Monday was another relaxing day. Maria came in and fed the hungry hound dog, fed me, took Dude for a nice long cruise, cleaned and wiped everything down, and then went home. The rest of the day, I just did various things to keep my mind busy, listen to music, play games, watch TV, edit my photos, and write my blog until Rachel came in. When she came in, she fed the hungry hound and hung up the human/dog costumes outside to air out before we put them away. Before long, Halloween will just be a memory, not the best memory, but a pretty good one under the circumstances. She got me something to eat, washed some laundry, did some light housekeeping, wiped everything down, and then went home. I found a Halloween picture that one of my childhood friends posted of her son and her twins on Halloween; they moved away, and I haven't seen them for a long time, but the kids are getting so big. They are coming down in December, and I can't wait to see them. I watched TV and tried not to use my arm anymore until I fell asleep.
Tuesday was a pretty good day. Cindy came in and fed the hungry mongrel and then got me dressed and up in my chair; I purposely didn't eat breakfast so we could go to the farm in Aptos. We went to Costco mostly to see if they have gloves, but we caught a couple more things there; we went to Safeway to pick up my prescriptions and get a flu shot and then back home so I could take Dude out for a short little cruise before Rachel comes in. We stopped by the farm and got some salads, avocado toast, coffee, and dessert on the way back home. We cruised down to the end of the wharf and back and barely made it before my chair started stalling and shutting off; this is so annoying! I wonder if the people that work in these wheelchair repair places realize what it's like to still be able to get up and cruise around but can't do it with our legs, so we need a wheelchair; I wonder if they weren't able to get up and move around if they would have any more empathy for us? The lady helping me organize and purge my house sent me a revised recipe for oatmeal crisps, and it sounded delicious; they basically took out the stuff that I don't really like very much and put all of my favorites in. Rachel came in and fed the hungry knucklehead, put me to bed, got me my salad and avocado toast to eat for dinner… And by carrot cake cupcake, and I was a happy girl! She buzzed around and did some housekeeping and then went home. I listened to an audible book for the rest of the evening and then watched TV until I fell asleep.
Wednesday was a pretty good day. Karen came in and fed the hungry little guy, fed me, and then we did some personal care and a nice long hot relaxing bath. I was so excited that I had time to get dressed and up in my chair and cruise around with Dude for a little while; I could still make it to the wharf and back until my chair started stalling out over even the slightest incline… Even the speed bumps and the curb cuts, all I have to do is turn it off for about a minute and then turn it back on, and as long as I stay on the straight ground so far, I have made it back to my house without needing help. It was so lovely to get up and be out in this beautiful gorgeous city cruising around. We rolled back, and I watched TV for a while until Rachel came in to feed the hungry hound, put me to bed, and then provide me. She sprayed some fabreeze on the costumes outside, and we decided to leave them out for one more night to air out. She climbed up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and then went home. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because as soon as I got down to the corner, my camera slipped and turned upside down, so I was only saying what was behind me instead of what was ahead of me. I watched TV for a while and fell asleep.
Thursday turned out to be a lovely day. Karen came in and fed the hungry little guy, fed me, and then got me dressed and up in my chair. I can only go about 4 miles before my chair stalls, but that's just enough to take Dude for a cruise before Andrea, the organizer, comes in. We cruised down there and back, but then I had to get some help to cruise up the ramp to my bedroom; usually, if I stay in one place for about 15 minutes, I can use my chair again, although not too much. Alisa was enough to get me down to the garage when Andrea got here. A lot more purging, but it's getting easier; I used to go on Pinterest and see all of these cute little projects that I would love to do. I would bring them up to my caregivers, and they sounded excited and said they would love to do it, but we never got around to it, so I decided to just get rid of everything… It breaks my heart, but I would rather have room in my garage right now. She stayed for about four hours; usually, we were both full of dust, sneezing, and cranky by the end of our four-hour session. Rachel came in just as we were cleaning up and fed the knucklehead dog, put me to bed, went back outside to put away the wet boxes in the recycling bin so they could be taken away next Tuesday.
