The "great" Migration

 The neighbours in our court are on the move!  Five sets of neighbours are leaving or are all ready gone.  Only one new family has moved in.  Hopefully some of the other empty suites around here will fill over the next week as the number of vacancies in our complex is soaring right now.  Our court lost the BIG DOG OWNERS, the neighvourhood drug dealer, two families with the cutest kids ever, the family with the pitbull that was finally discovered by management....hmmmm....could be they moved out before their annual lease was up because they were asked to???  I am going to miss the children of some of these families.  Oh such sweet little people, so eager to talk and share their life experiences with us.  Walking out to our vehicle now is not going to be nearly as entertaining.  hahahaha  

I was awake well before my 8am alarm today.  I had a good sleep because I went to bed somewhat earlier than usual for a change.  Off I went to the ophthalmologist's office for my 9:15am appointment.  I had all the same tests I had 8 weeks ago due to the rescheduling of all my appointments since the pandemic closed the office completely for three months earlier this spring.  My regular end of April appointment was rescheduled to the end of August and my regular end of November appointment was pushed up to today.  It means that instead of having the usual 6 months between appointmentns this year, they were crammed into an 8 week time frame.  Sigh....not sure what that is going to prove, but oh well.  The tech made sure that I am NOT on the reschedule list for my appointment with the actual ophthalmologist on December 1st.  I don't think I did well on my one peripheral vision test today, after doing very well last time, because my right eye kept watering and I couldn't see nearly as many of the little flashing lights as I should have.  Sigh....I just pray it doesn't appear that I have lost a ton of peripheral vision in that eye in only 8 weeks!  Stupid pandemic!  Stupid eye tests....there, now I feel better! hahaha  Guess I will find out on December 1st.  He will administer the eye drops I thought I was getting this time for my tests and then we will  finally have our annual face to face chat....or mask to mask this time I suppose.

 

This afternoon I am going over to a friend's long enough to pick up a couple of packs of ground beef.  She has a wonderful friend who is a rancher and who gives her far more meat than she and her husband can eat, so our deal is that I will take her something she is in greater need of and exchange it for the ground beef. It is a great deal for us both. She isn't able to get out and about on her own, so if her husband has forgotten something from her grocery list, then I pick it up for the exchange. hahaha What fun we have!

 

Today visiting with my husband will consist of one sided conversations with the back of his head. He is tweaking his sermon today and doing his payroll, so will be very busy.  I must remember not to interrupt him too often, although he is far kinder to me when I interrupt him than I am to him when he interrupts me! Bless his soft heart.

 

Our city is in the line of fire for the wind warning that came out last evening and extends through most of today.  It isn't cold outside, but o wow...I awakened occasionally during the night when the siding on the building and the roof shingles both sounded like they were going to blow off at the same time.  A brief flurry of snowshowers around 7am sounded like bullets hitting the wall beside my head as I tried to ignore all the noise and remain sleeping in my cozy bed.  By late this afternoon the wind should be less gusty. On my way home from the eye clinic a little while ago I stopped at a red light and the wind blowing down the street between the tall buildings set my car rocking sideways in a somewhat frightening manner.  I was grateful to get home in one piece. Oh how I am looking forward to the 5 or 6 days of forecast warmth during the coming week!!  

We Were Sailing Along.......

We had a crazy afternoon: three hours of moving the canoe from the church yard where the summer repairs happened, across town to the home where it is being stored for the winter, then repeating the process to move the work table out and over to the same place. 

 

Apart from helping turn the canoe on its side so we could carry it through the narrow exit from the church yard, my main position was that of Chief Noodle Wrangler!  Just as we were about to load the canoe, the sky suddenly turned grey and a fierce wind arose.  I was hanging onto 3 foam pool noodles that were straddling the roof of the car for rolling the canoe along the roof without scratching either the canoe or the car, when a gust of wind blew all 3 of them out of my hands and off down the alleyway where we were parked!  Thank goodness they are big and brightly coloured as they were easy to spot as they bounced away!  While my husband continued to balance the canoe on his back, I raced around picking them up and replacing them in their proper postions on the car roof.  When we arrived at the new storage place and took the canoe off the top of the car, the noodles got away from me again and blew all around the street. Thankfully there wasn't enough traffic to get in my way of chasing them down and rescuing them.   Once we got the canoe unloaded we returned to the church yard to load up the work table, after fighting our way through rush hour traffic and repeated the process......run away noodles and all. hahaha I can still run faster than I realized!! YAY!!!!!

 

I called my mom when we finally got home, (to discover she had another very good day today), while my husband made dinner!!  What a treat for ME!  He found some cheese stuffed tortellini in the freezer and boiled it up with some of his home made tomato sauce plus shredded cheese. What a treat after all the lifting and pushing and running about all afternoon.  What a sweetheart!  

After dinner we tried watching a movie, "Robert the Bruce", but it was a bit slow and for some reason I couldn't get into the Scottish/English wars of 1306 tonight.  I wasn't in the mood I guess for watching people being slaugtered with swords.  Maybe some other weapon would have been more appealing?? My husband toughed it out with a far greater degree of enjoyment.

