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Subject: Cat's Corner

Posted by: Catreona
Date: Nov 11 20

A virtual blog to post updates on my mother's illness and other thoughts

629 replies. On page 10 of 32 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Catreona

And they keep coming! This quiz took less than twenty-four hours to make its way through the cue. The previous one took over a week. Kind of interesting to observe the dynamics.

Who's on Your Wheaties?

https://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz4043152e487b0.html

This earned me an unlikely badgelet:

"Congratulations! You have been awarded the Author Rainbow: Coach Challenge Mini Badge. You can view it in your profile.

Requirements: Awarded to a player authoring at least 2 quizzes in the Sports category."

Who'd'a thunk? :)

Reply #181. Mar 12 21, 9:24 PM

postcards2go

There ya go! Next thing you know, you'll be in a hall of fame somewhere :-D

Reply #182. Mar 12 21, 10:26 PM

Catreona

LOL Postie. Perish the thought! :D

---

Not unusually, the past ten days have been a roller coaster with Mom.

Friday of last week was bad, particularly the night. She was in such pain and distress that she needed the morphine. Saturday was a much better day. She had oatmeal and two big glasses of orange juice. But Sunday was on a down tick again, except that she was together enough to watch the big interview with Harry and Megan. She pretty much slept Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday was bad enough to need morphine again. The weekend hasn't been great, but it hasn't been terrible either. She had a cup of tea (a very good thing) and some croissant for supper last night and some chicken and pasta tonight. Everybody always gets excited when she can eat real food, even if only a small amount.

In the wee hours of this past Friday morning I caught the care aid sleeping...again. The thing is, we really can't fire her. Care aids are nearly as hard to come by as hens teeth, and she knows it. So, what can you do? She has Dad over a barrel, and as angry as I get at her, I'm also nervous she might quit. The other hing is, Mom likes her and says that, when awake, she does a very good job. Mom liking her counts for a whole lot. Still, that whole situation is a worry.

Then I haven't been feeling well. My aches and pains seem to get worse by the day. Sometimes I wish I could take some of Mom's morphine, /wry face/ though the liqui-gel Advil works quicker and better than the tablets. Still, I always know in spades when it's time to take more. Going through the stuff like water. I don't want to think what it's doing to my liver and other internal bits. But you do what you have to do. I have a hip support. Don't need it every day, but it helps when I do need it. Need a knee support. There's probably one around somewhere... Hope I haven't gotten too fat to use it. /sigh/

Also, as you've probably noticed, I've become slightly manic when it comes to quizzes. There are so many in my computer, in various states of completion, and more ideas keep coming to me. With seventy-six online, Super Author is within reach. Funny how these things creep up on you. I distinctly remember planning, writing and carefully timing the submission of "Go For Gold", my fiftieth quiz, and being so thrilled at actually having fifty quizzes online. Now I'm counting down to a hundred. Quite something!

Reply #183. Mar 14 21, 8:08 PM

Catreona

Mirabile dictu, not only did I find the knee support, but it fits without cutting off the circulation! Wouldn't even have remembered owning if I hadn't been mondering on and on here. Thanks, blog.

Currently wearing both the knee and the hip support. They help some, but it isn't a great day. All the same, I ought to be able to get another quiz finished and submitted today - there isn't much left to be done on this particular one.

BTW I've expanded my existing quiz list, Cat's Book Quizzes, and started another, A Beast of a List. Can't remember if I've mentioned it here, but quiz lists are a good idea. Haven't collected too many yet, but I can see that they push you a bit to expand your horizons.

Reply #184. Mar 15 21, 12:24 PM

Catreona

Belay that. Neither of the quizzes I had in mind were as close to finished as I imagined. Oh well.

Sis goes for her second Covid shot tomorrow. That will be a burden off everyone's mind. Dad already got his. I'm not eligible yet. Soon though.

Reply #185. Mar 15 21, 8:31 PM

Catreona

"Mystic and Rider" has been submitted. For some reason, "The Voices of 'Treasure Planet'" is proving difficult to finish. But I shall keep slogging.

Reply #186. Mar 18 21, 9:15 PM

Catreona

Mystic and Rider

https://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz3675662a13d98.html

Looks like the notice that it was up came in about an hour after I closed up shop for the night. It's one of those quizzes that would be extremely difficult if you haven't read the book.

