Bethany update

Grandpa Jim was back in the hospital last week for a few days due to Bronchitis. He was released Friday and is back home. I came up Saturday to spend a few days to make sure he behaved hiimself and get the home health and appointments coordinated. He is doing much better. He still considers chocolate cake one of the major food groups but at least he is including meat and vegetables in there as well. He has a really nice lady who comes in three days a week and cooks him a nice hot meal and I cook when i come up too. He is concerned that we are trying to fatten him up for Thanksgiving. :) 

Biscuits and Gravy

Everybody has a comfort food. For me it is biscuits and gravy with pasta as a close second.  I have had a week that has made me rather cranky. My husband (God love him) decided today would be a good day to do something for me. He made me homemade, almost from scratch, biscuits and gravy. He brought me the plate and I about melted into the couch from delight. So I tucked into the gravy goodness and enjoyed my little pieces of heaven.

Smashing Dishes

I saw the craziest thing on TV the other day. Someone has created a place you can go and smash dishes. You write  your frustration or problem on the dish and then throw it against a cement wall. I think this is a great idea...you are able to get out your anger/frustration without hurting anybody and when you are done you have everything you need for a mosaic.  

Gas Price

Wha-hoo!!! Gas is down to $2.52. I can actually afford to drive somewhere. Now all I have to do is find a car. :)

House update

The sellers accepted the offer made on the house. Now it is just paperwork. The plan is to take possession on November 13th. I know it looks small in this picture but it is deceptive. It has 5 bedrooms, two full baths, a full babsement (kinda finished, electrical, wallboard, painted concrete floor) decent sized kitchen, and family room. The backyard is pretty flat and fenced.  It is within walking distance to the Catholic church , St Gabriel. It also has a K-8 school. It is a few blocks from Penguin Park, for those who know KCMO.  Everybody keep your fingers crossed that this goes as planned

Here we go again...

Dad had his third chemo treatment on Thursday.  After each treatment he has had a temperature and not felt well but last night he spiked a temperature of 101.1 (anything over 100.5 is a red flag) and became quite sick. It was a little scarey for me. I have not seem my Dad sick like that. The on-call doc told him to go to the ER. He really didnt want to go. I told him as a nurse I really thought he should go, but as his daughter if he didnt want to go I wouldnt make him. He decided to go. They started IV anitbiotics and kept him at least until the blood cultures come back (Mon or Tues). 

I am finding I have to put my nurse hat on when dealing with my dad in order to keep my sanity. It probably drives him nuts though.  I want to take care of him so I have feel like I am doing something.  I pray daily for strength. 

No longer needing a bigger bucket....

So for a while now I have been subscribing to the idea of when it rains, it pours and I need a bigger bucket. Well as of today,  I no longer need a bigger bucket....I am now to the point of building a dam. We found out last night that Aunt Sarah, has pancreatic cancer. She is at Research. We do not yet know a stage or prognosis.  Please keep her in your prayers. 

Bethany

I spent the past 5 days in Bethany with Grandpa Jim. He was in the hospital last week for excerbation of his congestive heart failure.  Now part of this is probably due to his version of meals...Breakfast is a cinnamon roll and chocolate ensure, Lunch is an ensure (if he remembers), and dinner is a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a chocolare ensure.  While I was there I made actual meals for him. If I made it and put it on the table and just told him to come eat he would but if I asked him what he wanted then he would not eat and just have a peice of cake. Needless to say I just made meals and told him to come eat. 

We got home health set up to come in three days a week to clean and cook for him. He wasnt very happy about this.  He kept fussing about it, but gave up when I reminded him I was just as stubborn as he was.  Being there for more than a few hours, I really got to see how bad his short term memory loss is. 

Hopefully, we can get things finalized and get him moved to KC quickly. WE have found a house and are in process of making an offer on it.  It is near Penguin Park. 

Week of stress

This week has been eventful.

Dad started his chemo and ended up getting admitted to the hospital. At first they thought it was an infection but have since ruled it out. They think it may be a reaction to the chemo. He

was released today to go home but we made do this again next chemo round.

Grandma has been admitted to the hospital too. She has blood clots (DVTs) in her leg. She is deteriorating quickly. Grandpa was admitted to the hospital too for CHF (congestive heart failure)


We are still looking for a house to move into near Mom and Dad or Lisa. We will be moving in with my grandparents and I will be their full-time nurse. We have found a house but still need to get it approved by the sister triad. We hope to have this done sooner than later.

The stress level is way off the charts right now.