Back to Mom: she tried walking 2/3 of the way to the mail boxes today, left her walker in the hallway and went the other 1/3 of the distance and back to her walker with no support.  She said it went well but absolutely exhausted her, so she had a little rest when she got back to her suite. She is FINALLY realzing why doing her own laundry for another few weeks has been forbidden!!  She also FINALLY agreed with me that when she goes out for her eye injection appointment in ten days' time she MUST take the walker.  She is giving in to her body's need for rest and moving slowly and I am so proud of her.  It isn't easy for her.  So, two or three good days in a row.  Oh, I hope there are so many more days like this!

  

Cheery Thoughts

 I don't know who to credit this little verse to, but I received it in the mail today and it made me feel cheerful and comforted!

"Of all the ways God speaks to me

  And shows me the way to go,

 The counsel of a loving friend

 Is one of the sweetest I know."

Too true, right?  Blessings to all my wonderful friends today!

Again, I Can't Feel My Toes....OR My Fingers Either!!!

 This morning we were supposed to have very bad weather happening by around 8am, so my husband and I were hopeful we could take our cans and bottles to recycling when they opened at 9am and not have to wait long to get the job done.....whoops....no storm....sigh.....  When we arrived at 8:45am there were all ready 7 people ahead  of us and only 3 people could go in at a time, each allowed to take in only what they were physically capable of carrying in one load.  My husband and I were able to drag all 9 of our bags into the lineup, but the box of wine bottles is still in the car for another time.  I drive past the recycling depot quite often, so the first time I am on my way past and see only 1 or 2 people standing outside, I will pull into the lot and get rid of it.  We decided to tough it out this morning to ensure our basement remains free of all those bags.  After a 45 minute wait in the very cold slightly below zero temperature and chilly breeze, we were admitted to the inner sanctum of the depot.  Brrrrrr.....I am so grateful I chose to wear my wool lined winter knee length boots.  They have seen better days, but since I won't be going out much this winter, they are going to have to last me one more cold season.  With thick socks inside they were still warm enough for our wait on the cold pavement. After about 15 minutes I realized I should have worn warmer mittens.  My leather gloves are not well lined and the ends of my fingers were tingling. It wasn't great for the first part of the wait, but about half way into it a fellow arrived to stand behind us and we realized we knew each other.  He is a parishioner from one of our former parishes! His wife was one of my husband's wardens the last year we were posted there.  The two of them have just retired and moved here to be closer to their children and grandchildren.  Talking with him made the rest of the wait time fly past and when we said goodbye to him after our business was done, we made promises to get together with him and his wife once it is safe again to expand our social safety bubbles.  What a treat to meet him again.  Turned out the long wait was also worth it as we received a total of ninety-two dollars and twenty cents for those 9 bags filled with cans and bottles!

At noon my husband and I "attended" a virtual luncheon for the seniors from my church.  The guest speaker is a former pastor who now lives in southern Ontario.  It was so interesting hearing about his life and ministry before and now during COVID19.  Our Zoom meeting with the youth pastor didn't happen after all today because his wife became ill yesterday and he developed the same symptoms today.  At the time we were supposed to be connecting he was phoning us to say he and his wife were in the line up for COVID19 testing, just in case what they are suffering from is more than an autumn cold.  Praying they are both okay!!

I once again should have spent the afternoon dusting the furniture, but I was keen to spend some of my portion of the recycling money!  I haven't seen or touched cash in a long time and it felt like a great treat to have some to spend.  I went to the grocery store after lunch and purchased Hallowe'en treats for the many children who live in our building.  What fun I had dividing all the items into bags...boxes of microwave popcorn, mini diet soda cans, chocolate coated biscuits and cans of potato chips.  If the kids have half as much fun eating the treats as I had putting their bags of treats together, they will have quite a blast! hahaha  This way I could disinfect each item, even the bags, before giving them to the kids and I will keep my doors closed on Hallowe'en night for health safety's sake. Gee, I had so much fun.  It brought back happy memories of my own Hallowe'en Trick or Treating as a kid and also memories of taking my son out in costume. The cashier at the store shared a huge laugh with me when I couldn't get the bills detached from each other when I took them out of my wallet.  They were stuck together with drying hand sanitizer.  She was delighted that I had actually sanitized the cash before giving the bills to her, so it was nice to know it was worth the hassle of wiping them down at home and then having to stand for far too long at the cash register peeling them apart again. hahaha  Arthritis is not helpful in such a case, hahaha.

Had a great chat with my mom tonight.  She hadn't had any pain for over 24 hours and was cheery, laughing and joking....oh my it was so good to hear her sounding that way again.  I hope and pray she has the same kind of day tomorrow. Setting her alarm every morning of the week to get her nitro patches on in time is very, very hard on her, so she has finally allowed herself to have either a late morning or early afternoon nap and is feeling better for it.  She is like me....there are not, nor have there ever been, afternoon naps as part of her routine.  It stilll upsets me if I actually fall asleep at any point during the day for a nap, no matter how little sleep I have had the night before....why is that I wonder??  Crazy!!

So for today all is well in our ever shrinking world.  I am grateful for such days as I ponder the likelihood of another looming pandemic lockdown of non-essential services.  When I talked to Mom last night and again tonight I felt the hidden stress lifting off my tense self.  It feels good!  

Tomorrow I have to fight with our medical insurance company for some reimbursement I feel they still owe me from purchasing my new glasses in September.  I may lose this battle, but  it is worth a try.

