A photo of A PART OF me…before /after DS

[Spiky Bugger]

 

[JackieOnLine]

smaller and wearing prettier colors: sounds about right.

and, of course I can see what your face in your avatar.


how'd I miss this post? I know, I don't get notications when even people I "follow" start new threads. am I doing something wrong?

I just hit the notifications and maybe I need to hit "latests posts" instead but seems like I should get a notification when someone I follow starts a thread.

 

[countryham]

Damit girl!!!

 

[galaxygrrl]

Yes!!!!!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Oh! And I now weigh about 25 (or more) pounds less. Unfortunately, I got shorter, so my BMI still could get lower!

 

[JackieOnLine]

how are you feeling, though?

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Me? I’m hanging in and only half as crazy as my neighbors!

And opioids and cannabis seem to work fairly well.

 

[JackieOnLine]

OK, I'm glad to hear it but still want to know more about the facility where you & Mr. Sue are living.

Do you interact any with your neighbors, crazy or otherwise?

Are the kitchen staff doing any better with meeting your needs?

 

[southernlady]

Oh! And I now weigh about 25 (or more) pounds less. Unfortunately, I got shorter, so my BMI still could get lower!

I completely understand that!
You are looking good.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

OK, I'm glad to hear it but still want to know more about the facility where you & Mr. Sue are living.

Do you interact any with your neighbors, crazy or otherwise?

Are the kitchen staff doing any better with meeting your needs?

Funny you should ask. There was a woman, whose NAME I remembered because we worked together in 1963! We talked almost daily…but she’s outside, dead, in the parking lot, awaiting the coroner. Oh, well…she HATED being here and SAID she was leaving. I don’t think she meant this way.

Mostly, I converse with a few staff members, and Molly, the dog who helps the front desk person with her job.


(She was a tad out of it. About 86 years old. Barely ambulatory. Mostly made sense when she talked. We both remembered the sexiest guy we worked with. But she lacked insight into knowing that she BELONGED here, needed more help than she admitted. I think of this as PROBABLY the last place I’ll live. I figure MrSue might need Assisted Living before I do. His recall is worsening. But until it’s impossible, we will stay in this unit together and his assistance can come here. And by then, they may be rolling me around in a wheelchair. UNLESS OF COURSE, some catastrophic event happens first.)

 

[Spiky Bugger]

OK, I'm glad to hear it but still want to know more about the facility where you & Mr. Sue are living.

Do you interact any with your neighbors, crazy or otherwise?

Are the kitchen staff doing any better with meeting your needs?

Oh! We ”fired” the kitchen. We got a $1550/mo rent reduction and get our own meals delivered. It’s fine for now.

 

[JackieOnLine]

we worked together in 1963! We talked almost daily…but she’s outside, dead, in the parking lot, awaiting the coroner. Oh, well…she HATED being here and SAID she was leaving. I don’t think she meant this way.

oh, Sue, I'm so sorry.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

oh, Sue, I'm so sorry.

You know…she was (erroneously) convinced she was doing well, getting better and was ready to go home. So she must not have been feeling awful, right?

She wanted to take her car to get her radiator flushed. Staff warned her that she looked kind of pale and should maybe wait. They reminded her that she would be dependent on her walker, which she was using as a rolling chair. She insisted that the auto worker guys would help her. Staff helped her to her car, she got in, and caregiver returned to the building.

Ten minutes later, caregiver wandered into the lobby, noticed the car still outside and said to receptionist, “She’s still sitting there? Maybe I should see if she needs something.”

She was ALMOST dead. Paramedics came but were unable to stop her “active dying.” But because she WAS dead there, no ambulance could be called to take her to a hospital…so a small tent was erected around/above her. It was HOURS before the coroner arrived.

All of that to say, we are all going to die. And there are many, many less pleasant ways to do so. She had been unsteady on her feet and was barely ambulatory. But she seemed to think she was doing well otherwise and never mentioned pain.

(She was 86 years old, never married, no family. But a dear friend of 40 years…a widow, also with no family…and she were thick as thieves. They were the only beneficiaries in each other’s wills. Now I kind of wonder about the friend.)

 

[southernlady]

Sue, I’m sorry about your friend but there are worse ways to go.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Sue, I’m sorry about your friend but there are worse ways to go.

Indeed there are!

Not technically a friend. Friendly NEW neighbors, with a forgettable past! We worked in the same office, in 1963, did not recognize each other now, and she kinda freaked out when I recited her ENTIRE name. (Lots of people could figure out that in Joyce A. (Surname), the A was probably “Ann.” But I knew her “confirmation name” (something Catholic kids pick out for themselves at about age 13) was Jane. And she said NOBODY knew that.

Anyway, several staff members were shaken by it…and the receptionist sat all day looking at the “tent” around her blanketed body in the parking lot. One of the newer Administrators said he was still kind of “shocky.”

Another said, “Maybe, if I had checked on her sooner…” and I interrupted her…”That’s Stage Three. Depression is next. But then you can get to Acceptance and you will feel better. So keep moving.” She kind of laughed.