERE 

and it has received over 750 views. 

That's a lot on JOY this lowly blog 

has spread around!

Some Answers



www.thirdageservices.com

Carole Larkin of ThirdAge Services (www.thirdageservices.com) to the rescue! Carole has been reading my blog, wrote on it recently and realized the complexities of the questions I was asking here. She is a social media friend I met on the Alzheimer's Reading Room some time back. I "liked" her site on Facebook and had a chance to actually chat with her on Facebook yesterday just when I needed it.

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Me: I put questions on Plant City Lady and Friends last post and I think that I need to change from Preferred Care at the end of the year.

Carole Larkin: I'm reading your blogspot now.

Me: My husband's primary care physician is not very good with dementia, I think. I am writing my seminary counseling dissertation on caregiving and he doesn't seem to realize as much as I am learning.

Carole Larkin:  You are right. The majority of primary care physicians are useless with dementia. That's why I keep harping on going to a geriatrician, neurologist or a geriatric psychiatrist. All would be good choices, Carol.

Me: I have to wait to change my plan in 2014.

Carole Larkin: Changing from Preferred Care is absolutely the right thing to do. You will get more and longer services on Straight Medicare D and a Supplemental Medicare policy. There are medical insurance specials (brokers handling a lot of different companies) that will find you the best deal for both of you at the cheapest price.  

Me: I do need help. It's not working here as I wrote on my last blog post yesterday.

Carole Larkin: A geriatric care manager could not only answer your questions for you, but also give you guidance on what to do in the future, and give you the specific names of resources you need to solve your problems. In addition to all that, they would find out what was at the bottom of the runaround you are getting from everyone (hospital, Dr., insurance).  The Geriatric care manager is a professional and knows what's going on, and they could really get in trouble if they've screwed up. Carol, I'm telling you, you'd save money, time and STRESS using one of them. I'd suggest either an RN or a Social Worker.

Me: And how to I find one? I mean I don't keep phone books anymore and the Internet has so many sites these days.

Carole Larkin: Just try the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers/GCM Specialist. http://www.caremanager.org/

Me: Wonderful! Can I put this on my blog?

Carole Larkin: Of course you can. Do me this favor though. Put my business website (www.thirdageservices.com)
on it because there I tell people that I do telephone and email consults just like I'm doing for you now.

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I have spotted three Geriatric Care Managers in Lakeland and when I get our tax return I will go and hire one of them. Preferred Care with its Vision and Dental works well for me, but not for my husband at this stage of dementia.

It is now a week since hubby first started on antibiotics and Imodium for his UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). He is so much better. He finally showered and I helped him shave off his thick beard. My neighbor, Kenny, volunteer caregiver while I am out of the house, and I have noticed the difference each day. (An interview of Kenny will be coming on this blog.)

Hubby and I went to the movie "42" last night. DH got all choked up at the appropriate spots. He slowly ate a hotdog with mustard and relish. I relished having my husband back and going to church with him today. Giving him lots of Pediatric Electrolyte and cranberry juice to prevent dehydration and further UTI infections. Have to develop a cranberry bread with coconut oil as well, and I will share the recipe here.

Besides Carole Larkin, special thanks also to others who emailed me suggestions, texted my cell and of course all of you prayer warriors out there. It takes a village to be a caregiver/lovegiver for family with dementia.  

Hubby in Hospital--Part Two

DH:  When can I get out?

Me: When the doctor says so.
DH: Where am I now?
Me: You are at our wonderful Plant City South Florida Baptist Hospital.
DH: I am going to leave in my hospital gown.
Me: No you are not. We both had to come here because we were bad. I swallowed your pills by accident in December. I was a bad girl and I had to come here. You did not take your pills on Tuesday or eat all day and you were a bad boy so you came here. [See post here when I took hubby's pills.] I needed to know if you had had a stroke also. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Margaret Thatcher had stroke this past week. Hubby had been able to stick out his tongue, but he was very confused Tuesday afternoon. I couldn't chance it and as I wrote in Post One, I drove him to the emergency room where he was also checked for a urinary infection. 

