Ups and Downs

When  your blood glucose is 40, they let you eat anything and everything you want.Here's Floyd with cheesecake on one side and a chocolate shake on the other. 

So this week was crazy. . . . Let's just say first up.  Maxine is not  happy to be here and is displaying some pretty drastic signs of pathological depression.  Hallucinating, not eating, not sleeping, refusing to perform any amount of self care, complaining when someone else tries to do it for her.  We have had many discussions and I am sorry to say not all of them motivated by love on my part but I am working on that.

The real excitement happened on Thursday night.  Rodger heard Floyd call out to him and found him on the floor.  He said something about the floor being slippery.  Weird.  He also so that he seemed confused.   Soon after  he got up again and fell again this time hitting his head.  Rodger came in to report that he was acting really strange and saying weird things and what should we do.  Well he takes a blood thinner and as an ER nurse who has seen bad stuff I naturally thing he must have a bleed and we need to get out of bed and call an ambulance.  Rodger decides to watch him for awhile and sleeps or more like lays on the couch and listens to him alternately breathing and muttering incoherent stuff.  Finally early in the morning hours we call an ambulance and the guys come and do their stroke exam.  Floyd's speech is slurred, he is disoriented, he is listing to the right and thinks he is upright.  All strange behaviors.  Unfortunately the battery on their glucometer doesn't work.  I don't get too upset about that because I am thinking bleed and perhaps they should just go to Harborview because that is were we send out bleeds.  Anyway on arrival to the ER they check his glucose level, that's what we do for strokes/bleeds and his is 40.  Super low.  They give him an amp of dextrose and viola he is back to normal.

All goes well, except a repeat glucose level and they send him home.  I give him his meds upon arrival, have lunch and go to Costco to pick up a glucometer.

All goes well until the pre dinner glucose level, that is 47.  We give  him juice, then dinner, lasagna etc. and desert.  2 hours later before bed his glucose is 42.  I make him drink an Ensure and say we will check it again in 20 minutes.   This time it is 47.  Not cool.   So I call the on call doctor to see what I can do about it.  He says to take him back to the ER, to find out if it is real.  Well that gives us ideas about the glucometer we got for free.  I check my level, 87.  Normal.  Rodger checks his, 90, also normal.   I call the ER and ask for the nicest doctor there.  I get Dr. Zwart, a nice one.  He is kind and takes some time to talk to me and tells me to bring him in.  We check his level again at 10:30 and it is 31.  So after a quick glass of OJ we pack him in the car.  I have a pocket full of mints and keep feeding them to him all the way to the ER.  On arrival he is 40.  Great juice.  

After an amp of dextrose and 15 minutes his level is back to 31.  Not normal.  They give him another and start him on a 5% drip.  About 1:30 we head home for some sleep and he is admitted with hourly dextrose and a 10% drip.  No one can figure out the mystery.

 

 

The contents of the pill box for Saturday

So the pharmacist comes to his room and asks about his meds, any changes, anything look any different?  Perhaps  you could go home and get the actual things he takes and let us look at them.  Rodger went back to the hospital but forgot to take the pill dispenser.   This is the picture I sent him and he showed it to the pharmacist.  See the little rectangular one?  That is the culprit.  Amaryl, an oral diabetic medicine.  Why he had it or where it came from I don't know.  When I looked at the bottle, the script was from 2012 and should have been tossed in 2013 but no.  

Free At Last

We brought him home today and he was pleasant and agreeable through the whole ordeal.

Maxine is another story.  She does not like me and tells me often, She is unhappy to be here and lately has stopped eating unless I trick her into it.  If I just put something snacky beside her she will absent mindedly eat but at the table with food.  No way.  She doesn't want to be dressed or undressed or walk or sit on the toilet.  She asks me "What have I ever done to you?" at least 20 times a day.  Lately her thing has been to say, "Jeanne, I really do not like you" I told her that was okay.

Last night I got a little steamed and had to get over it.  I listened to the Women's broadcast.  The messages were really great but pretty far from my present mindset.  One sister talked about not leaning on the world but being centered in Christ.  Another talk was about Holiness in every minute, nope not me, at least not that day.  The last Sister talked about Certain women, Certain and sure of their testimonies and commitment to Christ.  I could agree with that one.  The thing that really got we was a story President Eyring told.  He said that many years ago his little boys were jumping off their bed or doing something that was blatantly wrong and he said he went in and picked him up by the shoulders and raised him to eye level.  He then said he heard the Spirit say. "you are holding someone important".   I have been thinking about that ever since.  Maxine is someone important in God's eyes and she should be that to me.  I have had a better day today.  I haven't lost my temper.  I have tried to be more loving.  I have even told her I loved her a few times in response to her question, "Jeanne, why do you hate me?"  I am not perfect and I am saying it so I will feel it and believe it.  I am working on it.  We should all think of those we meet with that voice of the Spirit in our heads and heart.  This is someone important.  

