Six Long Months

Hello dear readers; I hope I haven't lost all of you as it has been so long since I have posted anything. My thought was, if I don't have anything good to say, better not to say anything at all ... but that leaves me here trying to catch you all up on my current situation in which not all is bad. (Now wait a few minutes while I refresh my memory on what you already know - I'll be back in a few...)

All right, then. So, in January I started getting a chore worker for 66 hours a month. I started out with Gayle, who stayed with me until the end of the month when she had to leave because of a paperwork snafu.

In February, while she was gone, her replacement was Joanna who was young and clueless about the job. She would silently walk into where I was and just stand there. I would look up and say, "What do you need, Joanna?" "I just wanted to know what you wanted me to do next." "Well, take your pick: you could dust, vacuum, find  some laundry and put in a load."

Well, you get the point, she took no initiative. Keep in mind that having a chore-worker was new to me so I didn't really know what to expect, or how to manage one. Someone (you know who you are), told me to immediately set forth the rules; but I didn't do that because our situations are different - I have a husband who is here with me and is usually aware of what is going on behind my back, so I was just allowing things to take their natural course.

I also got a RoHo cushion for my chair, and while my pressure sores on my feet were slowly getting better, the one on my bum was well on its way to being healed.

I got Gayle back in March. I am continuing to go to the wound clinic every week or two, and had home health care coming out to the house twice a week as they had been since last Fall. They dress my wounds per Dr's instructions. All, this time, DH has been doing a fine job of tending to my wounds on the off days. He should ha become a nurse instead of a counselor.

In April, Medicare got word that the wound on my bum had healed so United Healthcare called to say they were coming to pick up my hospital bed. No wound on your bottom or torso means no need for a bed; if you get another one, they'll be happy to bring it back. They are so reactive instead of being proactive and it ends up causing us more pain for us and costing them so much more money in the long run. I can't believe that there are so many people scamming the system to make them think this way, but that's the way it is.

My double bed was taken upstairs and so we set up a different single bed we had, but since it had no side rails on it, I had no way to shift position or reach anything. I slept on it a few nights, but it was too soft for me, so I decided to just sleep in my chair. After all, it reclines -- so that's what I have been using for a bed since mid-April.

In May, we went to B&N bookstore, and I used a gift card that was burning a hole in my wallet to buy a new mug (as I had broken two of my favorites in the last year), and had a couple lattes in their cafe. I started to look at books, but OMG they have become so expensive! I've been spoiled by my Kindle, and getting $1.99 books that I was happy not to buy a book. Also, browsing the stacks in my wheelchair was an exercise in futility!

I came down with tendonitis, which is a major side effect of Levoquin which I took last January for a bladder infection. The fine print says that the risk of tendonitis is there for at least six months after you take the drug! I'll never not read the list of side effects again.

I also met with my new case worker at DSHS and am enrolled in the COPES program. My, oh my, what a Godsend they are.

And that brings us to June -- She is getting me an overhead track system that can move me from my bedroom out through the hall into the bathroom to the toilet.  It won't be a SureHands, but it'll do. They are going to widen the bathroom door and remodel the bathroom to make it more user friendly. (however, they always have to go with the lowest bidder, whom I think had some misplaced idea that focused on ADA requirements within the home. He wants to move the tub to another wall so he can put in a 36" door! Sooo unnecessary.

I will be getting my semi-electric hospital bed back. I will be getting an APP mattress topper, too! She was going to put a ramp from our patio to the alley gate, but it would have to meet ADA specs, which would not work for us as it would end up in the middle of the patio leaving me no room to maneuver when out there!  I will talk with her about a threshold ramp for the back door instead. I can get them to pay for my Depends, and my compression stockings, and my off-loading foam boots which will protect my feet from getting banged up. I am sure there is more I am forgetting, but gee whiz, life seems to be  looking up!

Be Well,