Prayer Request Update As Requested

 Good morning: here are the latest updates.

—Val is forging ahead with her joint replacement surgery recovery, walking well now using only a cane! She is driving again and able to do some household chores, withdrawal from pain meds going well!

—Kat is cancer free, working full time, re-energized by the summer canoe repair.

—Mom is learning now how to manage her early morning bouts of heart pain and feeling amazingly cheery, despite her life long struggle with anxiety.

—Cee is hanging in with his fight against neuropathy, but continues to need prayer for dealing with it while still having tests.

—Terry’s Mom is recovering at home and is having follow up appointments later this week. 

—Penelope has a second joint replacement surgery scheduled for early next year and has a lot of pain to deal with. Good news is that she is cancer free after her most recent surgery.

—New Request: Sandy is in ICU with a terrible abscess on his liver. Draining it has been a bit of a fiasco. Sandy is extremely ill and in dire need of prayer support for his body and his spirit. Thank you so much.

Thank you everyone for your loving prayers for my friends and family! God is good.

My New Doer of My 'Do! Etc.

 The last couple of days have been pretty good.  Mom has had her ups and downs with pain cycles, but after a long talk with her doctor yesterday, she has HIS pain control plan in place and that is working far better than the one she tried to do with Palliative Care.  She is feeling more confident about her meds and taking them on her own without unnecessary EMT involvement.  YAY!  When I hear her cheery voice every evening at 6pm it is becoming harder to accept that she is truly not going to live much longer and could leave us any day now.  At least she is feeling confident and happy in between sessions of pain.

Yesterday I phoned the hair salon to make an appointment as I am expecting some lockdowns and closures again soon due to the rising number of virus cases here, but I got a nasty surprise.  My stylist has left the salon!  Drat!  I was so confused about what to do until I remembered that dear friend Heather had recommended a salon located much closer to my home.  I called over there and two hours later was seated in the stylist's chair getting an excellent cut.  It was less expensive for just as good a cut as I had from the last stylist and I will be able to access it in all kinds of weather without having to take public transit and expose myself to more COVID19 possibilities.  So thrilled my friend told me about this place.

 

My husband was up at an ungodly hour of the morning to go to Wholesale Club to get some produce and canned goods before the store became crowded.  He came home with a LOT of "stuff" that will keep us eating for quite some time.  I am not going to have to go to a grocery store myself for much of anything for the forseeable future.  YAY!  He also brought me a treat: a replacement cutting board for the one he took to use on his canoe repairs.  The one he took was a kitchen-y shade of brown and this new one is Christmas decoration green!  I LOVE IT!  I know it sounds a bit crazy to be so excited about getting a new cutting board as a gift, but the bright green is so cheery sitting on our black countertop surrounded by white painted cupboards.  The cermic jar of red spatulas sitting beside the board has given my kitchen a very Christmas-y look that I can enjoy all year round.   My kitchen has been jazzed up fer shur!

 

We discovered CBC's recent version of War of the Worlds the other day while going through our Crave On Demand menu.  Season 1, the first 3 episodes was available and we wondered when either the rest of that season or Season 2 would be available to us, as we so enjoyed those first 3 episodes.  This afternoon I was setting up some programmes to record later this week and stumbled upon War of the Worlds episode 4 airing tonight on CBC!  TONIGHT!  WOW, so glad I decided not to wait until tomorrow to set up the other recordings.  Watching episode 4 will be our late afternoon rest time treat tomorrow!

 

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day!  Today we began our long and eagerly awaited basement cleaning project, resulting in filling our car with 9 huge bags of bottles and cans for recycling.  We will brave whatever lineup there is in the morning when they open.  There is now lots more room for sorting out the rest of the "junk" in the basement.  We have a new box of items filling up for the thrift store and I hauled some other things out to the disposal bin in the parking lot. YAY! At noon tomorrow we have a virtual luncheon with my church. One of their former ministers, of wonderful reputation but who we have never met, is going to be the guest speaker. Then right after that we have a Zoom meeting with the youth pastor from my church.  All the pastoral staff there were asked by the lead pastor to pick one person or couple from the church to start meeting with regularly for prayer for their ministries and for support and encouragement.  What a thrill to be chosen to be such significant prayer support for our favourite age group of people and their leader.  So thankful to God for this honour.

 

Spent the afternoon today trying to balance my bank book....out by $50 no matter which way I do the calculations!  Aaaargh!  At least the actual bank balance is an extra $50 in MY favour! hahaha  I wonder what I have done wrong this time? hahaha  What transaction have I messed up?  I checked everything that has happened since I last balanced the books a couple of weeks ago and cannot find the problem!  I will try again on the weekend to sort this out. The meds I am on right now may be making my head fuzzy.....or some other excuse.....Lame, I know.

 

I cleaned the bathroom and washed the floors yesterday, assuming I would be doing all the dusting today and maybe even get a start on the vacuuming, but there wasn't time.  Fortunately it hit me before I got upset about it that we will not be entertaining anyone in our suite over the next few weeks or even months, so I have a few days to get caught up again.  Not having company is kind of relaxing actually...not much fun, but kind of relaxing.

 

Better get to bed so I can be up early to get ready for the trip to recycling!     

Glad To Be Home Today!

