Sunday Stealing

Why Do You Want To Know That Meme

Stolen from: Love me some surveys

1. List 5 things you want to do before the year ends.
* Get new glasses
* Get things settled with my mother and Assisted Living
* Talk her long term care insurance company into paying for it
* Have a good Christmas day with Tom and his family
* Finish reading "Americanah," which it seems like I've been reading forever

2. What color are your pants?
It is rare when I am not wearing black pants.  Today I am wearing black pants.

3. Favorite motivational quote.
"You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp." -- Anne Lamott

4. When was the last time you drank coffee?
I am drinking coffee now.

5. What was the last thing you ate?
A Boursin cheese omelet

6. Favorite animal.
Wild:  Elephant; Domestic: Dog

7. Favorite song.
Oh so many.  I love Leonard Cohen's "Halleluja"

8. Last movie you watched?
In the theater: Mr. Holmes; at home: Unbroken

9. Any turn ons?
Crashing ocean waves

10. Any turn offs?
Listened to any Republican politicians lately?

11. List 4 big words off of the top of your head.
*antidisestablishmentarianism
*triskadekaphobia
* sphygmomanometer
* anthropomorphism

12. What are some meaningful movies?
* To Kill a Mockingbird
* Dead Poet's Society
* A Thousand Clowns
* Dave
* Gorillas in the Mist

13. 2 most important people in your life right now?
Walt and my ophthalmologist!

14. What are 3 things you want for Christmas?
* World Peace
* A Clean House
* Donald Trump's withdrawal from the race
(gift wrapping optional for all three)

15. When was the last time you read a good book?
The last three I read were excellent:  Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben, Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming, and The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

16. What was the last thing you studied?
Directions for making the recipe I made last night.

17. Do you have any nicknames?
Just Mom and Grandma

18. Favorite kind of perfume? (fruity, alluring, etc.)
I haven't worn perfume in years, but my favorites tend to be more floral than earthy.

19. Do you have any international friends / friends who live out of state?
Too many to list.  We have hosted foreign students often and have friends all over the world, plus many, many friends who don't live in California.

20. What is something unique that you do every single day?
Wear socks with Birkenstocks

21. If there was a movie based on your life, what would it be called?
Funny the World

22. When was the last time you bought a gift for someone?
I recently ordered my husband's Christmas present--and no, I won't say what it is.

23. Are you a shopaholic?
Definitely not, well, except for books.

24. What are some songs that always make you feel better?
A lot of songs by John Denver, a lot of songs by Judy Garland, songs from many musicals, like The Music Man, Les Mis, and Mama Mia (I am embarrassed to admit the last one!), Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, and a host of oddball singles I have loved over the years.

Oh say, I Can See!!

You never appreciate peripheral vision until you don't have it and then suddenly have it again!

I went for my post-op visit this morning.  On the way to Kaiser in Sacramento, I was remarking that the GOOD thing about not having vision on one side is that the rising sun didn't get in my eyes.  That perk would not last long.

We arrived at Kaiser and, since there were no clerks on duty, as directed we just went into the waiting room.  Soon other people with eye patches joined us and we compared notes.  "How are you doing?"  "How are YOU doing?"

When Dr. Quiroz came to get me, I learned she was the only person in the office.  No nurses or clerical staff working.  As she led me to the exam office, another woman was coming out and giving her a big thank you hug. I guess we all pretty much felt that way.

I know I did when she removed the bandage and I could READ THE EYE CHART!  Well, only the first two lines, but I READ THEM and I almost kinda read the third line.  (It was a D and a Q and I told her it looked like two Os.  She told me things would get better as the eye healed.)

There is a stitch holding the new lens in place and that will be removed sometime before the end of the month.  She told me she is going off to Brasil for 10 days to visit her husband's family in Florianopolis, so naturally we discussed Brasil.  I asked her if she spoke Portuguese and she said she knows a little (but when I left and said "muita obrigada" -- thank you very much -- and she responded "bom dia" -- good day -- I guessed she hadn't progressed very far yet!)

Ever since we left the office, I have been experimenting with my new vision.  I have to wear sun glasses when I am outside for awhile and the eye still needs eye drops for a few weeks, and it will be a month at least before I can go to the optometrist and get examined for new glasses, but I CAN SEE!!!!!

I was aware of the change as soon as we got on the freeway and I was aware of cars (and big trucks) on my right side again.  Kind of a shock to have them coming along side of us suddenly.

