Monday, January 26, 2004
I need another day's buffer from me and the world...
...so I've unplugged the phone, left the paper on the driveway to pick up during Mom's walk today, I'M letting Mom sleep in for awhile although not past noon and I don't think I'll be going to Costco so we'll have to make do with what we have, today. This is the way I take breaks from caregiving...I huddle away from the world and simply attend to our den.
I hope to be doing some polishing on the sites today and maybe some more posting depending on what strikes me. I do have one short errand to run. Once Mom is up, of course, a lot goes into keeping her interested in being up. I'm not avoiding that part. What I'm avoiding is the initial clean-up-pill-feed part. I've got it down to a routine. I usually don't perform it as a routine but am fully present. Lately though, as you know, as I've mentioned before, the smell of urine is getting to me. I notice this is not distracting me from attending to my mother's body and noticing it well enough to be able to detect any changes. I usually look forward to this part of the morning ritual. So does my mother because it involves a lot of light to medium massage. She's soooooo easy!
I've established search engines and search pages for all the Mom & Me partitions. There are many pages whose navigation menus need to be augmented with these three pages, many many many, so in the meantime I'm posting them on all index pages, all main pages (blogs, tables of contents) and all search pages. After I do this I will index all the search engines to include all the navigation menus.
I've completed adding/renewing stat counters to to all pages that previously had them. I've included individual test pages in the stat count. I have not yet included individual history pages. I may never do that. I don't think those are often visited. Although it would be interesting...
...I wonder when "all though" became "although"...must remember to look that up.
Mom's doing well. I've checked on her a couple of times since I arose (late, I haven't yet taken my own walk). Yesterday, by the way, was a good example of meticulous diabetic medication dispensation. She arose late. Arising from "night-sleep" always implies break-fast, so she gets the same stuff regardless of her arising time: 10 mg glipizide, 500 mg metformin (unless her blood glucose is below 70, which sometimes happens; then I give her 425 mg metformin). At lunch, whether or not I take her blood glucose, I adjust her dose according to what she's eating. Lunch can vary from a light meal between full meals or the full meal before a light dinner-snack. Yesterday, although she remained up until retiring at midnight, she only ate two full meals: A hefty breakfast at 1400 at which she took all her break-fast pills and a meal dinner consisting of a hearty dinner soup, half a bag of popcorn (I try to give her some popcorn every day; it keeps her regular, and I imagine it scrubbing her out), a requested 12 oz can of V-8 juice ("the spicy kind") and a 5.5 oz. can of mandarin orange sections in light syrup. I was glad to see that she her appetite was hearty. This was "lunch", though, so I held off the glipizide. Her back has been feeling better. Although she asked for two ibuprofen at "lunch", she wasn't sure that she'd want ibuprofen before she went to bed. If she didn't I knew she wouldn't eat. Throughout the evening I plied her with fluids to keep her hydrated.
Sure enough, at bedtime she didn't want ibuprofen, which I honor. I know it causes at least a little stomach bleeding and I also know that she's gotten used, now, to asking for something if she's in pain. She also more readily shows pain, which is good. Back pain is a whole different experience for her.
The upshot was, since she had only two meals (and since they were hearty and her day was filled with lots of fluids) she didn't receive an evening dose of glipizide with or without metformin. I'm sure she didn't need it.
Which reminds me, I need to restart posting her blood glucose levels. They've been quite good over the last several months. Although I'm not sure what the technical stuff means to her, even Mom is pleased when her blood glucose readings are under control.
Well, I've got a few more main pages to do and I think I'll check in on Mom again. I may not get back around to the Updates page for a couple of days so expect any current news about the site to be posted at this location for the time being.
Later.
I hope to be doing some polishing on the sites today and maybe some more posting depending on what strikes me. I do have one short errand to run. Once Mom is up, of course, a lot goes into keeping her interested in being up. I'm not avoiding that part. What I'm avoiding is the initial clean-up-pill-feed part. I've got it down to a routine. I usually don't perform it as a routine but am fully present. Lately though, as you know, as I've mentioned before, the smell of urine is getting to me. I notice this is not distracting me from attending to my mother's body and noticing it well enough to be able to detect any changes. I usually look forward to this part of the morning ritual. So does my mother because it involves a lot of light to medium massage. She's soooooo easy!
I've established search engines and search pages for all the Mom & Me partitions. There are many pages whose navigation menus need to be augmented with these three pages, many many many, so in the meantime I'm posting them on all index pages, all main pages (blogs, tables of contents) and all search pages. After I do this I will index all the search engines to include all the navigation menus.
I've completed adding/renewing stat counters to to all pages that previously had them. I've included individual test pages in the stat count. I have not yet included individual history pages. I may never do that. I don't think those are often visited. Although it would be interesting...
...I wonder when "all though" became "although"...must remember to look that up.
Mom's doing well. I've checked on her a couple of times since I arose (late, I haven't yet taken my own walk). Yesterday, by the way, was a good example of meticulous diabetic medication dispensation. She arose late. Arising from "night-sleep" always implies break-fast, so she gets the same stuff regardless of her arising time: 10 mg glipizide, 500 mg metformin (unless her blood glucose is below 70, which sometimes happens; then I give her 425 mg metformin). At lunch, whether or not I take her blood glucose, I adjust her dose according to what she's eating. Lunch can vary from a light meal between full meals or the full meal before a light dinner-snack. Yesterday, although she remained up until retiring at midnight, she only ate two full meals: A hefty breakfast at 1400 at which she took all her break-fast pills and a meal dinner consisting of a hearty dinner soup, half a bag of popcorn (I try to give her some popcorn every day; it keeps her regular, and I imagine it scrubbing her out), a requested 12 oz can of V-8 juice ("the spicy kind") and a 5.5 oz. can of mandarin orange sections in light syrup. I was glad to see that she her appetite was hearty. This was "lunch", though, so I held off the glipizide. Her back has been feeling better. Although she asked for two ibuprofen at "lunch", she wasn't sure that she'd want ibuprofen before she went to bed. If she didn't I knew she wouldn't eat. Throughout the evening I plied her with fluids to keep her hydrated.
Sure enough, at bedtime she didn't want ibuprofen, which I honor. I know it causes at least a little stomach bleeding and I also know that she's gotten used, now, to asking for something if she's in pain. She also more readily shows pain, which is good. Back pain is a whole different experience for her.
The upshot was, since she had only two meals (and since they were hearty and her day was filled with lots of fluids) she didn't receive an evening dose of glipizide with or without metformin. I'm sure she didn't need it.
Which reminds me, I need to restart posting her blood glucose levels. They've been quite good over the last several months. Although I'm not sure what the technical stuff means to her, even Mom is pleased when her blood glucose readings are under control.
Well, I've got a few more main pages to do and I think I'll check in on Mom again. I may not get back around to the Updates page for a couple of days so expect any current news about the site to be posted at this location for the time being.
Later.