 Usually this would be my regular Tuesday morning for grocery shopping, but I don’t have to go today since I went last Thursday. This morning we are experiencing the horrible sleet and rain that is freezing onto the ground. It began a few minutes ago and I am so grateful I didn’t have to slip and slide out to my car after shopping and then have a miserable drive home. Gratitude for these small serendipitous blessings is something I want to continue to cultivate during this stressful time. 

Fortunately, this icy covering should melt off in a couple of days. Our daytime highs are forecast to be well above zero for the next seven days, with overnight lows averaging about -4C. I would so enjoy just one winter season here that allows me to at least walk a block or two without having a few centimetres of ice lurking under the snow for the entire season. 

Winter roads and sidewalks here on the prairies that do not have a base coat of ice: this is my dream....

Outdoor Distancing on the Prairies in the Winter!!

Kat took a couple of photos of us yesterday as we sat outside her car to distance visit with her and Val. hahahaha  We just roared when we saw the photos!

 

Yup, here is the full monte of distance visiting in a parking lot in SK in the winter: wearing mismatched winter togs, sitting on a broken chair in a pile of parking lot sanding materials with a garbage bin right behind us. hahaha  My husband took one look at the photos and decided they are a visual example of our lives in general....always living in the midst of some kind of a mess, hahaha, but looking and feeling cheery in spite of it  because of God's blessings to us.

 

Enjoy!

 

I Love My Adorable Doctor!!!

I woke up this morning feeling most uncomfortable from the onset of my annual autumn UTI.  Sigh.....  However, I was able to get in to see my own doctor almost immediately and I will be forever grateful to the clinic staff for squeezing me in without acting hard done by and to the dear woman who takes the patients to the various exam cubicles for not making me wait in the waiting room, even though I was nearly 15 minutes early for my appointment.  Now I have the meds that work well and quickly for me and life will be good again in a matter of a few hours.

 

I got the biggest kick out of my doctor today. For the first time ever in my experience, she actually saw me ten minutes early instead of an hour late, hahaha.  She is never in a rush and sometimes, like today,  that is a joy for me.  After she wrote up my prescription with a big "EMERGENCY FILL" written across the top....like who DOES THAT any more for a simple UTI, right?.....she pulled out a chair and sat down across from me to chat.  She is terrified for her family back in India.  In their small northern city there are currently over 55,000 active cases of COVID19.  There are less than a million residents in that little city, so that percentage of the population suffering from the pandemic, with less than stellar medical help available, is most frightening to her.  I am happy she felt free to share her worries with me and I will be praying daily now for her and her family.  Dr. Shefali, I just love you to pieces.

 

Although it is chilly outside, the sun is shining brightly and how can a person NOT feel cheerful seeing that lovely blue sky? Right? 

I CAN'T FEEL MY TOES!!!!!!

 Today was the kind of good day I hang onto tightly to get me through days that are less than wonderful!

I am so happy today is my husband's Sunday off this month, so he was able to join my Zoom church service.  We had fun talking about the sermon on Philemon afterward.  My husband was so happy he didn't have to drive to his out of town parish after the unexpected snowfall overnight last night.

After a delicious lunch of the chili we made last night we watched some boxing on tv and then had an outdoor distancing visit with Kat and Val.  They came over and parked in our lot, sitting in the car with the window down, while we stood outside in the lot, wearing our parkas and hoodies and snow boots and heavy gloves.  It was a hoot. Kat loves to laugh and we did plenty of that today!  Despite my childhood frostbite injury that plagues me still, I lasted a whole hour outside before losing the feeling in my toes almost completely.  Once we returned to the indoors my husband made me a giant mug of diabetic friendly hot chocolate to warm me up....what a lovely treat. Thank you SO much!  It was followed by more chili for dinner.  We have enough chili left for another meal tomorrow....YAY!  One can of crushed tomatoes, a sauteed onion and green pepper, a can of kidney beans and one of white beans, a small package of ground organic turkey breast, a dash of powdered pure dark chocolate, a cup of red wine, hot Indian paprika and generous sprinklings of home grown rosemary and basil and thyme made for a wonderful chili.  YUMMY!  We used Kat's gift of fresh tomatoes and onions from her garden in the chili and that made the flavour all the better.

Tonight I had a long talk with my mom that was really encouraging!  She had no pain at all today so she made it to the dining room for the wonderful special Sunday brunch as well as her roast beef dinner tonight.  She discovered the likely culprit responsible for her mid morning pain every day since the heart attack: she has been making the bed after breakfast!!  My mother doesn't just flap up the sheets and toss the pillow back on to the mattress. Nope, not my mother!  She practically remakes the bed every single day, retucking the sheets under the corners at the bottom of the mattress....of course that kind of reaching and tugging and lifting uses the very arm and chest muscles that are supposed to be resting. Instead she has been irritating her heart by over stretching her arms every morning.  I truly think God told her directly to stop making the bed, because this morning she started to put together her morning activities each day prior to the pain starting up.  It always started within a few minutes of bed making. She said the idea came to her like an overwhelming revelation. So, today she didn't make her bed and voila, no pain at all.  If she has discovered something true about the source of her pain, then she will be doing much better each day by not making her bed.  I don't know why I didn't think of that because I know she isn't allowed to do laundry because of the arm movements involved in pushing and tugging and pulling laundry into and out of the machines, but for some reason it didn't occur to me.  I know her well enough and how she makes the bed each day that I should have clued in. Well, now she knows.  She has promised she will wait at least a couple of weeks before she tries making the bed properly again.  Tonight she sounded like her old self for the first time in weeks and so please Lord, may she have mostly this kind of day for however long she lasts on this earth. Amen.