I still close my right eye every now and then (but oddly enough it doesn't automatically close as it has been doing for a very long time).  The prescription on my glasses is wrong for the new lens and so the eyes don't mesh well together.  In fact, when I remove my glasses, the right has almost the same as the left as far as vision, though the astigmatism makes what I'm seeing somewhat cloudy.

I don't know what it's going to be like when everything heals and the swelling inside the eye goes down (I am not aware of it myself), but anything is an improvement over what it was two days ago and I am very happy.

I called my mother this morning to report that my surgery had gone well, though I knew she wouldn't remember I was having surgery--and she didn't, but she was happy it had gone well, though she was disinterested in the details.

Her stepson, who visited her yesterday, had texted me at some point to let me know that she had misplaced her apartment key and he wasn't sure what to do.  By the time I received the message, it was too late for me to make any suggestions, and when he called me today, I realized it would not have done any good at all even if I had returned his text.

Apparently she was very upset about losing the key and he checked everywhere, even in the cushions of the couch and her chair.  He said she was extremely upset and he had never seen her like that before (sounds like she was with me a few days ago)  They managed to get a new key made and so the crisis was averted but when he was getting ready to leave her clock was chiming the wrong time, so he opened the door to see if he could reset it...and there were her keys, inside the clock. 

To my knowledge this is the first time she has done something like this, which is classic Alzheimers behavior (putting objects in weird places).

It's time to check on assisted living for her and now that my eye surgery is over, I can take on that task this week, finding out what resources are available to her and how much extra it will cost....and then whether or not her long term care insurance will cover any of it.  The nice thing about Atria is that "independent living" and "assisted living" are in the same place.  She wouldn't have to move, but she would have more assistance from people who would come to her to do things like manage her meds and make sure she gets to meals.  That would take a huge weight off my mind.

But tonight I am not going to worry about that.  I can see again and I'm going to enjoy that happiness and not concern myself with my mother at least until tomorrow.

Men with Purses

There is a strange phenomenon at Kaiser Hospital at Rancho Cordova.  It's the sight of men wandering around with purses.  These are not "murses' (man purses)...these are regulation women's purses.  They belong to their wives, whom they have accompanied to the eye surgery center and who have gone off to have their cataracts removed!  I left Walt in the waiting room with my purse and my cane and the poor guy had to carry both around while he went off in search of food, since we had to leave so early this morning he didn't get an opportunity to have breakfast.

It all went well and none of the complications that could have happened with this weird eye happened.  This morning I have my post-op exam and have the bandages removed, which will be wonderful because my glasses don't quite fit over the bulk of the bandage and I have to wear my glasses perched on the tip of my nose, which is uncomfortable.  I am actually going without my glasses unless I need to see something clearly.

As the last time I had cataract surgery, 6 years ago, I described it as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  I shared that with Mannie, the guy who helped me through everything.  He said he had been to Disneyland for the first time a year ago and he understood my description.

When your name is called, you are taken to a room full of cubicles set off by curtains, each of which was filled with someone with hair nets, paper booties, and covered with blankets.  I changed into a blue hospital gown.  It is called a "Bear Paws" and apparently it is rigged so that if you are cold, it will also warm you, but I wasn't so they didn't plug it in so opted not for that feature.

They set me up in my little chair, which is not unlike a dental chair, but with more protections.  I was reclined, pillows put under my head and knees to make me as comfortable as possible.  Then a saline drop was started in my left arm and a blood pressure cuff attached to my right.  Both arms were fit into kind of a slot into the side of the chair.  I could move them, but the slot kept me from disturbing either the drip or the cuff.

Eventually the Disneyland part of the "ride" started.  I was moved to a cubicle where there was a door in the back of it and given Versed with Fentanyl, which provide pain relief, relaxation, and amnesia. The purpose is to prevent pain and anxiety during the procedure, and if there is any discomfort or stress, the patient is likely not to remember it.  The page I found describing Versed said "Versed is a benzodiazepine, a drug that causes relaxation, sleepiness and can cause a partial or complete loss of memory during the use of the drug."  Considering how much I have slept in the last 24 hours I think that is a fair statement!

Then it started.  The door behind me banged open and my chair began to snake across the room ending up in another smaller procedure room.  All I could see was the ceiling racing by.  During the procedure, my good eye was covered and the cataract eye was held open while Dr. Qiroz began working on it.  As they remove the cataract and the lens all you see are flashes of different colors of lights.  There is no pain but this time I had a weird sensation that "scenes" would pop up in my head as if I were watching TV and my eye would automatically try to follow the characters on the "screen."  I don't remember most of them, but one was a Victorian era family dressed like little Downton Abbey on the Prairie.  Very strange.

