Monday, March 27, 2006
I'm surprised it's been so long since I last reported, here.
No problems. We've just been doing our thing. I've been reporting regularly in The Dailies. You know this if you've been keeping up with things over there.
I'm unusually interested in the results of Mom's blood draw on Friday, mainly because of the couple of recent incidents of using furosemide on her and having to extend the administration beyond one dose. I discuss that a bit over in the post for today at The Dailies. I'm particularly interested in her kidney functions and her electrolytes. I'll be picking those up in the morning and reporting them here immediately. I'll also be spending the day compiling her blood pressure and blood sugar reports and setting up her Health Review, all of which I'll fax to her doctor either tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on how long it takes me to get all that stuff together. The Health Review will include an outline of what I want to discuss at her upcoming appointment next week. As usual, I'll be publishing that here. Oh, yeah. Gotta remember to reserve a car, too.
I've been setting up Northern Exposure for her a lot over the last few days, which is nice because I enjoy that program, too, although somehow I've managed to keep myself incredibly busy and have yet to watch an entire show.
I also decided to start a "Caregiver History" of our family, as much as I know of it. When I finish it will be published in the Essays section. I decided to do this because it occurred to me that if I catalogue what I remember of caregiving within our family as far back as I'm aware, including what I know of caregiving that went on within extended family, towards both elders and youngers, it might give me a foundation for understanding how it is my born-into family has arrived where it has, at present, in regard to Mom and how we surrepitiously designed her current caregiving situation. I'll let you know when I finish and publish it. This is an aspect of caregiving I don't think anyone's ever addressed: The caregiving history within families and how it relates to "present" caregiving arrangements, for anyone within the family. Something tells me it is important to take this into consideration when studying Ancient One and Infirm caregiving...just a hunch, on my part. Somewhere "back there" in these journals I know I've written a little about caregiving of elders in my mother's family and what I perceived her generational attitude to be toward elder care, as well as what I understood about her parents' generation's attitudes. Now it's time for me to record everything I remember and see what sense I can make of it. So far, nothing spectacular has occurred to me but I've just begun. Expect this one to take awhile, although not as long as the TOC! Somehow, it seems to me that if we know where we've been and what our legacies are in regards to caregiving, it will be easier for us to see where we are and make more conscious, practical, informed decisions about where we're going. I mean, as a nation, family to family, we have all these ideals but we're far from successful at launching them, despite the few and spectacular efforts that are being tried (one of which I mean to address within the next few days). I think part of this lack of success is because we are both unaware and afraid of our family caregiving histories.
One more thing I want to mention regarding "no one" in my family reading my journals. In my superlative snit I was not only unfair to MCS but to MFS, as well, who, for a long time, kept up very regularly with the journals. Since she's gone dark I have no way of knowing whether she continues to read them, or even if she still has a computer. If she is, her computer is hiding any kind of indication that she might be following along. But, anyway, I know it was unfair of me to declare that none of my sisters was doing any reading here, when, in fact, only one of my sisters was completely ignoring these journals.and I apologize for this. I have to watch myself when I'm angry. I have a tendency to condemn the entire world when only one country has disappointed me; and, as well, drag out peripheral disappointments and throw them in with the actual disappointment without identifying them as separate and acknowledging that, within the context of a particular seige of anger, certain disappointments don't belong. Now that I'm aware of this, I'll watch for it.
To bed. It's going to be a long day, tomorrow. Although, the rain will bless its length and I know I'll feel in peak condition.
Later.
I'm unusually interested in the results of Mom's blood draw on Friday, mainly because of the couple of recent incidents of using furosemide on her and having to extend the administration beyond one dose. I discuss that a bit over in the post for today at The Dailies. I'm particularly interested in her kidney functions and her electrolytes. I'll be picking those up in the morning and reporting them here immediately. I'll also be spending the day compiling her blood pressure and blood sugar reports and setting up her Health Review, all of which I'll fax to her doctor either tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on how long it takes me to get all that stuff together. The Health Review will include an outline of what I want to discuss at her upcoming appointment next week. As usual, I'll be publishing that here. Oh, yeah. Gotta remember to reserve a car, too.
I've been setting up Northern Exposure for her a lot over the last few days, which is nice because I enjoy that program, too, although somehow I've managed to keep myself incredibly busy and have yet to watch an entire show.
I also decided to start a "Caregiver History" of our family, as much as I know of it. When I finish it will be published in the Essays section. I decided to do this because it occurred to me that if I catalogue what I remember of caregiving within our family as far back as I'm aware, including what I know of caregiving that went on within extended family, towards both elders and youngers, it might give me a foundation for understanding how it is my born-into family has arrived where it has, at present, in regard to Mom and how we surrepitiously designed her current caregiving situation. I'll let you know when I finish and publish it. This is an aspect of caregiving I don't think anyone's ever addressed: The caregiving history within families and how it relates to "present" caregiving arrangements, for anyone within the family. Something tells me it is important to take this into consideration when studying Ancient One and Infirm caregiving...just a hunch, on my part. Somewhere "back there" in these journals I know I've written a little about caregiving of elders in my mother's family and what I perceived her generational attitude to be toward elder care, as well as what I understood about her parents' generation's attitudes. Now it's time for me to record everything I remember and see what sense I can make of it. So far, nothing spectacular has occurred to me but I've just begun. Expect this one to take awhile, although not as long as the TOC! Somehow, it seems to me that if we know where we've been and what our legacies are in regards to caregiving, it will be easier for us to see where we are and make more conscious, practical, informed decisions about where we're going. I mean, as a nation, family to family, we have all these ideals but we're far from successful at launching them, despite the few and spectacular efforts that are being tried (one of which I mean to address within the next few days). I think part of this lack of success is because we are both unaware and afraid of our family caregiving histories.
One more thing I want to mention regarding "no one" in my family reading my journals. In my superlative snit I was not only unfair to MCS but to MFS, as well, who, for a long time, kept up very regularly with the journals. Since she's gone dark I have no way of knowing whether she continues to read them, or even if she still has a computer. If she is, her computer is hiding any kind of indication that she might be following along. But, anyway, I know it was unfair of me to declare that none of my sisters was doing any reading here, when, in fact, only one of my sisters was completely ignoring these journals.and I apologize for this. I have to watch myself when I'm angry. I have a tendency to condemn the entire world when only one country has disappointed me; and, as well, drag out peripheral disappointments and throw them in with the actual disappointment without identifying them as separate and acknowledging that, within the context of a particular seige of anger, certain disappointments don't belong. Now that I'm aware of this, I'll watch for it.
To bed. It's going to be a long day, tomorrow. Although, the rain will bless its length and I know I'll feel in peak condition.
Later.
