Goodbye Dear Friends

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Today was not a good day. I found out last night that my very good friends are moving away soon. Annette and Richard are going to be moving sometime in the end of September or first part of October. Of course, it could be sooner if they sell their house sooner. This is not good, I depend on them for my rides to the doctor or store, and she does my laundry (garments) and they are my best friends. Of course, other people can do all those things but I have known them for 5 years and that is the longest I’ve had a friend in over 25-30 years, if not longer, because I’ve had to move so much. I never really had friends, not even from church. I’m very sad they are leaving. 😦

Then my other friend, who works here at the facility (she has been my Med-Tech for the last 4 years), is not doing Meds anymore. As a matter of fact, she almost quit last week. She has been working 16 hour days for 4 days in a row and more if they asked her. She has been in the hospital twice in the last 5 days and can’t eat, sleep, or move she is in so much pain. She told them that she was going to have to quit or not work 16-hour shifts any more and be a Care Giver instead of a Med-Tech. She isn’t even sure she can be a Care Giver and might have to quit anyway. Not only did she do my Meds, but she also did my showers on Sundays and my laundry too. So now I have to depend on the rest of the staff for my shower and to do my laundry. The whole reason I had Michelle doing my laundry is that the other people were wrecking my clothes and I can’t afford to buy new clothes all the time. I’m so sorry she is doing so bad, but I don’t want to lose her too.

Not only that, but she and her boyfriend are thinking of getting a travel trailer and getting out of their apartment. Their rent is going up and they don’t need a 3 bedroom apartment anymore. So she might be leaving anyway.

I’m really bummed with all this happening and being in tons of pain myself. I hope I have my surgery soon before they both leave. I’m trying to keep a ‘stiff upper lip’. 😦

300 pounds…again

Monday, July 23, 2018

This is my 5 year anniversary! I have been at Streamside for 5 years. Sometimes it feels like a long time and other times it feels like just yesterday that I moved her. This is the longest I’ve ever lived in one place since I left home at 19 years of age. I have moved to 4 different rooms while I’ve lived here, but I have been in this room for over 3 years.

I went to the Weight Management Group today and I weighed in at 300 lbs. That is a 4 pound gain from last week. That is what happens when I don’t watch what I’m eating and just eat what they serve. Well, I’ll see how I do over the next week and a half when I’m weighed in again. I also asked Deo if she sent in the paperwork to the bariatric clinic and she said yes, last week but she wasn’t sure what day it was faxed to them. I will call them next week and make sure everything is there and they can send it to Medicare for approval. I’m figuring sometime late August will be my surgery. If it is earlier it will be a nice surprise.

I asked Deo to change my Tylenol from a PRN (I have to ask for it) to a scheduled time and she wrote the order, but they haven’t changed it here yet. I’ll let it go a few more days and if they don’t change it I’ll tell them again. My back is really starting to hurt!!!

Fishing

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Today I went fishing. Well, we went to the Fish Hatchery and went fishing. There were 5 of us in total. John, myself, Jesse and his wife, Mary, and Desi (activity director) was the fifth one. The last time I remember fishing was when I was a little kid and my dad took us fishing off the Goleta pier. If we did catch anything it was too little to keep and we through them back in. I think we must have caught something because I remember having fish for dinner, but maybe it was from the store. I don’t like fish so I’m glad I didn’t keep the ones I caught today. So, yes, I did catch a fish. It was about 12-14 inches long and it was a rainbow trout. That fish was heavy and as Desi helped reel him in I grabbed the line she was holding and the fish flipped off the hook and fell back into the pond. I wasn’t able to get a picture of it, but I really did catch a fish. Next, John caught a fish and I think Desi got a picture of it. Last Jesse got a fish but it ended up on the deck and flapped around until it ended up back in the pond. There was well over a hundred fish there and I snagged a few more but they got away before I could get them reeled in. Then about a half-hour after we got there the Hatchery feed the fish and we never got another nibble. It was fun and not too hot. I hope we get to go again.

Back and side pain…

Monday, July 30, 2018

One more day and it will be August. July went by slow, but at the same time I can’t believe it is almost August. It just doesn’t seen like it has been that long.

It has been in the 90’s and 100’s (degrees) all month and making it hard to walk outside, and I just find no motivation to walk inside.

7-26-18 – I went to see Deo about my bariatric paperwork and my back and side pain. She said that the paperwork was sent in on the 20th. That is one whole month after I told her I needed more info for the surgeon and Medicare. I don’t expect to hear back from Medicare much before August 20th or later. It would be nice if it was sooner, but I’m not counting on it.