 

For those of you praying for Terry's mom and HER heart issues, she has had her angiogram and the blockage is insufficient to require a stent.  A change of diet and lifestyle along with some meds should help her greatly.  Hopefully she can get some home help in place when she arrives home from the hospital.  Sounds like there is good hope for her if she obeys her instructions from the hospital.

Although it is only 8:30pm right now I think I am going to allow myself the luxury of a very early bedtime and crawl under the blankets for some reading time. Hopefully I can fall asleep soon and be prepared thusly for another relaxing day tomorrow, hahahaha.  I have ZERO plans for tomorrow, but hope to start cleaning house the day after.  There is something about knowing it is not safe once again to have company coming into our home that causes every muscle in my body to relax while I am cleaning just for my husband and myself.

Ridin' The Roller Coaster!

 Today had its ups and downs, but in the end it has been just fine.  

We both slept in this morning and that was truly a blessing.  My husband is having some minor side effects from his flu shot, but apart from my usual semi sleepless night and nightmares the night after the injection, I have been better than usual, so I am grateful.

I spent the morning ironing.  I was chatting on the phone yesterday afternoon when my load of coloured items finished their washing cycle I neglected to fish them out and hang them up right away to dry, so the result was twice as much ironing as usual. By the time I hung them up the wrinkles were pretty much set.  Serves me right for not paying attention.

Mom called at 1pm to let me know she'd had a tough morning. She had her first episode since her heart attack of REAL chest pain.  However, she called me AFTER she had already handled it herself using the pain management plan Palliative Care had put together for her.  Although she was upset it happened after two excellent days of feeling fantastic, she was proud of herself for handling the pain properly and I am super proud of her for keeping the emotional lid on long enough to help herself.  Thank you Jesus!!!  She decided to spend the rest of the day taking it easy and had her dinner delivered to her room tonight.  She said she HAS to be better tomorrow because she paid some time ago for a special brunch being offered in the dining room by the residence chef. He is excellent!  I pray that she can make it there and enjoy every mouthful.  

My husband and I voted in the Advance Poll today.  We were the only voters in the room and wow, the pandemic safety protocols were amazing!  We shared the same clean, fresh stubby pencil to mark our ballots and then we were told to take the pencil home with us so no one else ever had to touch it.  So, everyone, go and vote. You will get a free stubby pencil from the Provincial Government! hahaha

I phoned Mom twice more today to make sure she was doing okay again and she definitely was. No more pain after about 2pm.  That was a relief.  Tonight she was feeling very well once again.

My husband and I spent some time making a thick richly flavoured chili tonight for dinner.  YUM YUM!  The last of the fresh tomatoes and onions from Kat, as well as our own freshly dried herbs, went into it and it is absolutely delicious!  Fresh tomatoes make the best sauce ever!!  I so grateful there are enough leftovers for another two or three meals for each of us.  I have one more serving left of my husband's wonderful turkey curry too. Oh, we are going to eat well for the next couple of days. We have to make soup tomorrow so that the two cartons of chicken broth my husband made the other day don't go to waste.  Tomorrow after Zoom church that is what we will do.  I pray we are not spending the day packing to return to Calgary instead.  Yup, Mom is always in the back of my mind and I am feeling a bit trapped what with worrying and having both phones with me in every room at all times so I don't miss any of her calls, or calls from EMT's.  I will get over it.

Here's to tomorrow....I am so glad there are warmer temperatures forecast for the middle to end of this coming week that may melt today's unforecasted snow and give me another couple of chances to get outside and walk. 

Three Little Joys!

GOtta use the Glory Hallelujah font for this post!

Three wonderful things have happened today and the day is only about half over!  

 

1. I was able to go for a walk downtown and back unexpectedly in fairly decent fall weather.

 

2. Along my route I saw, for the first time since I moved to Regina I think, a beautiful downy woodpecker.  It was glued to the trunk of a tree on a grassy boulevard.  I had to stop and stare at it for awhile before it flew away....such a longing arose for all the songbirds, woodpeckers and other amazing birds that utilized our backyard in Kindersley Saskatchwan during our five years there.  Regina, at least in our area of the city, is a birdie wasteland in comparison. 

 

3. The reason I was out walking was because I got a phone call from my osteoporosis specialist at 9am asking if I could possibly come in this morning instead of next Monday.  COULD I????  YOU BET!!! I decided if the news from my bone densitometry was going to be disappointing, why spend all weekend worrying about that possibility when I could find out all ready today!!??!  Weeeelllll....the results:  FANTASTIC!  In the last 4 years since starting the denusomab injections, my overall density has gone up by 11%  ELEVEN PERCENT!!!  That is incredible news, wonderful, marvellous, shout it from the rooftop news!  The numbers for both my spine and hip have risen above the mark where osteoporosis is even diagnosed.  My gratitude to God and to my prayer warrior friends who have been suffering every past broken bone along with me is over the top today!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! Since the meds are presently working, and you never know now long any osteo medication is going to be effective, I will stay my present course of treatment for another two years.  Now that we seem to have settled in Regina and will not be moving hither and yon every year or less....hopefully...I will, in the next few weeks, be having another bone densitometry done here in the city to set a new baseline. That way I can still have what would be my regularly scheduled bone density 2 years from now, right here without any more trips to AB.  I AM THRILLED!

