General Discussion & Chat: Coffee and...For Tuesday, February 21, 2006 =^..^=, 1 by BabsERNurse

BabsERNurse wrote:
GM! everyone,

Many Welcome's to the new comers! Grab a cuppa coffee or tea and whatever's up on the virtual counter and set a spell. We are all a rather chatty bunch around here.

I hope everyone had a nice day y'day. DH was home from work for a day, being it was President's Day and we had some nice time together. We went to Home Depot and picked up a couple of small things for the continuing project of the master bathroom. He was able to get the orange peel texture on the walls and then primer the walls, so next project is to paint the upper walls and put the wainscoting , chair rails and baseboards in. YEEHAW!!! We are getting closer! As Mum would say, "I canny wait 'til I've had a shishi (Japanese for tinkle) in the toidy!"

I have an early appointment today with the Ophthomologist to have punctum plugs placed in my lower tear ducts. I've had a pair in for the last 4+ years, but one came out a couple of months ago and I've had nothing but troubles since. So, my doc is going to pull the remaining one and put in replacements, but ones that should work even better than what I have now. These will be blue coloured as well so they can be easily transilluminated for inspection purposes. I'll also be having a visual field study today since I'm on medications that can be hard on one's retinas. I'm to the point now that I have to have checkups every 6 months instead of every 2 years. Eh, it's a small price to pay to retain one's vision. I don't mind a bit.

I'm taking Mum out for luncheon today and will take her to her podiatrist appointment afterwards. She goes every 3 months to have her feet inspected and her toenails trimmed as with the diabetes, I feel it's best. I used to do that for her all the time, but it's better to thave the podiatrist handle it these days. I feel better knowing he would jump on any possibility of infection or problem getting started. Mum is pretty awesome, she's managed to keep all her appendages despite being diabetic for 45+ years and insulin dependent for 38 of those years.

I've been giving Mum her weekly Procrit injections for the past 4 weeks and drew her blood on Thursday last. Her doctor called me yesterday and told me her H & H (hematocrit and hemoglobin) counts are up!!!! YAY! She started out at 8.9 / 25 and is up to 9.9 / 29. I have been noticing she's had more energy lately, her colour is better and she's mentating better as well. Now I can cut her back to every other week. Whew!

I also bought her a "Novaform Elite Memory Foam Mattress Topper" at COSTCO for her hosiptal bed, plus a pillow made of the same thing. She's really liking it and says it's taken the achiness of the regular mattress out of her back. I'm really glad as it was only $89.99 + $29.99 instead of $500+ for a whole new mattress. I have a Tempurpedic mattress on our bed and I love it, but it cost like the dickens too! I was a bit concerned getting her a new mattress as they are so thick and as short as Mum is (4'8") a new mattress would make it almost impossible for her to get into her bed. As it is now, we have the bed frame on the floor and not even on the casters because she's so short and it's hard for her to hop up into the bed. Even a 10" mattress on the bed would have made it almost impossible for her to get into bed.

I'm posting a quick picture I took yesterday morning. I scooted down the beach a bit from where we are for a better picture of the bay and Mt. Baker in the background. I managed to get a nice shot while the mutts were playing with some seaweed that had washed up on shore.

I've got to hop into the shower and get ready for my day. I send everyone the best wishes for a wonderful day.

With care, ~Babs~