I could see the new lens as it was inserted and very briefly, before the eye was bandaged, I could see my doctor.  The first time I had vision in that eye in about 2 years, so I knew it worked.  Then the chair snaked back through the room again, the door banged open again, and I found myself back here I started from, having had a very nice wild ride indeed.

They put me in a wheelchair and took me downstairs, where they had directed Walt to drive up.  

It was 11:30 when we left Kaiser.  I had not eaten since 8 the night before, so we went to a place in Sacramento that we like for Mongolian BBQ.  The hostess was very nice, seating me close to the buffet line so I didn't have far to walk (seemingly unaware that I still had to walk the length of the restaurant to load up my bowl and then back to the table after I had it all cooked!

But it was delicious.  We always skip the chicken, pork and beef options and head right for the lamb, mixed with all sorts of noodles and veggies and sauces to be cooked on that big open griddle.

And then home.  I went right to the recliner and was asleep very quickly.  As I write this it is 6:30 a.m. and, except for waking to eat the half of my BBQ dish, watch Jeopardy, Amazing Race and Gwen Ifill, I have pretty much been asleep since I got home!

I see the doctor at 9:45 this morning and see what I can see!  I'm so glad it's over and that there were none of the complications that we had discussed.  At least as far as I know with the results still under a bandage.

Blue Apron

4 December 2015

It was exciting to drive up and see the box sitting in front of the door.

Laurel and I had discussed Blue Apron, a program which ships you the ingredients and instructions for x number of meals per week.  She said she and Tom had been using it for awhile and really liked it.  She also said that I could have the option of having three free meals to see if I liked it or not.

I knew I wasn't interested in it, but heck, I wouldn't say no to free meals.  My main concern, in addition to the expense, was that the meals would be too small for us.  We eat a lot (even tho I don't eat much at dinner).

I set it up with Blue Apron for 3 meals a week for 2 people.  The cost would be $60 a week, waived for the first week.  I was pleased to see that I could look at the meals before they were sent and if there was something I didn't want, I could make a substitution.  I could also choose to skip a week if I chose.  But here it was:  my first Blue Apron box.

I opened the box as soon as I got it inside and was pleased to see that the first thing on the top was cards for the menus included with instructions for how to make the meals.

Then came the "meat" of the box...and I was pleased to know that everything in the box is recyclable.  

Everything looked fresh and good.  There were ingredients for a beef dish, a chicken dish and a fish dish.  And everything was included, including a small piece of singer, and teeny packages of spices and the world's smallest bottle of soy sauce.

They recommend using the fish first so tonight I made Crispy Catfish Shoyu Ramen.  I never cook fish because it's too expensive, so I was pleased to have a fish dish to make.

I first boiled the noodles that were included (and realized immediately that this was more than enough for the two of us).  I then chopped all the things that needed chopping (scallions, yu choy and ginger) and cut the catfish into 4 pieces.

The fish got drenched in a spiced batter and deep fried and when the dish was finished, it looked like this.

I had given Walt the larger serving, and even at that, I could only eat helf of mine.  It was delicious.  We both agreed.  I talked about how if you think about it, it amounts to only $10 per person per meal. which is cheaper than a restaurant meal.  And based on what we got this week and what I see coming up in the next couple of weeks, we will be eating food I don't normally buy because it's too expensive.  We'll also be eating veggies, which I don't always cook.  And what's best is that I don't have to plan 3 of our meals during the week!

So, to my surprise, we are both happy with Blue Apron and are going to keep it going for awhile and see what we think.  

Thanks, Laurel!!!

Piece o' cake!

Peace on Earth

3 December 2015

'Tis the season of peace on earth and good will toward men.  The season when, if we're not singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" or fighting each other over some sale item at Target, we are supposed to be celebrating the birth of the King of Peace.

So why did the noon news report another mass shooting in San Bernardino?  17 killed, at least 14 injured, the killers themselves shot (so no chance to get their reason for the slaughter).  This makes 2 this week, doesn't it?  It's become such a common thing that I can't remember now...or was the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting last week?

There is a lot of chatter about whether or not this was an act of terrorism.  I thought mass murder of innocent victims was, by definition, terrorism.  Or is it terrorism only when proven international shooters are involved?  I knew when they identified the shooter as "Sayed Farook" that speculation would assume that somehow ISIS was involved.

When something like this happens, I feel sorry for the newscasters, who must be on the air 24/7 and have all that dead air to fill, hours when they know nothing, when they have no new shocking video to show, so repeat the same scenes over and over again all the while speculating on who might have done this terrible slaughter and what might their reasons have been.