Then we talked about my back and side pain. I can hardly move now because of my side pain and Tylenol is barely touching it. Then I also have “break through” paid from my RLS most days and sometimes several times a day. The patch helps it be less sever, but it still drives me crazy. I asked her about Tylenol 3 and she said she didn’t use it much and gave me a PRN for Tramadol which is a narcotic like OXYCONTIN so I’ll see how it works. I don’t want to get hooked on narcs again.

I was really surprised when I got the Tramadol that same night. It usually takes a few days to get a new medication. I took one at 8:30 pm Thursday night (7-26).

7-27-18 – At 7:45am Friday morning when I went to get up I was pretty drowsy and it was kinda hard to walk. I had breakfast and went back to bed. I had lunch and dinner in my room.

7-28-18 – On Saturday I spend all day in bed usually so I just stayed in bed all day anyway. I took another Tramadol and my legs (RLS) have not gotten bad at all, so that was really nice since I was in bed all day and they usually get restless by the afternoon.

7-29-18 – I also stayed in bed on Sunday morning and stayed in bed for lunch. I didn’t get a shower because Michelle, the lady that usually gives me my shower, was a Care Giver today instead of a Med-Tech so I didn’t get my shower. I washed my hair in the sink and went back to bed until 2pm when I got ready for church. I didn’t curl my hair with electric curlers because my hair was still wet. I blew my hair dry and used the curling iron a little bit and pinned it up and went to church. I was still a little ‘foggy’ from the medication but I went to church anyway.

The Tramadol works on the side pain a little more than the Tylenol, but doesn’t take all the pain away. I took another Tramadol Sunday night and went to bed.

This morning I got up for breakfast, but went back to bed afterwards and didn’t get back up for exercises at 10am. I finally got up for lunch and my back was really hurting, but not my side. I went back to bed after lunch and got up to take my shower and go to BINGO. My back was hurting so much during BINGO so I went back to bed and got up for dinner and got some Tylenol. My back is killing me and I’m ready for bed.

Stocked Up and Paperwork done…

Monday, July 16, 2018

Liz got my 3 boxes of protein shakes (Premier Protein), now I have enough for the first 3 weeks after surgery and for the next 3 weeks after that. So now I just have to stock up for 1 shake a day after that and that is 2 boxes a month at $25.00/box. Now I need to get my vitamins (Bariatric Fusion) at $25.00/bottle. Luckily I don’t have to get anything but 2 gallons of water (for my CPAP), and bags for the kitty litter next month so I’ll have enough money to get a bottle of vitamins. I also need to get a new pair of tennis shoes and I don’t know how much that will be.

Went to “Group” today and Deo said she got all the paperwork done over the weekend and would be sending that into the surgeon’s office. I hope it gets done sometime this week. Maybe surgery by August??? Weight: 295 lbs.

Kitty, where are you?

Thursday July 5, 2018

Today I got up and went to Walmart (on the facility bus). I wanted to get 2 large money items and was hoping it wouldn’t cost to much. I got myself a set of electric rollers for my hair. It is a pain to do my hair one curl at a time with the curling iron. It was $23.97 for the set of 20 rollers, more then I really wanted to pay, but they weren’t the most expensive and not the cheapest either. Then I wanted to get a food scale so I can weigh out my food after I have my surgery. Again I got the middle priced one and hope I can figure out how to use it. Then I got a few little things and had to get $60.00 cash back so I can give Liz $50.00 for my protein shakes. I’m stocking up on them so I have enough for after my surgery. She now owes me 3 boxes (54 11oz. shakes). So my total was just over $100.00 at Walmart.

By the time we got back I was late for lunch. I went straight to lunch and when I got finished I went to my room to unload my stuff. I walked in and called for my cat, but I couldn’t find her. I looked everywhere but she was nowhere to be found. I called to have the staff help me find her. They looked everywhere in my room and couldn’t find her either. They also looked for her in the halls and nothing. Finally we heard a faint meow and we looked behind the desk and there she was, stuck behind the desk. I was really getting worried.

Hand and Foot…..

Wednesday July 4, 2018

Happy Independence Day! I got 1 reply to my card I sent out and one reply about my email. They were both from Kellie.

I walked to my appointment with Rachel yesterday and it was a good walk. It was about 76 degrees and a light breeze. I was a little tired and my calves were hurting by the time I got home, so I stopped outside the facility to talk to Michelle and a new Med Tech. It was just long enough that my calves were rested and they didn’t hurt anymore.

I didn’t do anything today except watch movies and play a new card game with a couple of ladies from here. It is called “Hand and Foot”. It has nothing to do with your hands and feet.