 

HOpefully I will get more at least somewhat encouraging news from Mom when I call her tonight.  Last night she was full of news: she got some long awaited forms in the mail to update her AB Seniors' Benefit status AND she picked up the mail herself from the boxes near the front desk BECAUSE she walked all the way up there to get it AND she also went into the dining room for dinner for the first time in 2 weeks!!!  Tomorrow it will be 14 days since her heart attack and while she still has pain, particularly in the mornings as she gets her day going with the stress of having to put her nitro patches on, (NO, the palliative care nurse has not yet arrived in the AM's to do it and Mom had to call for help a few times....long story I won't bore you with.), by noon she is usually either completely pain free or very close to it.  She was crowing about her trip to the dining room and mail box, but wouldn't tell me if she smartly used the walker with the seat on it, or went on her own, unassisted. All she said was she went "carefully", sooooo....I have my doubts that she used the walker....aiiii yiiiii.....whatever, it was great for her mental health to be able to navigate her own way to the dinner table and eat with her tablemates again. Thank you Lord!!! 

 

So, don't know what kind of shape she is in today after her big foray last evening, but at least she knows that if she is feeling well and is pain free, some "normalizing" events are possible.  SO GRATEFUL. Again, prayer people, thanks so much for including her in your prayers.  I can see how much your support of her before God is helping. 

Happy Stuff! 🙃

 Some cool things happened today! The chilly weather must have frightened off some of the 7am grocery shoppers because I have never seen so few folk out and about at Senior Shopping Hour. Yay! A gift from a friend touched my heart. My husband had a ten hour sleep last night and felt well all day. We got the heavy studded tires loaded into the car tonight in plenty of time for tomorrow’s appointment at the shop. My dear friend in Alberta survived a tummy bug this week that drained so much potassium from her body that she almost died! Whew! Thank you God for the hospital staff’s timely diagnosis! My husband and I got our flu shots today and our arms are only a little bit sore at the injection sites. My mom took a short walk down the hallway at her residence this morning, then tonight walked all the way down to the dining room for dinner👍. Thank you Jesus! Happiness!

A More Even Keel

 Today felt like a more normal sort of day. Laundry, phone calls and other chores this morning, coffee and crumb cake with friends this afternoon, my husband rejoined a men’s prayer group this morning, the sun came out so the temperature rose just above zero and melted the ice on the parking lot...yup, it was a grand day. 

Mom was able to get through the day on her own and we had a great chat after dinner tonight. She confessed to having a higher level of pain this morning but, knowing after our talk with palliative care yesterday what protocol to follow, she got it under control with minimal doses of meds and had an excellent afternoon. Today was her last day in quarantine so tomorrow, Lord willing, she will take her first short walk in the hallway and she promised me she would take Dad’s fancy walker with a soft seat to rest on if she gets tired. I am so proud of her as I see her sense of independence and courage and confidence returning as she learns how to conquer the pain.

Our new routine of waiting until after dinner to chat, barring emergencies, is going to give both of us the freedom to think about and do the normal every day activities without tensing up every time the phone rings. I pray today is setting the tone for the coming days.

Just In That Age Group Right Now

This morning's conference call with Mom, Palliative Care and Home Care went very well indeed!  There is a specific plan in place to assist Mom with her meds and how to take them, she has someone guaranteed to be coming in each morning to check on her and put on her meds patches, all her instructions about her meds are written down, clearly, on one sheet of paper and so all the little bits of paper she has scattered about that have disjointed bits of information on them from previous visits with medical folk can be discarded, so she doesn't get confused. I am impressed that the palliative care nurse wants to work very hard to assist her in dealing with her various and ongoing daily stresses in the form of mental exercises, distractions, and possibly doctor prescribed meds to calm her down.  She has never taken anxiety meds in her life and should have been on them 70 years ago.  Mom no longer has to call 911 for every little twinge, because she has clear instructions of how to handle the various levels of pain.  I have all the same instructions written here to remind her when she calls me in a panic, worrying if she is understanding what is right in front of her on her instruction sheet.  Now I myself have to relax and feel as if it is safe for me to leave my own home to go for groceries, rather than be trapped inside here waiting for Mom to call with her next imagined crisis.  It was a wonderfully  productive morning for Mom and I and tonight I will call her to go over the instructions once more before she goes to bed tonight.

 

The one outstanding task I am responsible for with Mom is setting up an online account at a grocery store there that delivers.  As of a month ago Mom found herself stranded for groceries when the last of her two driving friends had to give up their cars for their own medical reasons.  I think I have it figured out, but as Mom is not in need of anything for awhile yet, I will wait until tomorrow or the next day to explain the system to her. She has had enough for today.

 

In the midst of all this I received word that another friend now also has an elderly mom in medical crisis in another city, very similar situation to my own mom's but even more serious by the sound of things. Please pray for Terry as he attempts to get to his mom to comfort her and help her with her situation.  It is just that time of life for middle aged folk like Terry and older folks like me dealing with elderly parents who are ill and suffering.  

