One Day in the Life of a Wolf - Memorial 7-25-20

[tugon (imported)]

Wolfie as a caregiver you do have to take care of yourself. Stress and lack of sleep can contribute to health concerns. As far as diabetes we have several very knowledgeable members to give advice.

[Daughter (imported)]

*Hug* Keep us posted.

[FianceeUvBigGuy (imported)]

Uncle Wolfie,

I've followed this thread for some time now and have been saddened by the setbacks and elated by the little bits of good news, all too few, that have popped up on occasion. I'm certainly not one to be giving advice but I do echo those who so very much hope you'll take better care of yourself.

I wish I could be there to help look after both you and your mother. I'd even wear the French Maid outfit when doing your household chores:D

Please, PLEASE, begin, and adhere to, whatever regimen of medications, diet, etc., that your physicians recommend so that you can minimize, perhaps even avoid, the effects of diabetes!

Diet and exercise may be all that is needed and I'm assuming that, what with all the walking you're doing...to visit Mom, shop, etc.,...that the exercise requirement is being met and that's a good thing.

I assure you, for what it's worth, that you and your mother are in my prayers.

All My Best Wishes,

Yoli

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

Ain't that a kick in the head! Now you will

have to take care of yourself.

If you are not in good shape you can not take care of others. All the best, always. --FLO--

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

I doubt their accurate diagnosis of diabetes. I had almost nothing but junk food sweets two days before as I was feeling week and thought it would give me an energy boost. It didn't.

Tummy is sore tonight but pain level is only a 3 - 4, then again, I took a five mile walk to get my tobacco. Dumb idea = definitely. Necessary = I need my stash, even if it is only pipe tobacco.

Next few days I do nothing but rest my weary bones.

[sheep79 (imported)]

Mac take care of yourself... I had no idea of this thread thanks to Bobbie for letting me see it.The sheep need's there Wolve's hahaha.Dave

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Avoid pancreatitus

Believe me, I understand pain. In the past, I've broken both kneecaps, had migraines last dozen years and 36 kidney stones. I'd trade any or all to avoid pancreatitus again. I'd even take Kristoff's garden hose.

Worst pain I ever had in my life.

The next three days I'm becomming a couch potato.

[Daughter (imported)]

Nothing wrong with that!

((the couch potato part anyway...))

[Kangan (imported)]

Hang in there, Mac!

That's life - one minute you are all fat and happy basking in the sunshine -- and then the bolt of lightning hits you....

[bobbie (imported)]

Make sure it is not French fried potato's.

Seems like you were going to install locks that need a key to open them on either side. Perhaps lock the doors and send yourself the key in the mail. That will keep you from leaving the house for a few days.

All kidding aside, rest and recover. Take care you old Wolfie.

[Bagoas (imported)]

You didn't mention whether you are still troubled by kidney stones, but I suspect that you are. I discovered a preventive for kidney stones about 30 years ago which has proved successful ever since.

I recommend taking 500-1000 mg. of magnesium every day. After a very painful kidney stone in my late 40's, I remembered something I had learned in geochemistry in graduate school which I thought might be relevant.

Kidney stones are calcareous, made up of calcium oxalate and/or calcium urate. I had learned that, in the ocean, even though oceanic waters are , in most areas, saturated with calcium ion, inorganic limestones, which would be composed of calcium carbonate, do not form because magnesium ion in the water prevents the nucleation of CaCO3 crystals.

"EUREKA !" I cried. Perhaps magnesium ion would also prevent the nucleation of calcium oxalate or other calcium compound crystals in urine. I started taking magnesium immediately and I have never had a kidney stone since. Magnesium compounds being much more soluble than calcium compounds, there is no danger of crystals of magnesium oxalate, etc. forming either.

Magnesium dietary supplement pills are readily available at health food stores. It can do no harm to try them and I hope that you find them as effective as I did.

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

I'll try that remedy if my stones ever return. I've not had one now in about two plus years.

[Arab Nights (imported)]

I imagine Bagoas' suggestion is as a preventative and should be taken daily ahead of time rather than waiting.

[augman7518 (imported)]

mice are real tricky and fast.they will enter with anyone who is not carefull at the entry door.it is hard to believe they will come in with someone.i know it smells but poison is next best to a cat===augman

[FlatBagger (imported)]

Bummer Wolf. I live on a farm in the sticks. I'm a farm eunuch. If someone showed up here and told us to trim the trees they'd be run off with a shotgun. Land of the free my ass. I hate zoning laws. I don't trust the government and I despise the police. We are now being told our farm is too small and we can't raise certain types of livestock. Bullshit! When the economy collapses and we go into full blown depression are these same people going to supply me with the food I could have grown? I don't think so. F them. We are in full survival mode here and getting ready for the fall. I suggest the rest of you do the same. Good luck to you all.

Submissively yours,

Flatbagger

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Kindred Hospital just called. They were going to send mom home next Wednesday but changed their minds. The feeding tube isn't working as well as they thought and she needs more skilled 24 hour nursing care.

Palms nursing home has agreed to accept her for 21-30 days at NO COST TO ME. This isn't what I wanted. I wanted mom home but it seems I have no choice.

Her doctor said sending her home now might endanger her life.

For the next month it's just going to be me, the cat (Cabbot) and the dog (Rocky).