Disappointed, still no surgery…

Monday July 2, 2018

Well, we are into a new month and I had my ‘Pain Review’ today with Brandi (at Acacia). They weighed me in at 297 lbs. which is a 2 pound gain since last week. It doesn’t surprise me because I haven’t been watching what I’m eating and having a lot of desserts and fatty foods that they serve here. I know that I won’t be able to eat it after my surgery, so I’m eating them now. I’m discouraged about not getting my surgery in July and having to wait until August or whenever. Deo was gone all last week so my paperwork wasn’t turned in and now it is July and I don’t know when it will get done. I hate to keep asking, but I don’t want to let it ‘slip under the rug’ either. I want it done as soon as possible.

I walked to my appt today and it wasn’t that hard at all. It was in the 80s and there was a slight breeze. I have my usual appt with Rachel tomorrow and I will walk there again. (All these appt are at Acacia.) Tomorrow will only be in the upper 70s with a light breeze.

I sent out my July 4th card (digital over the internet) and sent out an email to everyone about my walking experiences in June. It was a pretty long email so I’ll see who responds to it. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Greenbelt

Tuesday June 26, 2018

Today is the walk on the Greenbelt. I didn’t really want to go the way we went the last 2 weeks so I told Desi about cutting through the apartments and how it wasn’t to hard so we did that today. And we went in the other direction (left) and walked on the Greenbelt most of the way. I couldn’t believe how busy it was. People walking, running, and biking. We stopped for a rest after crossing the bridge and we saw a lot of ducks in the creek. It was funny to see them, males on one side of the creek and females on the other. Some of the females would swim over to the males but they didn’t seem interested and just swam away. We also saw 2 snakes on the rocks by the shore of the creek. They weren’t very big and the ducks didn’t seem to bother them and the snakes didn’t seen to bother the ducks.

Along the other side of the path live people and we saw goats and sheep in their yards. Down the path a ways was a big field of grass and one lone cow was there. We could hardly see it the grass was so tall. Desi whistled for it to lift it’s head and we saw it was a male young cow (I guess that would make him a bull). When we stopped to rest again by the fence, he started to walk towards us. He came all the way to the fence and Desi pet him and he licked her fingers. Then he walked over to John, one of the walkers, and he pet him too. We stayed a few minutes and then headed back. As we walked along the fence line the baby followed us until we left.

I was pretty tired and when we got almost home my feet were really starting to drag, which means I could easily fall, so we cut through some closer apartments and got home faster. I sat outside for a few minutes before going back in, I was very tired.

This afternoon I got my nails painted in Red, White and Blue for 4th of July. Desi did a great job!!

88 degrees

Monday June 25, 2018

Today was a good day. I went to exercise class this morning, but didn’t walk afterwards because I didn’t want to tire out my legs too much. I decided that I would walk to my ‘weight maintenance group’ this afternoon. I called Annette, my best friend from church, and ask her if she would walk with me since it was my first time walking there. I figured that if I couldn’t make it, I could always call her husband to come get us. We were going to go up to 12th Ave. and cut thru the Dollar Tree parking lot, then walk back down Georgia Ave. to the doctor’s office. It was pretty hot today, about 88 degrees, so I thought maybe we could cut through the apartments and cross the ‘greenbelt’ and go up to Georgia Ave. and up to the doctor’s office. That would take about 1/2 the time. I didn’t know how hard it would be using my walker and having my brace on my right foot/leg. The brace on my right foot and leg are to help with my ‘foot drop’. It helps me keep the ‘toes’ part of my foot from dragging and causing me to trip and fall. The walker is to help with balance, both of which are caused by my MS. We went ahead and tried walking through the apartments which was grass and it wasn’t that hard, no bumps in the grass. Then it was crossing the ‘greenbelt’ and across the bridge over the creek, up a small hill, onto a short road that is used by the people that live near the creek which connects to Georgia Ave. Then a short walk up Georgia Ave. to the dr. office. The part of Georgia Ave that we had to walk on had no sidewalk, it was just a gravel road and loose dirt on the sides. We had to walk on the gravel road. We stopped once on the way to get in some shade and to get a drink. When we got there I was surprised at how short of a walk it really was. We left about 2:10p.m. and got to the dr. office about 2:30p.m., and that was with a few minutes rest. Annette then walked home and then I was going to walk home by myself. I was HOT and TIRED when I got there, but had about a half hour to rest before ‘group’. It lasted about an hour and then I walked home. It took me less than 15 minutes and no stopping for a break to get home. While at ‘group’ I was weighed in and I was 295 lbs, down by 1 pound from last Friday. It was an exhausting day, but a good day. Tomorrow is the walk on the ‘greenbelt’.