 

The skies are still grey here and the streets and paved lots are soaking wet and ugly, BUT we finally had a bit more snow to cover the lawns, so it isn't looking quite so dismal outside.  

 

Tomorrow afternoon we are escaping for a couple of hours to distance visit with a couple of good friends, the following afternoon I have booked us into our nearest pharmacy for 'flu' shots.  I remember this past winter when COVID19 was first becoming prominent in my mom's area of the country.  We had to have our 'flu' shots to be able to enter her suite.  This year I will be prepared well in advance of our next trip to her place.

First ⛄️ Snow, But It Isn’t Pretty!

 I am sitting here waiting for a conference call with Mom, Home Care and Palliative Care personnel. While I am sitting here I am staring outside at the first snowfall of the season. Despite it happening so early in October, I was kind of looking forward to the pristine white flakes covering the ground. Apparently I was supporting some kind of delusion based on possible previous years of experiencing the first snow. Hahahahaha! Today’s snowfall is not at all attractive visually. The sky is dull grey, the streets are covered in icy grey slush, the grass is only partially covered and muddy looking patches of snow are sliding at awkward angles off parked cars out in the sloppy wet grey parking lot. 

Hmmmmm....I wonder why I was looking forward to this???? Hahahahaha! The joke’s on me this year! 

SOUP!!!!!! SOOOOOOUUUUUUP I Tell You!!

 On our way out of Mom's suite on our final day in Calgary last week, we overheard the most hilarious conversation between two of the other very elderly ladies who live in Mom's residence.  It went like this:

"Did you go to the dining room for lunch today?"

"Yes I did!"

"Did you have the soup?"

 "The what?"

 "The soup!"

 "The WHAT????"

"The soup. I noticed on the posted menu that there was soup."

"There was what?"

 "There was soup..SOUP..."

"WHAT WAS THERE?"

"THERE WAS SOUP....SOOOOOUUUPPP!!!"

 "Oh, SOUP!  Why didn't you say so? Yes, there was soup."

 "So what kind of soup was it?"

"What kind of WHAT was it?"

"What kind of soup was it? You know, SOUP!"

"Yes, I know what soup is.  My mother used to make it."

"Yes, but what kind of soup was served at lunch today in the dining room?"

"What kind of what?"

"What kind of SOUP?"

"She made all kinds of soup! People did that in the old days."    

"YES, but what kind of soup was served in the dining room TODAY?"

"Where?"

"in THIS dining room right here where you ate lunch today."

"Yes, I ate in the dining room today."

"I KNOW, but WHAT KIND OF SOUP WAS SERVED...TODAY????"

 "Oh, now I understand. It was beef and barley soup."

 "And did you enjoy it?"

"Did I enjoy what?"

"Did you enjoy the SOUP served in the dining room TODAY at NOON??"

"No, I didn't enjoy it at all."

"Why didn't you enjoy it? What was wrong with it?"

"How would I know what was wrong with it? I didn't order soup today!"

 

Hahahahahaha....we were laughing so hard as we finally walked around the corner in the hall and passed the two ladies talking about the soup we couldn't even look at them as we walked by. hahahahaha  It was the funniest exchange we have heard in a long time and it took the sad edge off our leaving Mom to come home.    

 

In other news: my husband brought home 2 rolls of weather stripping some time ago,  to put around our outside door frames due to the huge gaps between the tops of the doors and the frame.  Both outside doors look like they were cut to fit a shorter frame, but there they are, sagging off the hinges at OUR suite. hahaha This afternoon he applied the weather stripping.  I noticed a happy difference in temperature in my kitchen tonight after he completed the task.  For a few dollars, we will be warmer and our suite will be a bit more energy efficient. Our property management company could have been persuaded to put new weather stripping on, but we have seen their past handiwork and decided it would be better for us to just pay out a few dollars and have my husband install it properly.  Another happy event on a somewhat stressful day.           

             

 

 

Yup, There IS Joy Hiding Out There, I Just KNEW It!

 The Sun came out this afternoon!  YES!  I went and stood outside on the front step for a few minutes after lunch and despite the chilly air, it was lovely to be out there even briefly!

My husband was able to take advantage of the close out sale at Globe Fabrics this afternoon and purchase their last bit of sail cloth, just enough to make the sail for his canoe before he takes it out again next spring!

Kat had an amazing visitor at her place, a small bird that is rare to be seen here in Regina, as its flight path takes it from the Caribbean Islands up along the east coast of the USA and Canada, bringing it usually only as far west as South western Ontario.  Her yard has been invaded by "birders" and she had a visit from Nature Regina to record its presence here.  She loves birds as much as I do, so it was a thrill that this bird chose her yard as a place to hang out for awhile.  She sent me a Photo.  The bird is a Black Throated Blue Warbler!

I received a phone call this afternoon from Home Care.  I will be part of a conference call group tomorrow morning with home care and palliative care and my mom.  A longer term care plan is being put into place for Mom now that it has become obvious she cannot cope emotionally with what is happening.  The paramedics this morning finally were able to talk to her GP and he has agreed to their plan for a whole new meds programme that will be of far more help to her in controlling pain and keeping her more calm.  Home Care has all ready agreed to come in and put her patches in place each morning so she is not frustrated, ruining the patches, subsequently rubbing nitro meds on her face or legs and having reactions.  WOW!  This type of help is exactly what she needs.  It seems finally all the players in the drama are on the same page of the script.  Tomorrow morning's conference call is more or less to cement the plan into place and let ME know what is going on if Mom gets confused later on as to what is happening.  This is my greatest joy today!

