Last Sunday in May 2011

Wayne got me up around 6am ... at least he wasn't up during the night but I would just like to sleep in till about 8am once in a while :(

No plans today except Church at 11:30.  I have communion duty today (clean-up) where we discard the tiny cups and wipe down their holders (for lack of the correct term), then put in new cups and stack them up for next time.  

Weatherman said we might get some rain today so I'm looking forward to sunshine and having that flower bed dry out.  My poor butterfly bush tree is falling down.  It is in a planter for now waiting to be planted in the ground and the planter is floating in water or I should say the tree is floating in water.   I hope to plant my lilac bush today ...It is a Miss Kim Lilac Bush and gets about 5'x5' in size.  That picture is not my bush but one that is an older plant I found online.  It is very fragrant and looking forward to cuttings for next year.  It is a later blooming lilac after the other lilac bushes have spent all their blooms.  

Tomorrow we get to go to my BIL's house for an outside BBQ.  Should be fun.

I might go pick up some topsoil and manure for that flower bed.  It has to be leveled (the raised beds) and filled to the top of the raised beds.

Its Saturday and not a sleep-in day...unfortunately

Good Morning!

It's Saturday morning, the kids aren't here, just Wayne and I and do you think I can sleep in?  Of course not.  Wayne was up and around this morning about 5am and being the light sleeper I am, I heard him.  Also being one that has problems getting to sleep, I knew once awake I would stay awake so here I am!

Yesterday we went for Wayne's MRI on his brain.  We should hear something on our next appointment with the neurologist.  He said that they told him to "think" about the answers to questions they ask while the MRI was taking place, and he said they asked questions like "what did you do last night?", questions about your family, etc.  I'll have to look up what it all means when they are checking brain activity during those questions.

It is cold in the house.  This weather has been horrible but we are blessed here in Metro Detroit, at least where we live in Flat Rock.  Others have been flooded out.  But even with that, we are more fortunate in this area than in the South and West of us.  Praying we continue to be fortunate.

Went to church last night for the 4th chapter in The Story, the condensed version in chapter form of the Bible.  Wayne and I didn't get a chance to read it with our busy week.   BTW, this church is a non-denominational church but is very much like a Baptist church.  We both enjoy the sermons and the pastor has a way with talking to the people of the church, makes you feel welcome, gives you message from God and it is easy to understand.  I also have gotten moved many times by his sermons.  The church expects you to contribute by volunteering and I do bring in a treat once a month (on the list) and also once a month help with the communion distribution (actually do the clean-up afterwards).  I figured that was the least I could do but with the home-care of Wayne, I didn't feel I could do more.

We are invited to Wayne's brother's Memorial Day Cookout on Monday so we plan on going there.  However, since he has to be cath'd every 2-3 hours, I am going to ask Warren if we can use the garage as a privacy area to do that.  I was thinking about it last night and wondered how we would do that outside since he can't get into anyone's home unless there is a ramp and remembered there is a garage there.  It probably has a light also.  Hoping the rain holds out and we have a nice day.

Still haven't gotten my flower bed set up and Shawn is suppose to come over and help me do that. I bought a Miss Kim Lilac Bush yesterday for $25 at a local nursery and am anxious to get that planted also.  It will only grow to about 5'x5' and just right for our small yard area in this mobile home community.  Plus Shawn is also suppose to come over to measure the kitchen so we can figure out what we need to put there for base cabinets and he promised to do the work for me... he needs to replace all the base cabinets and replace the floor board (plywood) due to the leak we had and also the wall behind the base cabinets.  It will be a difficult job and costly for the supplies.  Hoping I can manage the cost of the materials needed.  I told Shawn if he did this he didn't have to pay me back a loan I gave him.  

 

Results of today's VA appointments

It was a terribly long day.  We first went to Detroit and the diabetes dr couldn't look at the MRI of Wayne's brain about the diabetes insipidous.  He said to bring in the spray next Tuesday so he can check the dosage.  This is what keeps the amounts under control.  He still isn't sure it is DI but I explained to him how much Wayne urinates when he doesn't spray. 

Our trip to Ann Arbor was horrible.  We were a bit late for the 12:30pm appt and at 2pm when we were still waiting for him to see the DR, I went over to ask them what was taking so long.  Apparently the person who called me to change the appt from 2pm to 12:30, didn't change it at all!  I was livid!  We didn't see that DR till almost 3pm!  And the weather was horrible too, more on that later. 

