General Chat

Hi Huia

The best I have found (there has hardly ever been an emergency) is the toilet for the disabled now in may public buildings. I have not been asked for the disability sticker which I never bothered with to this point and that would be pointless as it would be on the car.
Oh dear, more raised eyebrows!
Neither do I carry one of the cards which surreptitiously explains the condition to others for that was what I thought my tongue was designed for.

Keep you fingers crossed that today goes well. I will be dropping him off at the carecentre (at a rest home) at 10, will pick him up at 4.00. He doesnt know yet. He will probably object but he will be told that my health cannot run to 24 hours 365 days a year caring for him. If he doesnt want me to collapse and finish up in hospital he must let me have the occasional break like this while others look after him.
A rather nervous Huia.

No big arguments! I dont think OH was very happy but I was able to go to the Botanic Gardens carpark nearby and slept soundly for over 2 hours, didnt need to keep half an ear open, it was wonderful. I might suffer tonight as he will probably be confused and get up in the middle of the night, but at least I am not as dog-tired as I was this morning.

Huia. (I took a photo of 'my' statue in the carpark!)

Would like to have gone to the Swansea meet, but dont feel comfortable with leaving OH to his own devices that long as he tends to have very low blood sugars at the moment and they come on suddenly. Its no joke trying to bring him round.

If all the other cubicles are in use and there is nobody who is obviously disabled waiting,I will use a disabled cubicle.I have been tutted for this but feel that I have done nothing wrong.

Of course the disabled should have priority but,by using it when nobody else wants to I don't think anybody is being deprived of anything.

Jean (Monmouth), my friend has an OH who has diabetes and he doesnt look after himself too well. She has often had to call for an ambulance for him. It must be very scary.

Huia.

Hi Sharron

It is funny how perceptions of "disabled" in some minds means physical but of course we are aware of the "brain" falling readily into this category as well. So we handle the "raised eyebrows" or "tut tuts" as graciously as we can. Although it has been suggested as appropriate I have never bothered applying for a disability label for parking the car. The toilet is quite another question for "when you gotta go, you gotta go!"

Hi Jean (Monmouth)

We have had two scary incidents of T.I.A.'s in the last week. One at home and one on Tuesday. fortunately we could use a cafe seat for the five minute recovery period. People are always very helpful I find and that can be a boon for caring while I go and get the car to a handier position. Our doctor say they are like mini strokes. BH is generally perky once it has passed.

After 3 or 4 undisturbed nights my OH was up to the loo 4 times, about 11.30, 12.30, 1.30 and 2.30. I didnt think he had had all that much to drink at dinner time. Then at 6.30 he was by the bed offering me some toast. I dont eat toast. And I dont much like being woken at 6.30 when I have had only a few hours sleep. He had been for a 2 hour walk yesterday morning with our vol. firefighter and these long walks seem to leave him confused and unsettled. I will have to ask the doc if I should stop them (but he wont want to) or give OH a sleeping pill before bed when he has had one of those days.

Huia.

We have an appointment on Tuesday to see if the diabetes specialist can offer any help with OH's condition. He can have a blood reading of11 at bedtime and go down to 3 by the time he wakes up. Its very difficult to deal with.

'NUDGE'

Nudge for Bridget/Bossyboots

We have been told to give OH plenty of fattening foods, meat, cheese, cream fried fish and choc biscuits! They also want him to see the cardiologist again.
I am supposed to feed him three small meals and three snacks a day. a snack being sandwiches, beans on toast, califlower cheese etc. With a small appetite I cant see him doing it, but we'll try.

I learnt yesterday that the daycare centre where I took my OH last Wednesday is not a secure centre. He kept going outside looking for me. I will have to look for something else.

Huia.

Hi all

Sorry to hear Huia that the Day Care facility isn’t secure. Although you may be concerned, I’m sure that they are keeping tabs on OH, so if you can, let him stay there until you can find somewhere else.

Jean – You can buy (or get on prescription) little tins of pureed food intended for adults. I’ve no idea if they are suitable for diabetics, but wonder if they would be suitable for a couple of OH’s snacks? No chewing and would go down easily. I think they are *fortified* with vitamins etc.

Just nudging to see how everyone, and those they care for, are.

Thanks Det, I didnt know about those. Will enquire.

At dinner last night my OH made himself a cup of coffee. I dont know how many spoons of the stuff he used. It was very black. He had another 3 or 4 cups of coffee so I decided to sleep in the spare room as he would be up to the loo all night, if he ever got to sleep. He went to bed at 9.30, got up half an hour later and when I asked what for he said he wanted a drink. He didnt believe that he had had 4 or 5 cups of coffee. After I went to bed I became aware of lights on so got up and found the lights in the toilet, bathroom, downstairs and the lounge were on. He was in the lounge. I chased him back to bed and turned them all off. I dont know if he got up again. After I tried to get back to sleep I got up at 1.30 and had half a sleeping pill, which took half an hour to put me out. Sleep, what is that?
He has gone walking this morning with our vol. firefighter.
Huia.

Hope you managed to snooze while OH was out for his walk. Coffee is a diretic (sp?) so quantities of liquid aside, anyone is going to have to go to the loo lots. Do you use decaff so he doesn't get quite so hyper?
Sleeping tablet time for him tonight, if your past experiences with him on a walking day are anything to go by!

Hi All
Just thought I should post a note before the Swine Flu' gets us all or reportedly 25% of the population of NZ. It must be a worry for UK politicians for so many being there at the trough. Sorry I digress. BH has had three turns in the last ten days. Up till now it has been once every three to four months. If it can ever be fortunate when these scary things occur, this time it happened when our daughter was getting some money from the cashflow machine. By chance a doctor from the same practice who attends BH was getting some cash as well and was able to give a different diagnosis from the TIA which it had been thought to be up till then. So the latest assessment is postural hypotension. So the cocktail of medication is being amended. For my part I have cut out her coffee and lemon tart for I think they may have been a contributing factor as the events have generally occurred within quarter of an hour of that morning routine. Hot chocolate and a brownie from now on. What a cruel carer! I should add that ten days earlier more significant symptoms were very apparent when driving home and while the supermarket bag was useful it was not up to the task completely. I will leave the details to your respective imaginations. When I told our doctor, with all the details to make it a much more graphic story he said that baking soda is great if you get my drift .
I did not tell you that I got daughter's txt. message halfway round a 36 hole golf final. Fortunately it added that all was well, BH was home resting so my partner (male of course) and I continued on winning on the 33rd hole.

Bob, it does seem sometimes as if you can never go off duty, doesnt it.