I just knew there had to be some positive events going on somewhere out there and now my spirit has changed from grey to a lovely shade of vibrant yellow!

Living In The In Between.......

 The past few days since arriving home have been somewhat fraught for us.  Despite being exhausted the day after we got home, we did manage to pick up some groceries very early in the morning.  Mom was doing well.  She continued to do well all day Saturday and as my husband prepared his Sunday morning service, I relaxed on the sofa most of the day nursing a badly cramping muscle set around my hip hardware....the result of carrying to heavy a load of suitcases up the stairs when we were unpacking the car.  It serves me right. I shouldn't have been in such a hurry to unload the car and made 2 or 3 trips instead of one huge one. Today the cramp is nearly gone and I even slept well last night....NINE HOURS, hallelujah!

Sunday morning my husband was very disappointed that I didn't feel able to accompany him to his service, but as it turned out that was the best decision.  At 10am I received a call from the paramedics called in to attend to Mom once again.  That morning her pain level had gone up slightly and although she was well below the range of pain requiring paramedic attention, she panicked as usual and there they were trying to help her once again.  I felt sorry for everyone involved.  Fortunately the main paramedic for this go round is a determined woman.  She was furious that no proper palliative care had yet been put into place for mom. Even though when we left Calgary, Mom didn't really qualify for it due to her physical state, mentally she absolutely needs help.  Yes, techically she can put on her own nitro patches, but in reality, she worries so much about doing it herself that she messes them up at least every second day from the stress. She cannot calm down long enough to do it the way she knows how to do it and by yesterday that was becoming obvious to the paramedics.  The same woman returned for 3 hours in the afternoon to make calls and leave messages for Mom's doctor, the home care group and anyone else she could think of to get something going for Mom before the teleconference we are having with home care this coming Thursday.  I spent a long time on the phone with her and with Mom as she kept me informed about her plans and what she was attempting to accomplish to get a proper daily palliative care plan in place.  She so admired Mom for being so self aware and admitting she cannot control her nerves.  To add credence to the paramedic's request for help, Mom screwed up her patch again this morning and although she put it on, it wasn't properly in place, so her lips were starting to swell.  She let me know she had called the paramedics once again. That was over an hour ago, so I will be staying home all day once again to be sure I get whatever update call is coming next.  Since today is a work day for Mom's GP, I am assuming he will be able to be reached and start getting on board to request this palliative plan for Mom.  We thought when we drove away last Thursday that there was a plan in place after all, only to find out otherwise.  So, the waiting game continues.  Mom cannot continue to monopolize the community paramedics association every day. I know that if she simply had someone who was allowed to come in and put on her patches in the morning and keep an eye on her daily meds she would relax as much as she is ever able to.  So, that is my prayer request for today.

Mom's pain has gone in the past 48 hours from a steady level of 1-2, to a steady level of 3-4.  It is not unbearable and the paramedics really shouldn't be called until it reaches more of a 5-6 and does not respond to the nitro spray.  But she panics, goes completely to pieces....living this far away from her is just the pits and there is nothing I can do about it.  I felt for one of the employees in her residence whose elderly mother lives in New Brunswick.  The airport there has just closed in an attempt to keep the COVID19 cases down and if this person's mom has a health issue she would not even be able to visit her mom to help out.  At least at this point I still have access to my mom and her suite if need be.  Thanking God for that.  Everyone got their 'flu' shots there on Friday, so that is a relief. I need to make an appointment to get mine here as well as soon as they are available.  Without it I doubt I would be allowed into Mom's facility to clean out the suite during even a "lockdown-lite". 

So, that is life to the minute.  My spirit is as grey as the sky today on the one hand, but on the other hand it truly feels like God has his hand on all the details and will work them out the best way possible.  I have decided that although the car repairs and the bone specialist appointments coming up in the next 7 days are crucial, I should be able to move the eye appointment forward by a couple of months if necessary.  The office there continues to reschedule my pre-booked appointments and this time have even changed the type of testing I will get on the 31st....I was to have a day long series of annual testing on Nov. 23, but now it is only a half hour appointment, so I have no idea why. No one I talked to seemed to know.  So, whatever....at the moment I am not having any new or worsening symptoms with my vision, so Mom's situation may have to trump my eyes for the time being.

Man o man, I can't wait until I have something really cheery to talk about in these posts. I don't feel negative despite the limbo land of grey I have going on internally, but wow, there just isn't anything happening to counterbalance on the joyful side of life. This too shall change.

Oh, I just thought of something truly joyful: although we have a few more feathery flakes of snow coming down occasionally this morning and it is very cold outside, we still don't have any snow on the ground and there is no freezing rain or ice predicted in the forecast.  If the forecast for snow remains true for tomorrow, the temperatures for the next few days are going to be too cold for rain to come first....at least that is the norm in these situations. For now, I CHOOSE to believe the good predictions in the forecast.  hahahaha