Wow! am I tired

It might not look like much unless you had seen the before picture.

So tonight is Sunday.  Last Sunday night at about this time we were passing the airport heading to Walnut Creek to go clean and stage Floyd and Maxine's house.  The open house was scheduled for the next Saturday ( that was yesterday now).  We had planned to leave much earlier but one thing led to another and we didn't really get out of the house until 8:30 or a bit later.

We stayed overnight in Eugene.  Thanks to hotwire we got a deal on a hotel room with a nice bed and great free breakfast and got on the road pretty early the next morning.

The trip was smooth with just one detour to view Mr Shasta from Lake Siskyou.  It was beautiful, worth the time for sure.

Craig had arrived at the house on Saturday and and had started sorting.  The dining room table was full of "treasures" there were stacks of stuff everywhere.  The rooms where full, the closets full, shelves full, cupboard and drawers full.  It was pretty overwhelming.  Jon came over and helped for awhile but we weren't too organized.  We tried to make some headway but didn't get too far, then we had to go get something to eat.  Ron came and we went to dinner.  By the time we got there I was starving and could have eaten anything and everything. I did sort of fill up on chips and salsa.  I admit that.

Tuesday, lets see. . . . More cleaning and packing and sorting.  Wednesday, I sort of had a meltdown.  Rodger had been busy running for boxes and going to the bank and running to Goodwill, all valuable things but I had been stuck packing and carrying boxes and trying to make decisions about stuff that wan't mine and by Wednesday when I was out of boxes and dad was running around and then taking Craig to the airport I had to call him and say "I am done doing this by myself" and hung up.  I think I was tired or something.  Anyway he came back and I calmed down and we just got back to work.

A small sample of a huge shoe collection

That day two sisters from the ward came and one cleaned the hallway bathroom.  It look better than when I saw it first in 1977.  Then they started in on Floyd's office.  The desk was mounded with papers, the floor was covered in papers and boxes.  The couch was covered in all kinds of stuff, clothes, paper, books, boxes.  You get the idea, complete chaos and stuff.  Well they boxed stuff and sorted stuff and took them out of the room.  The wiped off stuff and rearranged until it looked like an office again.  Some how that made all the difference with just two rooms cleaned by whole outlook changed.  Suddenly the whole thing looked possible.   I wanted to kiss them both it was just so great.

After this little epiphany I sort of decided to just tackle one place at at time and that was pretty successful.  It was easy to get distracted and get caught up in other stuff but by and large I tried to do it and little by little things got cleaned up and cleaned out.

Jon had come over Monday night and helped a bit and also gave us the name of a young man, named Dan,  in his ward that might help out.  Rodger contacted him and he came on Wednesday and was amazing.   He did not look like a hardworking guy, sort of chubby, bespeckled nerd sort.  But he just got to it and worked like crazy.  There was a BIG pile of yard was and construction was and 50 years of broken stuff and old lawn furniture.  We had a dumpster delivered and the pile was supposed to go into it.  Well Dan turned out to be amazing.  He and some brothers from the ward got the pile into the dumpster.  After that Dan asked what else we needed help with.  Rodger and I got this big idea to pull up the dirty carpets from the bedrooms and the living room.  Dan said fine and went to work.  Another brother from the ward helped for awhile and two missionaries came to offer their service.  It made all the difference!


We found some treasures along the way but mostly it was just dusty stuff.  Being pretty unsentimental about my own stuff and more unsentimental about other people's it was pretty easy for me to just donate most of it to Goodwill or give it away to whoever wanted it.  If Maxine ever comes back to herself and asks what happened to her 75 pair of shoes or all her clothes and jewelry I will be in big trouble.

Ron calls this the spudnick pattern, it is really celestial, lots of place settings, Interested?  Call me.  

Friday Rodger stopped on the way back from Goodwill and brought back lunch about 3:00.  The house was mostly clean, just some floors to mop and the car to pack. So we sat in the sunshine and ate our Chipolte, not really minding that we were terrifically off schedule.  We were both pretty happy and satisfied with all we had accomplished.

Last things the floor, counters and put away stuff

And we're done, at least for now

A Sunday Miracle

And it was a Miracle!

Update.  Floyd and Maxine arrived with Rodger on Saturday night.  The transition for me began on Sunday morning. 


