Clouds drifting by

We got Dana settled at the new place.   It is located in part of a smallish hospital.  I've been a patient there (hip number one) but she has never so they were creating an entire medical record for her.  This is a med system different from the one we normally use.  Our usual one does not have a local in patient rehab facility.  And, of course, there is no sharing of records.  If congress were going to do something useful that would be it.  Mandate that med groups share med histories with each other.  Everything we do with this one will disappear (or would without me) from record when we return to our normal system.  If there were only somewhere in the world with oh, I don't know, a National Health System.  Why doesn't someone invent that?

Anyway, back to reality.  She got there OK in a transport and I met her there an hour or so later.  This place is MUCH closer and easier to get to so I don't mind shuttling back and forth.  They don't allow visitors until 3PM so there is no inteference with PT.  That is a good idea, I think.  

I managed to break into her record at the new place and have their app installed so I can track what is going on.  Communication is the last thing that health systems worry about.  Especially communication with the caregiver.  I went to the web site to see if I could find a contact, a case worker kind of thing, but there is no phone number at all on the entire system's web site.  Zero.  They do not give a way to contact them.  Amazing.

What I did find, buried in her online record was:


So early next week.  I'm thinking I need to get the bed problem solved, a fait accompli, before she comes home.  

I'm going to try to take Toby to see her today when we visit.  She should be able to roll out in a chair and meet him.  He has been really sad to be without her and she would get a huge mental boost from having him in her lap for a bit.

I was scheduled for pickleball this morning and we got rained out.  I just signed up for a 10:30 group.  I really need to get outside and run around and have a couple of hours not thinking about anything.  And I can stop by the Mattress place on my way back.  

This morning was bordering on depression.  It is a strange feeling to be in the house by myself (ok, me, Toby and Zoe) for any more than a couple of days.  I'm fairly sure that I'd adjust over time but for the moment I've lost the anchor.  And I've got four days of meals for two staring me in the face.  The food box came yesterday.  On the bright side it means I won't live on cereal like I normally would do.  But I've got to cook it all up and freeze the portions so it doesn't go to waste.  And decide whether to cancel the one coming next week or roll the dice that Dana will be back.

And the weird thing about all of this is the cost of the in hospital to us will be zero.  I can't imagine going through this and having to have all the debt involved.  It would be crushing.

Turns out Dana fractured her Greater trochanter:



right next to the hip joint. It is a combination of osteoporosis and a bad luck kind of slow motion fall. She never even hit anything but there is a muscle that I'm guessing just pulled the bone apart a bit.

The upshot is they are moving her to an inpatient rehab facility connected to a hospital in Georgetown. Not far and a place we've spent time in during the years we've lived here so not at all an intimidating place or a too big one.

But it is another step into the morrass of senior living, one of those things that happens to old people.

The really bright side is she will get lots of information and encouragement. She really needs to have a personal trainer, someone to push her like a physical therapist would but one that is paid by us directly and has long term interaction. Of course, so do I.

I went bed shopping yesterday and figured out what we're going to do. Our bed needs to be lower so I'll replace the box bottom of the bed with an adjustable platform. Keep our mattress for now but the platforms can be adjusted to the height you want so it will make her life much easier. Our head and foot and frame of the bed stays the same. It is actually a minimal change for a huge gain. I'd have done it long ago but it seemed like a huge and expensive change neither of which is true.

The store I got this info from was the same one we got our current mattress from and they were and are wonderful. Both times we got a non commissioned sales guy who had all the info and was happy to have us buy what WE wanted, not what he wanted us to get. So nice.

I'm going to get osme lunch and maybe rest a bit then go to see her. Now she's not coming home right now, things are all different. Adjustments will be made.

I only wish I could explain it to Toby who sits on his chair looking for his mom.

I acquire tools as I make things. The last coop I made I ended up selling. The sale covered the cost of materials and a portable radial arm saw. Totally worth it.

A few minutes ago I went outside to put up a bit of chicken wire on the coop. After about five staples I stopped. No longer is a manual staple gun useful. In a pinch and at the right angle I can use it but for $50 I can get a battery powered one that also is a light duty nail gun. SOLD!

So I'm putting off the chicken wire until my new gun gets here.



A little Tim the Toom Man grunt escaped my lips as I hit the cart button.

Not much to see but I put hardware on the the three doors that needed it. And got the thing up on blocks. I actually did try to life it myself but it weighs 150+ I'm guessing. So I got the jack out of Dana's car and used it to raise up oen end and put bricks under it.





Next is some trim and painting and then chicken wire and some flashing and tin roof and .. oh, yeah, chickens.

Earlier this morning, Zoe was on the porch with me and spotted a squirrel on the fence. Zoe is not too long for this world. She is deaf and about half blind and has arthritis so bad that she can hardly get her back end off the floor sometimes and I think she is in pain more than I realize. But she still eats and processes the food and can spot a damn squirrel from a mile away:



Her life was once all about chasing the damn things back up their tree. She used to lay in wait for them like a cat. When they would creep down the tree she'd take off. Never once got close but everyone got some exercise.

Now she only does it in her head.  Still the hunter though.

It is too windy to play.  My annual membership at the Georgetown Tennis Center runs out sometime this summer, I think.  At that point I might shift over to the town closer to me and try to play indoors.  The set up is different.  They do something called paddle stacking.  You put your paddle on a bench where there are others.  When four of them are together and a court is available you play.  It is somewhat intimidating as cliques are already formed but I'm sure over time it will be the same as now.  I'll get to know people.  Like some, dislike some, bear with them all.

Much as I hate to leave the people I know it is further away, more expensive, and the weather is always a problem.

Movement is so important to me and PB really facilitates it. 

So I might try the local rec center and, yuck, meet new acquaintences.

Meanwhile I've been trying to figure out the drug situation.  I set up Dana's morning prescriptions and vitimins for the next seven days.  She has 13 different drugs to take in the morning.  She has a good system but it is definitely hers.  She has symbols drawn on the tops of the different bottles so she can see which is which without having to pull them out and read the label.  Great but not really transferrable.

I'm researching apps that might workand have loaded up one for me, Medisafe, that currently has my drugs (I take four each day).  There are about 10 drug apps with varying uses.  Some really try to work with your entire medical history.  I contend that AI should be doing that with a doc supervising.  I've not met a doc yet that can integrate all the information in my chart much less Dana's.  It is not that they don't have the capability it is that they don't have the bandwidth and time.  AI has infinite bandwidth and time and, from what I've been able to see using ChatGBT and others, would be exceptional at asking me the right questions at the right time.  Suck in the data from my phone and watch and scale and why is my blood pressure cuff not wireless and automatically recorded like my weight scale is?  Suck it all in.  Monitor me.  Ask me a question if there's an anomaly.  Do all the stuff that a doc who sees me once a year can't do.

Meanwhile, back in reality, The Medisafe app is pretty damn good.  It will read the label on a medicine bottle and get all the necessary info to import.  Just a few more clicks and it is listed and set up to remind.  Click one button in the morning when I've taken my pills to say that I've taken them all at this time and I'm done.  It is really elegent.  Good reporting and she can share with me so I can see what she has and when it needs to be refilled. 

Still testing and hers will be the real test but at $30/year it is a great deal.  I'd pay more and with my few meds I think my version is free.

Otherwise I'll probably do a little work on the chicken coop today.  I've got to install latches and mount one door.  I'll need to buy paint soon.