I heard one guy tonight who was like nails on a blackboard saying "Well they coulda went home and they coulda went to get explosives and they coulda went back to see all the chaos they caused."

If you're going to wildly speculate, at least get your grammar correct!

I hate that we are becoming so used to mass murder.  I hate that we are all now sending our condolences to the families of the victims again and that many funerals will be shown on television in the coming week again.  I hate that this is our new reality

I hate that nobody is willing to address the issue of gun control.  I hate that this country is being run by the NRA.

I had lunch with Char today.  She's freshly returned from Ireland and I helped her readjust to normal by taking her to an Irish pub for fish 'n' chips and Guinness.  We talked about San Bernardino and the gun culture that has come to define this country. 

We talked about how of course tightening up gun regulations is not going to change anything immediately.  There will still be shootings and we will still shake our heads and wonder what is going wrong with this country, but as she pointed out there was a time when the first cigarette laws went into effect and didn't do much except in small areas, but now we are very aware of where we can and can't smoke and we get angry with people who violate our air space.

So if we tightened up gun laws and enforced them, over time, perhaps we would see a change in the mentality of people in this country.  Maybe we'd only see mass shootings once a month...or maybe we'd go a couple of months without people being shot.

But if we continue to let the NRA dictate our gun laws, things are only going to get worse.  And it doesn't make a difference if it's international terrorism or domestic terrorism.  Dead is dead.  Terrorism is terrorism, whether it's inspired by ISIS or by lies about Planned Parenthood spread by legislators determined to limit health care for women, men and children.

Couldn't we just take a break for the holidays?  No more mass murders world wide until after the birthday of the King of peace?  Please?

The Humanization of Emily

We are all too familiar with that voice.  That real life person with the robotic voice who explains our options to us, or gives us the same information she has given a thousand other callers about something -- our bank account, or medical question, our insurance information.

I know that for businesses "voice mail hell" has probably improved the speed with which they can handle problems, reduced the number of employees needed and all that good stuff, but for those of us dealing with voice mail hell, it's....well....hell.

Today I received a call from the nurse at Kaiser who was letting me know what was going to happen with my surgery on Friday, what time I had to be there, how to get there, what I could and could not eat or drink, etc.  All the normal things you'd expect to be told.  She was not the robotic voice because she called me, so we actually had a conversation and she was quite pleasant.

I asked her if she knew how much my co-pay was going to be and she told that she didn't have that information, but I could call Patient Services to get the answer.

That's when I entered voice mail hell.  I went through several menu options before I reached the first Real Person, who gave me the usual spiel in that bored, robotic tone.  She told me she would transfer me and I was put on hold and listened to hold music.  I've never heard anything so painful!  It was Native American flute music, like you'd hear around the fire on an Indian reservation in an old western movie.  It might not have bothered me if I'd only had to listen for a few minutes, but it was a five minute wait and that odd flute (played too loud) just began to hurt my ear.

Finally the next Real Person came on the line.  I'll call her Emily for the sake of the title of this entry, but I don't have a clue what her name was. Emily spoke in the same robotic monotone, reminding me I could get the information I needed at their web page (she reminded me of our old GPS voice which always sounded so exasperated when we didn't follow her commands...we later replaced her with "Nigel," a British voice who doesn't have a clue how to pronounce Spanish names, but we like him much better).

We talked back and forth, me a human, her a robot, and when we finished, she asked if there was anything else she could do for me.  I told her that yes, I just wanted to say that they had the absolute worst hold music I'd ever heard.

I must have hit her tickle-me-Elmo button because she laughed and laughed and laughed, totally lost the robot voice and told me that whenever she has to call in to the hospital and gets put on hold, she thinks the same thing.  We had a nice conversation and a nice laugh about our mutual hatred of the hold music and I was pleased that I'd found the key to "humanize" her!

*  *  *

Tomorrow is going to be a new adventure.  Our daughter-in-law set us up with three free meals through Blue Apron, which she has been using and likes very much.  I have no intention of continuing for a second week (at $60 a week for the two of us), but I will enjoy our sample.  I'll have something new to try cooking.  This first week we get a fish dish (the menu has disappeared from the web site so I have to try to remember), a kind of steak and chicken balls, with accompanying vegetables and starch.  Seems to me that I recall all of the side dishes were things I had not cooked before.  A new adventure.

Thanks, Laurel!

Holidailies Is Starting Again -- I think

I am assuming that since it's December 1, Holidailies is starting again but I can't believe that I am the first to post, but I will go ahead with that assumption.

