The Front Porch Swing

[LindaB220]

I have tried to talk to the docs at Kaiser... With grandma she was having heart palpatations that were scaring her.... dang they were scaring all of us. Enough so that we called 911 enough times that the hospital informed her not to call unless We called a nurse first. So I went in with Grandma to the ER which was very hard for me I had to walk while looking down and the floor. I asked the docs there if they had a Geriatric "division" because I know that as people get older their normal meds have to be dialed back or tweaked or down right changed. Like kids they react to certain meds differently than adults.

UM NO I was told flat out and dismissed.... We dont do that. She was told to stop drinking coffee. This was a woman who drank a single cup of coffee every morning for 50 years. So she had to stop cold turkey at age 96. I took her shakes from a dietary point of view. And worked some more protien into her diet. I dont know if it was right but it made me feel better.... I know low blood suger can make your heart flutter.... Her episodes seemed to happen just before breakfast.

I personally believe that the things we crave are because we need something in our diets. Like kids eating matches..... stuff like that. Providing you can sort through emotional eating.

I got to go but I hope to talk about this a bit more later.

deb

How about decaf? Or hot tea. Only has a little caffeine

 

[Blooie]

Garbage bag "pants" so you don't have to fiddle with blankets? Tie the draw-strings to your belt loops so they stay up? I'd be hiding under the blankets in bed during that weather, but as you have to go out ...

I'm totally stealing your run design for my duck "coop" BTW. Totally stealing it!!!!!

Feel free - I stole it from all the designs under "hoop coop" and just modified it to fit our horribly limited funds and skills!

Garbage bags work fine for the moisture, but that ground is cold cold COLD, too. We finally settled on taking the rubber mats out of the kitchen and putting them out there to kneel on. Helps.

Well, break over - hot coffee is in me doing what it's supposed to be doing and Ken popped some cinnamon rolls in the oven.

 

[LindaB220]

Feel free - I stole it from all the designs under "hoop coop" and just modified it to fit our horribly limited funds and skills!

Garbage bags work fine for the moisture, but that ground is cold cold COLD, too. We finally settled on taking the rubber mats out of the kitchen and putting them out there to kneel on. Helps.

Well, break over - hot coffee is in me doing what it's supposed to be doing and Ken popped some cinnamon rolls in the oven.

Love the hoop coops. I wanted one but someone gave me a 7' x 12' kennel so I'm going to make do until I can do another. i need at lease 2 ...... maybe 3 or 4. Don't know yet.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Good Morning Porch Peeps.  Last night I was informed that I was to take mom to the docs today.  Shes going in to have her thyroid tested.  10:10 am appointment shes been on a restricted diet for the past week or so.  They give her Iodine and then at 2:00 pm they test her Thyroid.....  Its done in the hospital....  So we are having a very long day.   Then we get to go do it again tomorrow.

At least thats what mom read to me off her instruction packet.   Me thinks she has some details confused....  So When I pick her up I will read it for myself.

The deal is.... shes been going along quite well  then she mentions to her doc. that when we moved here her previous doc had her on Thyroid medication.  We moved here in 1967....  Sigh.  I dont think that she mentioned the date on that.... Just that it was a while ago.  Moms been a hypochondriac for a very long time.   She at one point had two different docs at Kaiser giving her different instructions on the same medication. Youd think because they were on the same computer system they would see the conflicting orders....  Scratching my head here.

Top it all off with my phobia of hospitals so I will be sitting in the car for at least four to five hours.  Competition for parking spots especially handicapped ones precludes me from leaving and coming back.  Her panicking because I am gone also makes me stay.

So Off I go with my Manuscript journal replacement a Big jug of water my coffee And a Sun Shade because it promises to be in the nineties today.

deb

Elder care can be tough, especially, as Bee intuits, they like hospitals and that sort of attention maybe a little too much. Doctors can never properly figure out my mother's maladies because of her tendency to exaggerate.

Dr. "When did you begin vomiting?"
Mum: "Yesterday after breakfast."
Dr. "How often have you vomited?"
Mum: "Oh I'd say every fifteen minutes or so."
Doctor leaves in a panic.
Me: "Mum are you aware you just told that nice man you've vomited over a hundred times?"
Mum, indignantly: "Well it certainly felt like it!"

 

[lindz8504]

Quote:
Yes, there are mites in the little coop. I didn't realize it, or it would have already been taken care of. I had some DE on hand that I had bought to put in the dust bath then changed my mind. So I threw a bunch of it around in there. I figure I will leave that for a few days, and then clean everything out and burn the bedding.

 

[Beekissed]

Yes, there are mites in the little coop. I didn't realize it, or it would have already been taken care of. I had some DE on hand that I had bought to put in the dust bath then changed my mind. So I threw a bunch of it around in there. I figure I will leave that for a few days, and then clean everything out and burn the bedding.

If you have a wooden coop, they will be living in the crevices of the walls and such, so just treating the floor may not do it. Some folks spray treatments on the walls for that. I've never had to do that and wouldn't know what I'd do in that situation, so maybe someone who has done this could chime in?

 

[Beekissed]

Elder care can be tough, especially, as Bee intuits, they like hospitals and that sort of attention maybe a little too much. Doctors can never properly figure out my mother's maladies because of her tendency to exaggerate.

Dr. "When did you begin vomiting?"
Mum: "Yesterday after breakfast."
Dr. "How often have you vomited?"
Mum: "Oh I'd say every fifteen minutes or so."
Doctor leaves in a panic.
Me: "Mum are you aware you just told that nice man you've vomited over a hundred times?"
Mum, indignantly: "Well it certainly felt like it!"