The neurosurgeon said that there is nothing more that can be done, surgery won't help, and the only thing he can do is the exercises and get up and walk.  He said he sees no reason why Wayne can't walk ... he will always have the drop foot in his left foot but his right foot isn't bad.  He has to do it himself and in time he will get better at it, but that he has a degenerative problem with his back and that will get worse (if I remember and understood what he said).  He also said that the spinal stenosis had nothing to do with what happened when he had to have emergency surgery and that is a separate problem, that the herniated disc probably happened the night we had to call emergency, which means he has two problems with his spine... the spinal stenosis (which gets worse in time, as you get older) and the cauda equina problem caused by the herniated disc - I got the feeling he was saying they were separate but together it was a bigger problem, more for Wayne to deal with.  So Brandon is going to have to start working with Wayne as soon as we get the membership in the local rec.  The DR said that he really doesn't need to go to rehab if he knows what he has to do and really he has been to enough rehab already to know that.  But if he remembers it, I don't know.  I think Brandon can work on it with him.  I'm thinking we could get a 6mo membership at the rec. and then by the time the 6mos is over, the kids should be with Shawn and then we can get a senior membership (a lot less $) for the year. 

We also have to fill out the paperwork for the "means test" at the VA and submit that Tuesday when we go back.

Now the trip home.  The weather was horrible and I almost got into an accident.  Anyway, I was following the GPS and it took me to right turn to a road that was flooded and I didn't want to go there, so I did a U-turn and started going the other way only to go back but not take that turn. Then I got the bright idea that I could call onstar ... so I did, and I was at that same red blinking light where you had to take turns going and I was on the onstar explaining to someone where I needed to go and the flooded street, etc., AND the car in front of me went and for some reason I thought I could too, so as I started to go, a car was coming towards me blasting on their horn, but it was too late, I was already in the intersection ...so I kept going and ignored the guy and thanked God I didn't get hit... it would have been on Wayne's side.  Anyway, then I finally get to a place where I could stop and talk to onstar and they set me up another route and I was able to get on the freeway toward home.  We didn't get home till about 5:30pm.  We left there around 4pm I think.

Now we are watching American Idol and I'm trying to wind down.  

Tomorrow is another day.

Homecare, Handicapped, and Alzheimers

I know I haven't blogged in quite some time, but I (we) have been so busy going back/forth to the VA for my husband's medical care along with caring for the two grandsons we are raising.  I want to start my new blogs in regard to the care of my husband, what he is going through, what I am going through, and it will also include our 2 grandsons we are raising, in addition to their father (our son) and their mother and from time to time stories about our other 3 grown children and their children.  Some of you already know we have 7 grandsons and 1 granddaughter.  


I also would like to invite other caregivers to "chime" in on your experiences.  I am relatively new as a caregiver to my husband, only since May 2010.  We can share our concerns and successes.  Family and friends are also invited to stop by.


Let me start with what is happening now.


My husband, Wayne, is going to the VA tomorrow first to Detroit to talk to the Diabetes DR and we have to discuss the Diabetes Insipidous our personal Dr diagnosed him with because it is very important he gets the medicine he needs to control that, otherwise, he has enormous amounts of urine and it is impossible to deal with.  Then we leave Detroit and go to Ann Arbor VA to talk to a neurosurgeon about whether or not there is anything else that can be done to better his condition of Cauda Equina Syndrome which he was left with after his back surgery May 2010.  He had that herniated disk that erupted in his saddle block area and ended up with that CE diagnosis.  I will blog about the results of that visit yesterday.


On the 27th, he goes back to the VA in Detroit to get an MRI of his brain.  This is to determine whether or not he has the start of Alzheimers, and if so, how far progressed it might be and what we can do to slow it down.  I am convinced he has this although others are telling me not to be so "negative" and maybe it isn't that.  Maybe it isn't, and I'm definitely hoping it isn't, and hoping if it isn't, then there is something we can do to help him remember things.  


This morning he asked me to come look at the window.  When I went over to him, he pointed at our big screen TV and he was watching the news about the devastation from the tornado in MO.  He either thinks the TV is a window or he can't remember what the TV is called.  He then asked me "are we dead?".  This isn't the first time he's asked if we were dead or not.  He did that a few nights ago when there was other devastation from a tornado elsewhere.  There is more examples I will address as they happen each day.


I have to go catherize him and then I'll be back.