Rodger woke up and got ready for his meetings.  I had trouble sleeping and still not having too much luck by the time Rodger was leaving so I got up and had a shower and got ready, fixed the pot roast.  By then Floyd came out in his PJ's pushing his walker.  We got him down the stairs walker and all and fixed some breakfast.  He is smiley and grateful. 


I attempted to get Maxine up.  She flatly refused.  She wondered loudly what that awful picture was on the wall.  (one of my watercolors) and what the terrible thing in the ceiling was.  (the sky light).  She loudly told me she did not want me to take her to Seattle.  I told her that unfortunately she was already here.  It didn't start well. 


Finally, I told her that I needed to get my parents ready for church and I left her wet in the bed. 


Things went pretty smooth at the parents.  They were up when I came in.  We got ready pretty fast, no showers today.  Just some shaving for dad and teeth brushing for both.  A little hairdressing for mom.  My tie tying skills are still pretty sketchy.  I can only do it on one side but unfortunately can't remember which side that is.  We were out the door by 9:45 and that was good considering I didn't get there till after 9.  I made the excuse of needing to brush my teeth to run home and check on the Picketts.  


Gratefully, Rodger had come home.  Max was sitting in a chair at the table ignoring her cereal.  I brushed my teeth and told Floyd I would be back after sacrament meeting.   I wondered about her just sitting there but what can you do?  


Fast forward.  Sacrament meeting was good.  I must have been seeking help and I found it.  I listened to testimonies.  All the folks who spoke have been through some tough things, yet they were all strong and grateful and committed.  I am no different.  Before I left that morning Maxine yelled to me.  "I don't want it to be hard"  Well, we all get hard stuff and we try to handle it with grace.  The grace I am seeking is the grace the Savior gives, to do the things we otherwise would be unable to do.  I found some of that in testimony meeting.


After the meeting I got my parents settled in Sunday School class and dashed home to my new flock.  Maxine was still in the chair, still soaking wet.  So in spite of loud protestations we "walked" into the bathroom, took off the wet and put on the dry.  While trying not to brush her teeth, Maxine wailed, "I look terrible!"  I concurred and proceeded to brush her hair.  More loud wailed ensued but it got all fixed up in a little bun, out of her face.  Yeah!  I fixed some lunch that she nibbled at, tried to get them interested in something to now avail and went back to pick up the parents. 


On the way home I noticed,  my mom comment on the beautiful sky, my dad's cute smile and their gratitude for the rides to church and the help getting ready.  They tried to send me home with rootbeer and extra food.  Food that I had delivered to their house earlier in the week.  They ate toasted cheese and vegetable soup.  I thanked them for their pleasant attitudes.  We made an arrangement to eat dinner at my house about 4:30 and I left them eating their lunch.  Mom told me "You know I can do some of the work around here now"  I am sure she could.  I will have to talk to Ana about that. 


The afternoon was pretty quiet.  Rodger got home at about and we talked to some of the kids on facetime.  I tried to involve Floyd and Maxine.  I think he enjoyed it but she was pretty stoic and very passive.  I am not sure how she could resist Olivia and James and Owen but she did it. 


I picked up my parents at 4:30 and charged them with a task.  I asked them to keep the conversation going and to be pleasant and happy.  AND THEY WERE SO GREAT!  My dad clapped for Maxine as she made it to the table (wailing).  My mom told her how she had had to use a walker and how much she hated it.  She also said it was terrible to have "strange people in your house when we were talking about her physical therapy.  She also reminisced about my reception and how Floyd and Maxine came to Edmonds for that and "how nice it was to see you then".   Above and beyond Lucy!  In the middle of all this pleasantness there was some  inappropriate outbursts from Maxine but by and large it was a great dinner.  I was so proud of my parents.  My dad tried to hold her hand and pat it.  My mom patted her on the shoulder.  ( she sort of got yelled at for that) But the gesture was priceless.  They really rose to the occasion.  When I took them home I told them thank you a bunch of times.  We put on Singin in the Rain and I would have stayed and watched it with them but felt like I should go back up Rodger for bedtime. 


We were both pretty wiped so when Floyd was getting ready for bed we got Maxine ready for bed too.  She "was not going to go to bed" or "sit on that toilet" or anything else we suggested but she did them all. 


We are wondering how the next two months will go.  I spent the day today

intermittently working and calling for primary care in psych services.  I did give Floyd a haircut this am and Rodger went looking for some new pants for him. 


There are more miracles I am sure.  We will just have to look for them. 

Thursday morning,   Things are looking up!