Reply #187. Mar 19 21, 1:37 PM

Catreona

It's been a difficult week. Mom swings from despondent to suspicious and paranoid to belligerent. Nothing calms her, nothing contents her.* And to top it off, she has become convinced that we are "looking for an excuse to put her away" (in a nursing home). Her behavior is hard to take, but what is much worse is knowing how terribly unhappy she is and knowing there's nothing that can be done to make the situation better.

She seems to truly believe we are keeping her prisoner. If only we'd let her, she could get up and walk and then (this is her main obsession) go back upstairs to her own bedroom. Well, the hospice nurse says the rules demand the patient be kept on the first (ground) floor. So, that's pretty much that. And I thought Mom understood she had to stay put. But then a couple weeks ago a different nurse came, she was some sort of case worker or something. And this insensitive woman said that, well, maybe someday, if Mom got stronger, it might be possible for her to go back upstairs. She also spouted some bilge that put it in Mom's head that we're starving her.** Of course, these are the things that stick in Mom's mind; so, she is convinced we're all lying about the situation and deliberately holding her back. Hell's bells! She has enough problems. We have enough problems. Nobody needs some misguided idiot who doesn't really know the case and doesn't understand the patient giving her false hope. As I see it, false hope is just another word for lying. And she doesn't have to deal with the fall-out. The family and the care aids and the regular nurse do.

Yesterday Mom was in such a taking, she kicked Carolyn, the nurse, out and told her never to come back. Of course she will, it's her job. And probably by next Thursday Mom won't remember...or we can hope she doesn't. This is the hard part, not that she is so desperately ill but that she's so desperately unhappy.

*Reluctantly, Sis has started giving her the medication from the hospice people which is stronger than the anti-depressant she's been on for years. Mostly the stronger med helps, though not always.

**You can't feed someone who is asleep. Mom sleeps a good deal. When she is awake, she sometimes refuses food altogether and sometimes can't or won't finish what Sis gives her. What are we supposed to do? Force feed her? Oh, I could strangle that wretched nurse!

Reply #188. Mar 19 21, 5:56 PM

Catreona

Mom had a good night last night. Dad is usually the first one down in the morning. He was today. He said she seemed normal and was fairly friendly when he greeted her. Phew! She had orange juice, though nothing to eat. Juice is better than nothing I suppose.

She's usually asleep again by the time I make it downstairs, lazy bones that I am. She's snoozing now.

Reply #189. Mar 20 21, 11:07 AM

postcards2go

I imagine that the nurse was trying to give your mom 'hope', but it's often better to be honest. I wonder if it would help if she were told that her being on the first floor makes it easier for the caregivers? You and your dad and your sister know your mom best, and should be the ones to decide what to tell her, and not to tell her.

It is good that she eats, even if it's not much,

My mother was in and out for several months. However, she would chew and swallow anything put in her mouth. This was discovered early on, when the nurse put a couple of pills in my mother's mouth, and by the time she had reached for the water to wash them down, my mother was busily chewing them. It was a strange sight, but harmless. Must have tasted horrible.

Keep loving her... I know you will.

Reply #190. Mar 20 21, 7:32 PM

Catreona

Oh, Postie, ick! I hope nobody made that mistake again.

No, it doesn't matter how often we tell her caring for her is easier on the first floor. She doesn't or can't believe it. Yesterday she went so far as to mutter darkly that we don't take care of her as it is. It's just heart rending to see her so unhappy.

A friend on another blog suggested trying something he read about as having been successful in a home for Alzheimer's patients: when the patient becomes agitated and starts complaining, pop a treat like a chocolate in the mouth. The idea seems to be that the sweet will bring back pleasant memories and associations thereby displacing the current upset. Dad is willing to try it. He also has a plan to move her, not upstairs, but into the dining room.

Don't think I mentioned it, but the other day there was this whole big production wherein Dad and Sis actually moved her in her bed out of the front parlor, which has a double wide arched doorway, across the front hall and showed her that the bed does not fit through the dining room door. But even that didn't convince her. Take off the door frame, she demanded. Well,no. Even then the bed wouldn't fit. Well then, knock down the wall. She sulked the rest of the day. At one point she demanded to be given a screwdriver so she could remove the rails on the bed. When no one would give her one,, she tried to break her water glass. Apparently she had some confused idea of removing the bars with the broken glass. Thank God, our glassware is very heavy. Sis said it didn't so much as chip. But the idea frightened all of us.