So...hi everyone!  By way of introduction to readers new to me because they are coming to Holidailies for the first time, I'm Bev Sykes, 72 year old grandmother living in California with my husband of 50 years and our dogs Lizzie and Polly.  I am a very part time theater critic, volunteer at a used book store and our local hospital, and take care of my 96 year old mother with dementia.  Our children are scattered -- Jeri and her husband in Boston, Tom and his family in Santa Barbara, Ned, his wife and dog in Sacramento (the closest to us).  I have been writing this journal since March of 2000 and this is about the 5,719th entry (I sometimes get off by a few numbers)

I have no Christmas theme to begin this with because today was such a crazy day.  On Friday I will be having my cataract surgery so today was my pre-op at 9:45 in Sacramento.  I also was scheduled to work an afternoon stint at the Sutter hospital information desk, my first time working alone after my last orientation session which was about a month ago.  I let someone in charge of the volunteers that I had the morning appointment and expected to be back to start my stint at 12:30, but in case I was late, I wanted to let the person I was relieving know.  I was informed that the person I was relieving said it was no problem and she didn't mind working until I got there.

I set off for Sacramento early and was 30 minutes before my appointment and then was not taken in for an hour AFTER my scheduled time.  I had brought my Kindle with me and then discovered its battery was dead so I downloaded my Kindle book onto my cell phone and marveled at the technology we have at our fingertips.

The nurse did a preliminary exam and told that after my appointment I would have to pick up meds at the pharmacy.  I sent a text to Walt telling him that there  was no way I would get to the hospital by 12:30 and asked him to call the information desk and let them know.

The doctor explained in depth what to expect on Friday and how it might differ from when I had my first cataract surgery 6 years ago.  I have "the worst" kind of cataract in the remaining eye and it is quite thick, so they may have difficulty sucking it out and part of it might fall behind my eye and require a second surgery to clean it up.  The possible problems continued all the way down to blindness in the eye, all of which, I was reassured, were very rare.  I'm holding the good thought.

I went to the pharmacy and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to wait forever and was actually back at my car at 11, which meant I would almost assuredly make it to Sutter on time after all.  Knowing that the information desk was covered if I was late, I even stopped off at McD's for a quick cheeseburger lunch.

I realized I had left my lanyard, with my ID information at home, so made a flying stop at the house on my way to the hospital and, amazingly, I arrived at the information desk exactly 3 minutes late.  The person I was replacing had left, leaving me no notes about anything (including the quilt I was apparently supposed to be selling tickets for!)

This is not brain surgery.  I sit at the desk and answer questions, directing people where to go and finding the room numbers of patients for visitors.  Still, there are some routines that I needed to remember and it had been a month since I was there and had never worked alone before.

The first order of business was to log in with my brand new computer ID.  I'd seen it done before.  Log in and immediately a page with all the hospital patients pop up.  Only it didn't for me.  I got some weird database page and could not find the page for the patient list.  There are 2 IT guys, Dotie whom I had met before, and Don, the head honcho.  I saw Dotie and asked him about my problem, but he said he didn't know anything about the Epic program, which we use, and I would have to talk with Don.  I called Don and left a message.

Then I called the woman I replaced and she didn't have a clue about the computer and she, too, told me I'd have to talk with Don.  I called the woman who trained me and she didn't know how to fix my problem, but gave me HER log in and password so I could get the patient list up.  

By logging off as her and logging on as me, I found the problem.  When I looke at her menu options she has something called "secured house census" which is not one of my available options.  So it seemed a simple matter of just adding that to my menu.

Don finally came down to check out thecomputer and I told him what I had figured out and he said "Oh...you're using Epic.  I don't know that program."  He said I'd have to call the Help Desk in Sacramento and gave me their number.

I called the help desk and went through the story for the guy who answered and when I got to a certain point he said "Oh...you're using Epic.  I don't know that program" and said he would transfer me to the Epic help desk.

I finally talked with someone who could understand me and he said he would put in an "incident report" and they would notify me by mail.  So I never did get on Epic on my own account.  I don't know if it will be fixed when I work again (December 8).  In fact, I don't even know if I can work then.  Depends on how the surgery goes.

I came home and collapsed.  It was more activity than I'd had in one day in a long time.  Now I have to go soak my eye, which I must do every night until Thursday, when I start putting eye drops in the eye.

I had an appointment with an audiologist for tomorrow to start the process of getting hearing aids, but I decided that I wasn't up to a lengthy appointment tomorrow, and I have to go check on my mother anyway, so I have asked them to call me in January.