As a nurse of long standing, I can attest that this conversation is repeated~in some variation~a million times in doctor's offices all over the world! Truly!!! And it's still funny hearing you tell it like that....so very accurate!

Or~and this one always causes staff to go out of the room and bang their heads on the wall~they come to an urgent care or ER and when asked what meds they are on, they pull out this enormous zip loc bag and hand it to the nurse or dump it on the exam table. This happens with both young and old patients and you always wonder....if one is taking that many meds and visiting the doc that frequently, why...oh, why????...don't they just carry an updated list of the meds we can just copy and staple to the file because this is going to take some time...valuable time...in the day of a busy office, to get your meds all recorded and sorted...and that's not even mentioning that some of the meds are those they don't take anymore but they brought them along to show you what they used to take, so the office visit turns into a siege of meds.

Oh, the fun of the medical field is always laughter through tears!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Not doing a bathtub, LJ?

I really like the idea of using a bathtub for the ducks due to the ability to drain them out and ease of cleaning, plus you can get them for recycling for free in a lot of cases, and they are tough as nails.

I liked the idea the one guy had but I think he was WAY over thinking the setup for the tub and I could think of a few ways it could have been simplified and improved upon in a jiffy.

Yes ... I was thinking bathtubs, too. Lots of reclamation places here, so that is a valid solution. In fact, I bought a bathtub drain assembly I was going to install in a little fiberglass pond thingy I got off of Craig's List ... but the pond is too heavy for me to work on alone, and I can't get anyone else enthused about that project. The cool thing about troughs is they do have drains.

My duck area is sloped, so I was thinking a series of little ponds in tubs & troughs cascading down the hill ... give all the ducks a sporting chance at getting "clean" baths. They don't need to be full all the time. Divert the water to the garden.

Need a garden for that plan.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

  As a nurse of long standing, I can attest that this conversation is repeated~in some variation~a million times in doctor's offices all over the world!  Truly!!!  And it's still funny hearing you tell it like that....so very accurate! 

Or~and this one always causes staff to go out of the room and bang their heads on the wall~they come to an urgent care or ER and when asked what meds they are on, they pull out this enormous zip loc bag and hand it to the nurse or dump it on the exam table.  This happens with both young and old patients and you always wonder....if one is taking that many meds and visiting the doc that frequently, why...oh, why????...don't they just carry an updated list of the meds we can just copy and staple to the file because this is going to take some time...valuable time...in the day of a busy office, to get your meds all recorded and sorted...and that's not even mentioning that some of the meds are those they don't take anymore but they brought them along to show you what they used to take, so the office visit turns into a siege of meds. 

Oh, the fun of the medical field is always laughter through tears! 

Oh I can identify with the "bag-o-meds" too!

Me: "What's this little yellow pill?"
Mum: "That's my morning pill."
Me: "But whats in it?"
Mum: "No idea."
Me: "We'll what's it FOR then???"
Mum: "It's for taking in the morning!"

I took the "bag-o-meds" to a very nice helpful pharmacist who explained every one to me then put them in orderly day by day boxes.

I took over my mom's care when my dad passed away. Oh I miss that man!!!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

As a nurse of long standing, I can attest that this conversation is repeated~in some variation~a million times in doctor's offices all over the world! Truly!!! And it's still funny hearing you tell it like that....so very accurate!

Or~and this one always causes staff to go out of the room and bang their heads on the wall~they come to an urgent care or ER and when asked what meds they are on, they pull out this enormous zip loc bag and hand it to the nurse or dump it on the exam table. This happens with both young and old patients and you always wonder....if one is taking that many meds and visiting the doc that frequently, why...oh, why????...don't they just carry an updated list of the meds we can just copy and staple to the file because this is going to take some time...valuable time...in the day of a busy office, to get your meds all recorded and sorted...and that's not even mentioning that some of the meds are those they don't take anymore but they brought them along to show you what they used to take, so the office visit turns into a siege of meds.

Oh, the fun of the medical field is always laughter through tears!

Ruh roh! Guilty!

I have been known to do Exactly That. Because for a while there "they" were throwing so much stuff at me "they" couldn't keep it straight, and I felt like they shouldn't expect me, the sicky, to straighten it out for them. I tried the lists, but my lists were never complete enough ... always some detail missing that they could then scald me with their eyes about before they turned slowly back to the little computer chart thingy to tap, tap, tippity-tap into.

Also, the doctor writes one thing on the prescription, the pharmacy asks the insurance company for "permission" to dispense it, the insurance company counters with a different item, and then the pharmacy interprets that according to what they have "on hand," then the pharmacy puts something cryptic and confusing on the label to justify what ever random thing is in the bottle. So ... it is nice to have the actual meds in hand so they can be examined.

ALSO ... there are "how to go to the doctor" advice columns out there that advise patients to do this.

BUT ... I think there are now apps for this ... medication trackers. I think they even have apps that coordinate with your pharmacy. Seems like a wonderful liability lawsuit waiting to happen. Maybe even class-action. "If you or a loved one became sick or died after using the _____ product, you may be entitled to cash payments. Call now. Lawyers are waiting."

Eventually, I thought it was all super stupid. Not one medication made me feel better ... they all make me feel worse in one or more ways ... so now when they ask I can honestly say, "Nothing except LOTS of coffee."

They always tell me to quit drinking the coffee. Le sigh.