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Mom went to a local nursing home or three weeks yesterday. I'm to be there next Wednesday at 10:30am to discuss her treatment plan. It's about 6-7 miles from me and I should be able to catch a bus most of the way.

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Palms nursing home called me last Thursday to tell me mom had arrived safely but that she had pulled out her stomach feeding tube. They sent her back to St. Bernadine's Hospital to have the tube reinserted.

St. Bernardine's just called me today asking for my permission to reinsert the feeding tube. Naturally, I said yes.

I'm assuming it's a simple procedure and she'll be back at the Palms Nursing facility by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Back to housework.

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

I'm beginning to hear the repetion in a tune called "All around the Mulberry bush the monkey chased the weasel."

St.Bernardine's Hospital just called to tell me they successfully replaced mom tummy feeding tube without any complications or trauma to mom. HOWEVER, they don't want her to return to the nearby nursing home yet.

Instead they want her to return to Kindred Hospital, a skilled hospital facility 40 some miles away for a few more weeks which means it will be more than almost two months before I get to see my own mother .

After she's through at Kindred, they would readmit her to the Highland Palms nursing home for two weeks till she could return home to me. I could visit her at Highland Palms as it is only 6 some miles away by bus.

It's beginning to feel like a roller coaster and I hate coasters.

But, if it is best for mom.........

As some famous EA member has said, "sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield." I think I'm back to the larvae stage of Mr. Bug.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Mac my friend, I have not been reading this thread for some time but as I just read this last page it seems to me that was what was going on several months ago. I guess you are on a roller coaster.

As for seeing your mom, sense its so far away, can you request a hospital van or other type of ride that would take you out there? Just a thought.

Take care man,

River

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

The lawn man arrived late at 2:00pm After he finishes cutting my small lawn and gets his $25 of extortion money out of me, I'll take my five mile walk to fetch my tobacco. I'll stop at St. Bernadine's Hospital on the way home to see of mom is still there.

$25 may not seem like much money to most but when you're on a fixed income it seems like more.

[Riverwind (imported)]

I totally understand, $25 will buy a weeks worth of food if your careful in what you buy or it could buy a 1/2 tank of gas almost, I would rather eat.

River

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Hospital called me this morning to say, "your mother is NOT RETURNING to Kindred Hospital (35+ miles away) but back to the nursing home only 6 or so miles away. No reason given except further hospitalization was ruled out. Now I can go visit her.

Same hospital called several hours later asking me to come by at noon tomorrow to give them copy of my ID, a utility bill and a letter stating I'm mom's caregiver, get no salary, have no medical coverage and am as poor as gopher shit.

They want this so I can qualify for MIA status: Medically Indigent Adult. This is for my recent three day stay for that fun Pancreatitus attack.

I'm calling them tomorrow morning saying, "I'll bring it next Monday." Sometime tomorrow the Time-Warner cable guy comes to unhook my Verizon DSL internet and hook me up to RoadRunner high speed Internet. My computer will be faster and the fee is $20 a month cheap for the first year.

I'll wager when River reads the initials MIA, he'll think: "yup, that's Mac, Missing In Action....at least mentally." Heh Heh

[Riverwind (imported)]

You know me so well, that is exactly what I was thinking.

Glad to hear about your mom being moved closer.

River

[The Lurker (imported)]

I have been lurking about here for years and years and somehow completely missed this thread until this evening.

I could not stop reading, and read every word on all 50 pages in one sitting. My ass hurts and I should have gone to bed long ago. The story is compelling, heartbreaking, and comical on multiple levels.

First off, Mac, there are no words emphatic enough to describe your devotion to and resolve for your Mom's wellbeing. You are amazing. As are all the people who have offered support through this board. You are all fantastic people.

My Mom passed 10 years ago at 57 after a short battle with cancer. She suffered terribly, and I was relieved when she died.

It is important for you to know that your Mom loves you. She may not recognize you, but somewhere in the recesses of her brain, she remembers and loves her only child. Keep that with you always.

When I was in high school my paternal grandmother came to live with us. She was suffering from advanced stages of Alzheimer's and only recognized my Dad, and that was only once in a while.

20 odd years earlier when my parents met and married, my grandmother openly displayed dislike and hostility for my mother because she was Catholic, Irish, from New York, and had married my Dad. Over the years she never really opened up to my Mom, and my Mom always assumed that Grandma hated her.

When my parents married, my Mom was a tiny little thing, but by the time my Grandmother came to our house my Mom was quite heavy and clearly unrecognizable to my grandmother.

One night, we were all sitting at the dinner table, and my Mom got up and went to the kitchen. My grandmother leaned over toward my Dad and said in an en extremely loud voice (she thought she was whispering!) "Who is that fat lady? And where is Pat? (my Mom's name) I miss Pat! I loved her!".

Well of course my Mom heard all of this, and this brought out the waterworks. We all started crying and laughing, having discovered that after all these years my grandmother really cared and at the same time had no idea my Mom was across the table from her.

Only a short time later my Grandmother died. And for the rest of her own life, my Mom took great solace from that one little moment when she learned the truth. That my Grandmother had come to love her.

However difficult these days are, always remember, ALWAYS REMEMBER, the love...

With empathy and compassion...

The Lurker