oh and my computer is a pile of crap and not overly portable so I'm trying to do everything from my phone and being and old and with dodgy fingertips and limited tryping skills, this is not going too well......

Glad to hear that Beest is home, we get little enough good news.
We are upset today because we just lost a friend. The young man that we befriended has turned on us. I asked him to pay me the money he owes me for my old MacBookAir that I sold him before Thanksgiving. I wanted my $100.00 and Keryx's cooler and some other things we had lent him since he is moving away. After accusing us of fucking him over he told me to fuck off and never contact him again. Fucking kids. We have no idea what we did to fuck him over.

Oh fargon! What a fucker! So sorry that your kindness has been abused :(

monster, you do have support from here. I'm glad to hear you know you can count on it. Obviously I'm concerned about Beest, but only after reading that over a couple times was I able to figure out it wasn't his shin that was skinned during some preparatory procedure.

poor thunderboy...

hang in there, hang in there.

Upset isn't the right word here, more the feeling you have where *more* is piled on, stuff you have to do stuff you have to worry about, stuff you don't have much agency to affect.

Eight days ago, we went to go visit my Mom, take her a present, say hi, etc--me and Twil and SonofV. We knocked on her door as usual and it took a looooong time before there was any action. My Mom had a stroke in 1997 and her mobility and her speech were both ruined. Consequently it takes her five minutes to walk the fifteen feet from her bed to the door, assuming she is already awake, already has clothes on, brace on, shoes on, cane nearby, etc etc. .... anyhow.

We waited a long time, an aide came in, then left, then more waiting. Finally I went in and found her stuck on the toilet. Not glued, but too weak to get herself transferred. Then she wouldn't let me do the transfer, and it sounded like she was in pain. I finally went to go get help and three aides and I all managed to get her standing up, cleaned up, and pants up. What an ordeal.

We sat and visited for awhile, but Mom looked like hell. We left and then Monday night I got a call that she'd been transported to the hospital. I was able to visit her Tuesday after work after being reassured that I didn't need to be on the first thing smokin. The dignosis was sepsis (!!!) possibly due to a UTI or pneumonia or both. I know UTIs in older patients is serious condition, and google tells me I should fear sepsis even more (thank you google, you fucker).

When I got to see her, she was groggy and in pain and the nurse asked me how long she'd been sitting on the toilet. This was Tuesday evening, and I recounted our long wait in the hallway on Saturday. Come to find out that Mom didn't come down for breakfast Monday, which isn't out of the ordinary for her. She didn't come down for dinner either, also not unusual, but in the same day, *that's* a problem. They came and checked on her and found her on the toilet again, throwing up a little and very weak. The nurse asked me about the wound on her butt. Um, what did you say? It appears that she'd been sitting on the toilet long enough to have an open wound in the shape of a toilet seat on her butt, I saw the picture the hospital took.

W. T. F.

Now an Adult Protective Services investigation is underway, initiated by the hospital social worker, who deserves a superhero cape in my opinion. After these many days in the hospital, she is responding well enough to the medical attention (no UTI, pneumonia antibiotics, pain medication, turning in bed, CT scan of head negative... maybe other stuff) that she is being discharged today to a rehab facility where she's been once before.

The goal at the rehab location is to PT to increase strength and tone to help get back to self transfers and to heal the wound. Mom spends a *LOT* of time sitting, except when she's lying down, also on her backside. Her time spent up and walking is ... nothing. It's the time spent transferring from one sit to another sit or lying down.

At her assisted living facility, a couple new services will be added to her account, things previously left to the resident--toileting assistance and skin checks. It sounds a little ... I can't think of the word. It's another assault on her previous adult independence.

She used to have it all together, as much as any of us. Then the stroke, that's the biggest bomb. The paralysis, the aphasia, those insults can fuck up your quality of life. Then my Dad died, her husband and caregiver, the man who loves her--another blow. She had to move across country, in with me and my family, which was chaos. Then move again to an assisted living facility. Some stability for awhile.

Time marches on as they say and her aging made her more susceptible to these new problems, and the indignities in response.

Protip:

Don't have a stroke.

I'm sorry BigV. That's a big load to carry.

Getting old sucks, not only for the cogger but everyone who loves them. :(

Oh, BigV. I'm SO sorry to hear this news.

I lost both of my folks last summer, 18 days apart. For the 10 months prior, I did everything I possibly could to keep my folks safe and comfortable, but every day they slipped one notch lower on the healthy/independent scale.

It's crushing to watch a parent go through this. My heart is with you. :sniff:

All our old folks are slipping right now. My MiLs hubby a retired professor of biology couldn't remember "porcupine" today. :(

Sorry to hear that, Griff. Was he doing the whole, "the, uh, the little animal with spikes, what's it called," or did he say the wrong word without knowing?

Sorry to hear about Mom, V. Sounds like you/they have things more in control now.:fingerx:

Sometimes it just takes that one person to make a difference.

I have an update to my earlier unhappiness at not getting a bonus...


management have listened to the feedback (howls of derision on the company Yammer and message board and a palpable freeze in morale) and, with the input of the union reps cooked up a response over the weekend.

Yesterday we got into work to emails advising us that while we won't be getting our bonus, we are now getting a 'discretionary recognition award' - it's about 60% of what we would have got as a bonus, but 100% more than we were getting as we went into the weekend :)

I'm pleased for you.
But now I'm thinking about math and am unsure of myself.

Well...the maths is no doubt incorrect - very much not my strong suit :P