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE.
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

That was Tuesday night and Wednesday the more food we got down hubby the better he walked, went to the bathroom, etc. But still he did not have his "walking papers". His socks were red, rather than green--the hospital code for walkers and non-walkers.


DH: Carol, you live in never-never land. I can leave now. [Techically this is true, but not wise for him.]
Me: They have to release you from the hospital.  
DH: I can walk out of here.  
Me: Right! Walk out in your hospital gown and they take you right to the funny farm!  

I watched carefully the nurse as she assisted him walk to the room bathroom and instructed him how to get back into bed. I quizzed the nurse on taking pills with the apple sauce. You don't have to open the capsules or crush the meds. You just put them in the apple sauce and they soften that way for several minutes and then he eats the apple sauce with knowledge that he is also being a good boy taking his pills.

From the Alzheimer's support group one gentleman sent me this email I read from my notebook computer on Wednesday:

So sorry to read about your Hubby. I didn't look around when you left to see who came. That must have been horrible for him sitting there all day. Strange someone did not pick up on what was happening. I sure hope things work out for him to the good. I will read the blog to stay up-dated. You take care of yourself too, Carol.

I also wondered why the Senior Center had not called me Tuesday.

Yesterday in the hospital I was in touch with family and friends on my iPhone and notebook computer. I read email on my iPhone. I read blogs on my small computer. I played Words With Friends and updated those people on my husband with the Words With Friends chat box. I texted family and friends. Hubby kept wanting to know when he could go home and kept talking about our dog. He had no idea about all my technology that kept me occupied when we weren't talking and I was answering the same questions over and over again.

Finally near 6 pm Wednesday night the neurologist came. This specialist asked my husband questions such as what was the year, what was the season and where he was. I am on planet earth, he said.  He flunked all answers. The neurologist said he would review the chart and see when he could be released.

They have had my body long enough, hubby said, but he would not be released Wednesday night and I headed home.

When I got home I put the port-a-potty thing below we had in the attic from hubby's heart attack in 2004 on his bathroom toilet, now making our home even more Alzheimer's ready.


Handles for getting up and down.
He might as well get used to this.  

During the day Wednesday I was so pleased to see that a family friend had put in a gate to connect our property and our back yard neighbor's property for new help for my husband. This gentleman also fixed another gate I had bent backing up our gas guzzler some time ago. Such a blessing and he will also mow our 7/10 acre so I don't have to nag my husband about the lawn or have him accept a woman (me) mowing a lawn.

This morning. Our dog objected to my getting ready to leaving him again, but I told the bright dog I am going to see "Daddy" and he stopped barking and I head again for the hospital. I had seen that Dallas, TX Geriatric Care Manager Carole Larkin had posted a comment below on Part One of Hubby in Hospital on this blog.  I took Carole Larkin's professional advice and checked on my husband's admission to the hospital when I got there this morning. He had been admitted.I got to see his primary care physician briefly. He would go home.

When I got to his hospital room he was eating his food without coaching! Perhaps he had learned his lesson which I would repeat again and again now also explaining why he would have a volunteer caregiver Kenny visiting my husband when I was working. Hospital staff wheeled hubby to our car and we left the hospital.

Kenny came over to our house this afternoon and we went over procedures. Kenny will use that new gate on days I leave the house to see that my husband gets up, has his pills in his apple sauce, has breakfast and has lunch and has enough water and other liquids.

While Kenny was here our friends Sally and Jake came over and brought us dinner and Kenny was able to meet Jake who may stop by sometimes while Sally runs an errand! Jake was here last Saturday when I taught all day.

Multiple blessings. I have had help for fences, for lawn mowing, for advice from the nurse and from Carole Larkin and now have an magnanimous volunteer such as neighbor Kenny. Thanks for dinner, Sally and Jake also--delicious salad from Bob Evans.

I just think this whole experience has shown

wonderful answers to prayer

and thank all of you who have been

praying and helping.