Super Good

It's nice to be able to say life at our house is super good at the moment. Bob is doing better than anyone expected! 

I give some of the credit to the amount of fluids he's drinking. The doctor talked to us about the importance of him drinking lots of fluids.

It's common among older people that they cut back on fluids when they begin having symptoms of incontinence. He told us that is the wrong thing to do. 

I believe he is right. Bob's recent incident turned him into a firm believer in drinking lots of fluids. I'm no longer having to police what he drinks because he sees how much it's helped. Most amazing is he no longer has incontinence issues of any kind! Hard to believe but it is true.

It's also important to not get dehydrated because dehydration can cause mental confusion.

We are firm believers now in drinking lots of fluids.

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A precursor of the modern day Republican Party was the Whig Party. That party fractured over slavery and died. Then came the American (Know-Nothing) Party. It fractured over Catholics and immigration and died. Today's Republican Party is now fractured over immigration, ideology, and religion. Will it die?

What do you expect the Republican Party to be in 2020?

Much Improved

Yesterday morning I decided Bob needed to actually see the urologist. Not an easy thing to accomplish but I was up for a challenge so I started at 8:30 a.m. and by 3:00 p.m. we were sitting in the office of the urologist.

Things began to break our way once the urologist entered the room. He ordered Bob's catheter out, and talked at length with us. We returned early this morning for some tests. At this moment in time Bob is managing fairly well. There are still future appointments ahead of us and some work to be done learning to deal with incontinence supplies but we're in a much improved place today.

Every doctor's office has its own personality and generally I do well adjusting to the wishes of a clinic but not so with this group of urologists. I don't think it's our doctor, but either the other doctors or the office manager has given the office staff some very rigid guidelines. They absolutely cannot deal with a situation that does not fit within their rules.

I tried to get Bob in the next day after we were in the ER but could not get past the severe wall of office staff there to guard against people like me. I could scale Donald Trumps 'wall' easier than I could get past the guards in that office. They absolutely would not break the rule that a catheter had to be in 14 days before returning to see the doctor. Since he'd never seen the doctor in the first place I thought that was a dumb rule.

Yesterday was it for me, enough was enough. I spoke with the doctor about the situation when we finally saw him, and explained I wanted to be nice but I simply could not figure out the system for working with his office staff. He said to me "Don't try to be nice. When you think you need to be seen just show up. They will not send you away." It could be the office manager but I'm thinking it is more likely the senior doctor in the group who's responsible for these rigid rules. Perhaps he's a rigid person himself and likes a lot of protection from his patients.

In the future I will 1) just show up, or 2) leave a message for our urologist's assistant, and work through her. You live and learn. We are exhausted, and I feel like I've fought a war, but that damn catheter is gone!
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We picked up Bob's new glasses. He said they were better and we came home. He told me he would try to wear them all time like everyone seemed to think he should.

A few minutes later I see him with four pair of glasses, three of which were older prescriptions. He was trying all four pair to see which pair was best! I told him his new glasses were as good as it was possible to do for him, that he needed to put the other three pairs away and use only the new ones.

Just now I caught him reading the paper with an old pair. He clearly did not realize he had an older pair. Said he just picked up a pair that was on the table. Since he did not put away the old glasses I will.

He is back to wearing his glasses in his pocket.
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I'm interested in Donald Trump's trip to Mexico today. I was amused to see he was taking Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama with him. He is about the most rabid anti-immigration person in the senate. Fine choice there Donald.  The other person he took was former NYC mayor Giuliani, who's gone completely off the rails lately. What a group. Don't believe it if Trump comes back and reports Mexico agreed to pay for the 'wall.'

Adjusting

I've been a little busy the last few days but life goes on and we're adjusting. Every day gets a little easier but those first three days about did me in.

I will admit to being blindsided by this one. I've done heart since the mid 90s but never plumbing. I feel like I've been getting men's plumbing information from a fire hose since Wednesday.

The more I hear the less confident I am that we're going to see a good solution to this situation. It's been my experience when people reach Bob's age (84) and a crisis develops they seldom return to what's considered norm.

We will see the urologist on September 7 and see what he has to say about the future.

Here he is thinking about his situation I guess. Notice the cup of liquid in his hand. I'm pushing fluids like crazy. We very quickly learned jeans would not work in this situation so I was off to shop for new pants. Bought the jersey athletic/exercise pants with elastic waist and he absolutely loves them, and I love them too. 

After shopping for pants I was on to the grocery store to find everything I could find that I might get him to drink. He absolutely does not like water. I've gotten a couple of glasses down him but not much. Lots of other liquids but not water. That was Thursday I think.

Friday is the day grandson visits so I knew I had to get with it to be done in time to pick him up at 11:00 a.m. Bob wanted to go with me so we were off to the medical supply store at the hospital.

Along the way we bought gas at Costco, which was on our way. Oregon has no self-serve gas in the whole state so buying gas is only a matter of handing over your credit card. At least he got to see the building from the outside.

On then to the medical supply store. He came across this bathroom chair and decided he needed it. We had discussed the need for a chair in the bathroom now so I was delighted when he was willing to buy this one. I was sure he'd say no when I told him it was $62 but not a peep did he say. They may be cheaper other places but you know that a old saying about "a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush." We got it.

He declined to take a shower Wednesday and Thursday nights so I knew Friday was going to be the day he was going to shower, afraid or not afraid. He would not let me put his new chair in the bathtub but we got it done. All the while I'm in that tiny bathroom assisting him he was kissing me and telling me "It won't always be this bad. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you, and you would have made a good nurse." I'm sweating to beat sixty, perspiration dripping off my hair down my neck, and he's wanting to kiss me, I was not amused.

Today 'we' made homemade chicken noodle soup. He said it was good but I don't like chicken so I wouldn't know. He's eating next to nothing so I'm willing to cook anything he's willing to eat. He likes pasta and he likes chicken.

His normal weight is 208. I weighed him this morning and he's at 193.2.

In addition to everything else he doesn't do change well so he became very confused. He never stops wanting to help though. Grandson about freaked out when he discovered a knife and fork in the silverware drawer that Bob had obviously taken from dirty plate to cabinet drawer, bypassing the dishwasher. I could have told him that wasn't all, I've also found dishes that went from table to cabinet without being washed.

Today he seems to be some better. Things are settling down and he's beginning to adjust.

He's enjoying all the added attention. Seems to think we're new best friends and wants to keep me close at all times.

Something New

Last night I sent Bob off to enjoy a Hops game with son Rodger. He had a good time and talked a lot when he got home.

This morning I made myself a cup of (hot) coffee and read like I do every morning. In time it occurred to me he wasn't up. I went to take a look and saw he was in trouble.  He told me he could not urinate.

I left him to get his clothes on while I closed up the house before leaving for the emergency room.

I heard a thud that made me cringe. Yep, he had fallen in the bathroom. Then he decided to go back to bed and not go to the ER.

I sat around here until 2:30 and told him he didn't have a choice. Enough was enough.

He had 895 ml of urine in his bladder. A bag of IV fluids is 1000 ml. He's home now with a Foley catheter. He's clueless about dealing with one but it's not my first rodeo. I have a lot of catheter experience from the days I cared for my parents.

My first task for tomorrow will be to get him in to see a urologist. I'm a lot more knowledgeable about the heart than I am plumbing but apparently I'm going to learn about it. Not a subject I'm remotely interested in but I don't think I get a choice.