She can't be moved through to the back parlor, where she could look out the back window, because the hospital bed needs to be plugged into a heavy-duty, grounded outlet. There is one in the front parlor but none in the back parlor. There is one in the dining room though. Dad's plan involves hiring another bed. Apparently the things come folded up. So, once he and Sis move and rearrange the furniture, the new bed can be brought directly into the dining room. It will entail a lot of work, but Dad is so distraught at how unhappy Mom is that he's willing to do just about anything. He's going to call hospice first thing Monday morning to talk it over with but I don't know why they would object.

So, he'll have the second bed delivered and set up and then call the E.M.T.s to come and move her. The whole thing is really quite touching. He isn't about to let her be unhappy if there is any way he can change things.

Reply #191. Mar 20 21, 9:27 PM

Catreona

The move took place with surprising smoothness on Thursday. Not surprisingly, Mom was unsettled for the rest of that day, but Friday was a very good day. There was lots of sunshine that day, that she enjoyed being in the bay window. Saturday was unsettled again, with her becoming agitated, and by Sunday afternoon she was combative again. Sunday evening was quite difficult for everybody. She's been quiet today, mostly sleeping. For several days she ate well, oatmeal for breakfast, spaghetti and meatballs a couple of nights, fish a couple. She threw up her supper last night (Sunday). My personal belief is that the fish had gone a little off, but whatever the reason, that understandably made her cranky, which did not help the general tenor of the evening.

Sis is coming down with a cold or something and Dad didn't get any sleep last night. I've been in bad case for days, not physically ill but in the Black Pit. *shrug* Hasn't happened for quite some time so I guess it was due. It'll clear up in a few more days. Meanwhile, it's best for me to avoid people as much as possible. But I wanted to report on the move and the weekend.

Reply #192. Mar 29 21, 2:22 PM

Catreona

Just now I idly clicked through to the quizzes for students section and, was flabbergasted to find my own quiz, "The Dog's Breakfast" at the top of the list. Like, WOW!

Reply #193. Mar 30 21, 8:02 PM

rubytops

Hi, Sorry not been here for a while. A lot seems to have been happening with your mom cat. To cut to the chase I am pleased the move to the new room went okay and your mom is happier there. Let's hope for some more sunny days. I still keep you in my thoughts and pray for you all even when I don't appear. I think you all do a tireless and stalwart job for your mom. She is very lucky to have such a caring and loving family around her.
Take care all of you.

Reply #194. Apr 03 21, 12:43 AM

Catreona

♥Ruby♥

Reply #195. Apr 07 21, 1:03 PM

rubytops

Cat, thanks.. I got one of your quizzes in a challenge I was completing yesterday. Can't remember what it was called now but I enjoyed it.

Reply #196. Apr 08 21, 2:59 AM

Catreona

Glad you enjoyed it, Ruby. If the challenge was "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" then the quiz was "The Dog's Breakfast". I'm still a little breathless that one of mine was chosen to be part of a mini badge challenge!

---

Mom and I get our vaccination a week from tomorrow. Scheduled for between 9:00 AM and noon. Godawful early, but I'm so excited I'm not even thinking about complaining. We're getting J&J - One and done! :)

Reply #197. Apr 08 21, 8:00 PM

samak

You also have 2 quizzes in the new Quiz-O-Meter badge, Paper Roses and Quick Quiz.
Good to hear the jab is on the way. One less thing to worry about.

Reply #198. Apr 09 21, 12:13 AM

Catreona

I do? WOW! Thanks for telling me.

I want to extend my condolences to my British and Commonwealth friends for the loss of The Duke of Edinburgh. Though he was ninety-nine, and though he had been in bad health, still it was a shock to wake up to the news of his death. My heart particularly goes out to the Queen. She must be devastated. On the news there was some mention of online condolence books and the like. Does anyone know where I would be able to sign such a thing?

Reply #199. Apr 09 21, 1:37 PM

samak

Yes, it is strange how it is still a shock even though we knew he was 99 and in poor health. I can't imagine what the Queen is going through after 73 years of marriage.

The condolence book is at:

https://www.royal.uk/condolence

Reply #200. Apr 09 21, 1:57 PM

629 replies. On page 10 of 32 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

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