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Oh Germaine! What wonderful news, thanks for sharing. May the coming New Year bring many more happy surprises, good health, and happiness to you and your husband and family. Wishing you all much joy!
So happy for you that your Christmas turned out to be a happy one! Good luck with your upcoming operation and I'm glad you have family willing to help.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, GERMAINE - and I hope and pray things continue to improve with you and with your husband this year. Sounds like you have some really sweet and supportive family and that is always so helpful. I know you are very proud of your kids and I can see why. You and your husband apparently did a great job of raising them.
Be sure you do some things FOR YOURSELF this year. Speaking of doing for yourself, not that this is a fun thing, but is your hernia surgery on the books yet? Any plans on how to handle the time you need to take off to recuperate?
The Good. I had a delightful relaxing Christmas, with several exciting surprises under the tree.
Last week.
The Bad. Tuesday. I did multiple loads of laundry at the laundromat, including all of the bedding. A couple of hours later and $20 plus poorer I was finally finished. Just in time to pick up hubby early from adult day care as he was having some problems (he just stood up, said it was time to go home & walked outside in 20 degree weather).
The Ugly. Tuesday night hubby was more disorientated than usual. He wet the bed, completely through the mattress pad (but luckily we had a thick waterproof liner on the bed) and either urinated or spilled an enormous glass of water in a clothes basket full of clean towels & clean clothes.
So, Wednesday, I was back to the laundromat to do several more loads of laundry, cha-ching, plus hours of wasted time. At least hubby was along to help fold the clothes. Plus, he had PT and a doctor's appointment so we were both exhausted. Hubby was more disoriented than unusual.
Thursday. The house was an absolute disaster so I had planned to spend the entire day while hubby was at Brainstretchers and adult day care tackling the mess & clutter. I had been so tired (more about that later) that I had not even opened the mail (except for a couple of Christmas cards) for at least two weeks, so that was all stacked up. DD had ordered a bunch of supplies from Amazon for me to ship to her in Africa so there were both closed & open boxes all over the place, plus all the boxes where I had removed the few Christmas decorations that I put up. And, still boxes to look through after downsizing (mostly in the corners of the rooms). Arrggg!!!! So, while I always kept up with the cooking & cleaning the kitchen & dishes the whole place was just completely cluttered and ugly.
The Bad. I had just arrived home after taking hubby to Brainstretchers and had not even had a chance to eat breakfast yet when they called for me to pick him up as he was throwing up and had a headache. Since this was somewhat unusual I immediately called to get him in to see his doctor. Since she was not available I put him on the list for the walk-in clinic connected to her office. They said that there would be an hour wait. After we arrived, they said that they had several emergencies and the wait would be even longer. We finally got to see the doctor after 2 1/2 hours. She examined him and said that his symptoms (throwing up and a severe headache) were potentially very serious so she called 911 to have an ambulance take him to the hospital. I asked her why they made us wait to be seen for 2 1/2 hours if those symptomswere so serious that she had to call an ambulance. But the doctor did not have an answer for me.
Then on to 9 1/2 hours in the ER with hubby and numerous, numerous tests. (BTW, he still needs more tests, and hopefully everything can get fixed outpatient). His problem is complicated but, fixable and thankfully he did not have a stroke (which is why they sent him by ambulance to the ER from the walk-in clinic). After having nothing to eat all day, at 7 PM I finally asked the nurse for one of those sandwiches that they keep in the ER for situations like this (The Good) and I will not list The Bad & Ugly things (mistakes) that happened in the ER as I do not want to risk raising my blood pressure to astronomical heights. But, I will be visiting the hospital administration again with my concerns.
On to Friday. There was a caregiver scheduled so that I could have all the tests that I need before my hernia surgery. The Good part is that they could schedule the five tests back to back to back to back to back all in one afternoon so I could be home before the caregiver needed to leave.
The Bad news is that I had an allergic reaction to the dye used in the CT scan and my pulse was 130 so they hooked me up to an EKG & discovered my heart was in afib.
The Ugly part was being rushed to the ER and while nurses were taking vitals/drawing blood/starting medications I was on my cell phone trying to arrange care for hubby.
The Good part was that the agency switched the caregivers next appointment to a different caregiver which meant that he could stay for an extra two hours which gave my niece enough time to completely drop everything and drive to our house to watch hubby. Her husband had no problem with her just leaving and putting the care of their three young kids in his hands as long as she was home by noon the next day as they were going out of town.
I was admitted to the hospital and the doctors think that my heart must have been going in and out of atrial fibrillation for at least several weeks and possibly longer and I just attributed my overwhelming fatigue & mild chest pains/overall discomfort to the hernia and to the stress of caregiving and just "pushed through the pain". Since, my tests needed to done while fasting I had nothing to eat all day Friday and the hospital kitchen was closed by the time that I got to my hospital room, so even though my blood sugar was "significantly low" all I got to eat for a second day was another of those ER sandwiches plus all the graham crackers (which I hate) and juice that I wanted. Arrgg!!!
The Good news is that my niece made arrangements with my brother to watch hubby on Saturday afternoon (as she had to leave) until I got out of the hospital even though he needed to be "at work" via the computer the entire time. Plus, I had another friend call and say that she could help if I had to stay in the hospital a second night (New Year's Eve).
The Ugly part was having all the people (caregiver, niece, brother see my house when it was at it's absolute worst) but the Good part was that everyone's health needs were taken care of and my family really, really stepped up to help immediately when asked.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly life of being a full time caregiver. (cue dramatic sound effects)
Last edited by germaine2626; 01-02-2017 at 11:32 AM..
Glad that family stepped up and I am sure the mess and boxes were of no significance in the big picture. Family were there when it counted which shows mess didn't matter. People matter
I am sure that no one cared about your house. They were all concerned with you and your husband. These are the times you find out just how much you are loved.
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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, January 2, 2017
