Wednesday, December 1, 2010

December already!! Time to get out those decorations, and send out those cards!! Well, I have our Christmas letter almost done... but waiting for some sunshine to put up the Christmas lights. I may wait awhile
John's day was a little better for most of the day. The lady from Home Care came and did an evaluation. Although she says I am doing too much and need help, we could not really come up with many ways they could help me. Because it is a government program there are all sorts of strings attached. I can have someone come and stay with John while I go out but they would not be allowed to give meds by tube feeding - so not a lot of help. They will send in someone once a week to help bath John - and we will try that. But it will cost $25.00 each time they come and I will have to see if it is really worth it.
Her suggestion was that I might try and hire someone privately that would be able to do more things that would be helpful, but I will have to explore that and it's possibilities.
The best thing she could offer was that she will send over a physiotherapist to give me help in transferring John in and out of bed etc.  But I don't know when that will happen.
Zeke came over tonight and fixed my car - just a loose connection on the alternator. So I have wheels again. hallelujah.
John has had a lot of saliva today and he has been coping with it by stuffing kleenex in his mouth and chewing on it and soaking up the saliva that way. He is on his second box of  kleenex today! 
That's all for now.

Not sure how to rate today.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The day started out not too badly and I thought it was going to be a good one. However, gradually John began to feel worse and then at 6pm he totally crashed. Had to go to bed and just wait for it to pass. He says these episodes where the meds are not working at all are getting worse. He certainly was in great distress. I gave him his 6:30 meds early along with a sleeping pill. He slept for an hour and then felt good enough to get up again. He managed to eat some ice cream but the last few days have been so bad that I have not been getting his 6 feddings into him - only about 4 each day - which is not remotely enough calories for him for a day.

One thumbs up for the morning but 2 thumbs down for tonight.

Monday, November 29,2010

The last two days have been quite bad for John. The meds just never quite work and so he is having a hard time. I have given him extra meds but they have not made any real difference. Mornings and evenings are the worse but all day has been a challenge.
The congestion does not seem to be quite as bad so I don't think we are having to worry about pneumonia. Just the congestion that comes from the meds not working properly.
He felt so badly that he went to bed early tonight in hopes he would feel better after he had some sleep. But so far he has not gone to sleep.
He has been trying to tell me something but cannot get the words out which is very frustrating for both of us. He shakes his head no when I ask if he needs something, so it is just a thought he wants to convey but cannot. Sometimes it is as simple as a thank you or I love you, but he will struggle for a long time to get it out. Tonight I told him to wait until tomorrow to tell me when I hope he will be able to talk - or at least whisper.

Two thumbs down for the last two days;

Saturday, November 27, 2010

After such a bad day yesterday, today seemed to go somewhat better. John was able to sit up in his chair and watchTV from the late morning onward. He felt up to being left alone for a short time while Margie and I ran out to do some shopping.
But he has developed a bad cough again - it sounds to me like his chest is congested  - pneumonia???? Of course it has to happen on the weekend so we cannot go to the doctor until Monday.
As the evening went on he coughed more and more and the meds were less and less effective. He finally asked to go to bed early. He said it was the worst evening he had had - from my viewpoint there have been worse - but from his viewpoint it was bad enough to feel that way.
Yesterday I contacted the Home Care program in Langley and they are coming to do an evaluation on December 7th and see if there is any help they can offer me. I have asked for a therapist to come and show me how to move John easily - like into bed etc. My shoulder and back and taking a beating at this point.
By the way, our son Ted and girlfriend Sabrina became the parents of a beautiful baby girl, named Shyla, today. This is our 7th grandchild. Like all the others, we are too far away to see her but I know we will enjoy lots of pictures on Facebook.

We had a lot of snow on Thursday but is is almost gone now.

Have to make this a one thumbs down kind of day.

Friday, November 15,2010

This was another very bad day for John. He did not even sit up in his chair, or turn on the TV until late in the afternoon. He was feeling pretty rough when I put him to bed tonight.
Two thumbs down for today.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy thanksgiving to all our American friends!!
One month until Christmas - wow, time to get busy. And we have the snow to prove it - but it will likely be gone by this time tomorrow.
Today was another pretty good day for John - I was able to go to the morning coffee hour in our condo today and also visit some friends in here and help them with their computer this afternoon. John did fine on his own while I went to those things.
So another one thumbs up day. Hallelujah.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Today was a much better day - although John did not feel too well in the morning, the rest of the day went quite well. He has not had any noticable side effects to the new meds so far. He will be on the full regime of them starting tomorrow.
Our car is having alternator problems so I am not supposed to drive it much until Zeke can fix it the middle of next week. Well there is supposed to be snow tomorrow so I don't want to go out anyway!!

One thumbs up for today!