Chapter 169 - Uneventful

Our period of rutness continues.

I had intended to drive to Cane Toad country to visit my mother on her 88th birthday. Having felt a little off colour & the Swine Flu' scare discouraged me from committing to the effort. Several weeks ago we had lunch at the Club in the Highlands town, firstly on a Monday with our son & company then the following Wednesday one of her Ugly sisters & better half. Then last Sunday we experienced a terrible lunch with fellow village neighbours at a local motel's restaurant to which we will never return - I had a Chicken Caesar salad with gritty lettuce, she a tasteless prawn salad also with grit. That night she had stomach problems. So avoid the motel near the caravan park on the eastern road out of town. I often fear that when we are out with friends that I talk too much, inhibiting her participation. Yet last Sunday over a period of some two & a half hours (the service was dreadfully slow) she hardly said a word, even though I spoke very little, but we were seated between a couple of voluminous people.

We religiously perform on the Wii Fit each evening. Both of us are loosing a few kilos. I bought the brain exercising DVD but neither of us have really taken too it. She continues to become more independent, walking more without assistance, picks up the bath mats each morning, tends to forget to take the CB radio with her as she moves around the house. She fears she may be kicked out of the Monday hospital physio falls group because they have too many participants and she is performing well. At the last meeting of the physio group a woman convinced her to see the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". I doubted she would enjoy it. We went on Wednesday afternoon. Afterwards she commented that the cast should have spoken with an accent or in German with subtitles to make the story more realistic. Very perceptive in a way, for the words spoken in clear English made the characters so much more like us, not different, perhaps that was the director's intent.

I often here snuffling & snorting sounds, sometimes slurred speech, from her bed when I wake in the middle of the night. Once late while I was still reading she "barked" twice so loudly that i jumped, nearly dropping my book. In the morning when I mention such events I am accused of dreaming myself. She has not mentioned arm pains since a few days after we bought the new pillow.

She saw some scenes on TV from the old silver town near Big Hill way to the west and mentioned that would be a good place to return to for embroidery photographs. She said she was willing to make a van trip over there. I began trip planning, doing some work on the van in preparation. My enthusiasm has waned. Her tenseness, her discomfort and my lack of enthusiasm for hitching, towing & parking the van reminds me of the tensions of pulling the van. The problems arising from cramped conditions, a small bed, space & seating for eating reading, watching TV makes me wonder why we bought a van, not that she complains, yet I feel her discomfort. And our van is reasonably large with separate toilet & shower. We will see.

If I ever need to drive down the street I try to encourage her to come out with me. A few days ago she came with me, stayed in the vehicle rather than walk with me to a couple of shops. She tends to grab the handle on the dash at traffic lights & roundabouts, warns me not to get to close to the vehicle in front even when I am at least a vehicle length behind and grabs the handle. Tends to un-nerve me a bit. On the way home I saw some 50 galahs on a lawn yet when I excitedly drew her attention to them she yelled so suddenly "to watch where I was going" that I propped automatically although there was no danger of colliding with anything. It was just that my eyes were briefly away from the roadway. Such travelling becomes stressful.

For the record I provide the following details about her pill regime:

0600:
Sinemet CR 200/50mg
Sifrol 1mg
Vit C 2x500mg

1200:
Sinemet Cr 200/50mg
Sifrol 1mg
Inderal 40mg
Vit C 2x500mg
Omega3 1000mg

1800:
Sinemet CR 200/50mg
Inderal 40mg
Vit C 2x500mg
Omega3 1000mg

2200:
Astrix 100mg
Inderal 40mg

2300:
Omega3 1000mg
Vit E 500iu
Vit B1250mg
Vit B6 100mg
Grapeseed Forte 12g equiv
Folate 500iu
CoQ10 200mg
Calcium/magnesium/D3 125/200/1mg

Something in that pot-pouri and her regular physio plus Nintendo Fit exercising she is being done good. After reading entries in the PIEN and CARE groups I am very thankful that we are in such good condition after 18 years.

She continues with machine embroidery. We are about to finish an on-line course and she will be pleased to be done with that.

Addition some time later. She is about to do an exercise for the embroidery course and was having problems hooping the fabric. She called me for assistance because the tips of her thumb & index finger on the right hand are numb, no feeling in them, as well as both thumbs being painful. This condition has been there for some time she says "but I don't want to complain".

Chapter 168 - Somewhere to Lay One's head

Must be at least 6 weeks ago that she arranged for a woman to clean the house (except my dungeon) once a fortnight for $50 for 2 hours. I am sure that in the past I have spent just as much time cleaning yet now the house does look much tidier, neater, cleaner. Of course, she (not the cleaner) always tidies a little before cleaning day, which is usually Friday. The cleaner even "points" the sheet poking out of any Kleenex box she comes across as well as toilet rolls on their holders. On the first occasion she (not the cleaner) had stripped our beds to wash the sheets, then found the cleaner using clean linen to make the beds in hospital fashion. So now once every 2 weeks my bed is quite tight & cosy, less so with each following day.

At the Caring Physician this week mention was made of the blemish beneath her toe nail, and we showed him the photographs of it that I took. He was only mildly interested, said the toe may have been knocked, to keep an eye on it. He was interested in whether the Surgeon who chopped the melanoma gave her a thorough check up, including lymph glands. Well he hadn't, so CP gave her a thorough going over. When she raised the matter of numb, tingling arms & fingers each night while sleeping, CP said this is usually not due to circulation problems as I had supposed but the position of the head on the pillow He recommended a special contour, head fitting pillow that moulds itself by pressure & warmth to better support the head & neck. He said Hardly Normal stocks them. So down to the store we went, with assistance she even managed the stairs going down at the entrance, asked the shop assistant who said when shown the piece of paper on which CP had written the details "That looks like my father-in-law's writing." And it was. CP had recently bought the same pillow for his wife. I don't suppose he receives a kick-back for recommending a $209 pillow? Anyway, she believes she is benefiting from the using the pillow. This morning she says she hasn't been sitting on the side of the bed in the middle of the night to relieve the pain & numbness since using the pillow.

Yesterday she wanted to sort some items in the kitchen cupboards. We ended up sorting & culling several cupboards of foodstuffs. The activity even encouraged me to sort & file paper work in my dungeon. The sort of dangerous activity one resorts to when feeling burnt out by too much embroidery & not motivated enough to take a trip away from this town. We are in a rut.