First off – the gout is not me, it’s Mom. I just get to deal with all the things involved in her getting gout. Gout, as I’ve learned the past couple days, is a build up of uric acid creating crystals in joints. Usually the big toe the first time around. It’s kind of like having a kidney stone in your toe, same stuff creates both problems. It can come from too much meat and other causes. But no matter how you look at it, it’s swollen, it's ugly, it's painful.
Thanksgiving started quicker than I thought. I called Mom multiple times to remind her when to be ready and called Dad’s caregivers to reminder them not to let him sit down for the noon meal. Mom was to be ready at noon for me to pick her up. When I called at 11:30 I didn’t get her so I figured I better head over there NOW so I’d have time to find her before she sat down to eat at her place. When I got there 10 minutes later she was ready except she had a flimsy sweatshirt instead of a coat. I ran up to her apartment and got a coat. Gave it a once over to see there was still chow mein from 2 weeks ago in the ‘frig (mental note – clean Mom’s ‘frig). Back down stairs and we headed over to Dad’s to get him. He was mostly ready except to put a shirt on over his t-shirt and grab his coat and pills. We were off and heading to my cousin’s almost half hour earlier than I planned. I've learned to give myself ½ hour more than I think I need when getting both of them – it’s a dementia coping thing. This time they fooled me and were ready. Oh well, better than being way late. Can't keep that juicy bird waiting!
Anyway, Mom has had a sore foot on and off from wearing crappy shoes her whole life so that she has a corn on her 2nd smallest toe that can best be described as Devil’s Tower- it’s tall and has a wide flat plateau. At my cousin’s house I told her to take off her shoes and just go bare foot for the day. By the time we got ready to go home her foot was swollen and sore. Turned out it wasn’t the corn but her big toe. By Friday morning this was nasty! Her big toe was about 3 times it’s normal size except for a little tiny toe nail sticking out and it was red and shiny and really sore to the touch. So – off to the doctor. After quite a bit of time there, a shot in her back side for infection and 2 prescriptions later, we headed back to her place. I got to spend more time getting the pills, getting her settled in after she had supper in her place’s restaurant, and cleaning the frig (you do NOT want to hear what I found in there!) So, my day off ended up being over 5 hours of Mom toe stuff. The pills should clear things up very quickly but getting Mom to remember to take them is another story.
I bought one of those pill boxes with 4 slots per day. Nice and big, easy to see and read. Each day for a few days I put in one white pill breakfast and supper and 1 green pill for all three meals. Each day can be taken out of the main box for easy use. So do you think I can actually get her to take the pills at the right time, even with me calling to remind her? Nope. I spent 15 minutes on the phone asking if she took her supper pills (we had the same conversation at breakfast and lunch). After my question and her total lack of understanding till I repeat several times we get into the “No, don’t look at Monday, only look at Saturday” phase of our conversation. Followed by her saying Saturday is empty but then Saturday has 2 pills, then it’s empty, then…. You get the picture. Sorry about the ranting. I just needed to babble to someone and my family hears about these things way too often. I have to spread out my frustration a bit to deal with life sometimes. At least it's a finite time period and not forever. When we go back Thursday to have things checked out I'm going to have all her meds reviewed - start fresh and sign her up for daily visits from the nursing staff at her apartment.
Now on to some fun stuff.
Chief and Bert helped me open up my new toy.
I finally got a digital scale because I was worried about having enough of my pretty sock yarn and didn’t want to have to unknit. Turns out no problem. With the knitting needles I’m only at 42 g with over 60 g left. This scale is from Target and works in oz or grams up to 72 grams. It also has a nutritional program with it so it can serve double duty.
The sock I was worried about was my All Things Heather sock. I'm using Wendy's Eyelet Rib Sock pattern. I like the yarn and the pattern.
I finally finished the first Stars and Stripes sock. What? You haven’t heard about this sock?
Probably because I started the sock last summer for 4th of July and it kind of got lost in the pile of stuff until today. It’s Dalegarn Stork – 100% cotton. The sock took one skein. It’s toe up and I’ll be writing up the pattern one of these days. It’s just off the needles so is in bad need of blocking. First picture is the more accurate color.
Meanwhile, this weekend Bert has been busy trying to get into any and every box in the house. This one holds finished Christmas knitting. Maybe he smells the wool? Maybe he's just like to snoop in every box he can find.
Chief on the other hand likes long weekends to catch on on his 23 hours a day of sleeping. Maybe he has a good idea!
1 comment:
Yup, just when we get the kid thing down, we have to start taken care of the 'rents. At least we are needed and loved, right?
Love the pink sock!
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