One of the many things I like about this lady Rachel is that she loves to apply lotion and cream; one thing I need to get her to do is not to use so much… I wish I could just tolerate it, and maybe I'll look a little younger? I'm starting to notice a lot of this wobbly crinkled-up old scam on my neck and face, and I don't like it a bit; I think for my Christmas present this year, I'm going to go see a plastic surgeon and see what he could do. My aunt sent me many pictures from her garden; she has the bpartpark of anybody I have ever seen and has the best luck with all her vegetables. She also attracts a lot of monarch caterpillars that turn into chrysalis and then turn into Monarch butterflies, she's taken a lot of movies and videos, and it's been so cool to learn the process. I don't know how they all know the way to her house, but she finds them in the funniest places; even in November when they're not supposed to be looking to hatch anymore, she's finding them all over her yard… I hope some of the little guys make it. I took some pictures of the garage before we started purging and organizing it; even though we were not done, Andrea took some pictures of how it looks now. I do really notice a big difference, but not like I thought I would; everybody has shoved stuff in there so tight that even though it's not cluttered, it still looks, but at least I know in my mind that it's not, and I feel so much better. It seems like all of my life has ups and downs, and now I crawl back to the up, and I hope it lasts for a while. Rachel cleaned up, wiped everything down, and then went home for the evening. I watched a lot of tv and tried to not move my arms until I fell asleep.
Friday was another relaxing day. Karen came in and fed the hungry hound, fed me, and then we got going on some personal care and a nice long hot relaxing bath. Because I've had to stay in bed so much, no evening caregiver, and when I'm not in bed, I just drive my chair around my arms, neck, and shoulders have hurt worse than ever. When I'm in bed, I go with my right arm the whole time, and when I'm in bed, I use my mouse with my right arm constantly, not to mention that my trackball is not working… The drag and drop feature is not working, so I have to use different muscles that I used to, and that's not helping either. All of that, along with the cold weather, is just making me sore all the time; I can't even get on my exercise cycle because I also have a pressure sore from staying in bed all the time… I'm so tired of this!! I try to just watch TV or do something that I don't have to use my arms, but when you're lying in bed, and you have OCD, it's really hard, I'll see something on the TV, think of something or just forget about it and start playing games and is just making everything worse. On top of all that, I haven't seen Susan for my weekly massage for about a month because she got into a vehicle accident. Everything hurts! I don't even go on Facebook anymore or even delete my email; I have a lot of catching up to do when and if my body ever gets back to normal… Whatever normal is! Rachel came in and fed the hungry hound dog, provided me, did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, wiped everything down, brushed my teeth and washed my face, and then left for the evening. Of course, I did some more watching movies and broke down and played a couple rounds of candy crush before I fell asleep.
Friday was another relaxing day. Karen came in and fed the hungry hound, fed me, and then we got going on some personal care and a nice long hot relaxing bath. Because I've had to stay in bed so much, no evening caregiver, and when I'm not in bed, I just drive my chair around my arms, neck, and shoulders have hurt worse than ever. When I'm in bed, I go with my right arm the whole time, and when I'm in bed, I use my mouse with my right arm constantly, not to mention that my trackball is not working… The drag and drop feature is not working, so I have to use different muscles that I used to, and that's not helping either. All of that, along with the cold weather, is just making me sore all the time; I can't even get on my exercise cycle because I also have a pressure sore from staying in bed all the time… I'm so tired of this!! I try to just watch TV or do something that I don't have to use my arms, but when you're lying in bed, and you have OCD, it's really hard, I'll see something on the TV, think of something or just forget about it and start playing games and is just making everything worse. On top of all that, I haven't seen Susan for my weekly massage for about a month because she got into a vehicle accident. Everything hurts! I don't even go on Facebook anymore or even delete my email; I have a lot of catching up to do when and if my body ever gets back to normal… Whatever normal is! Rachel came in and fed the hungry hound dog, provided me, did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, wiped everything down, brushed my teeth and washed my face, and then left for the evening. Of course, I did some more watching movies and broke down and played a couple rounds of candy crush before I fell asleep.
Saturday turned out to be kind of a bummer day. Cindy came in and fed the hungry hoopster and then fed me; I decided to stay in bed since I still never knew how far I would be able to go in my chair before he died. I was supposed to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with my cousin, his daughter, and her baby. Still, after I got the tickets and told my cousin that we needed to have our vaccination cards to prove that we were vaccinated, he told me that his daughter wasn't vaccinated because she was pregnant with twins and didn't want to do it until after she had them. They also accepted a 72-hour negative test result, but she was too busy to go and have one taken, so we decided to just have a barbecue here at the house. The tickets aren't refundable, but you can change them for another day. I have a friend coming to visit that I haven't seen for almost 30 years, I saw her at my birthday bash, and it was so great to see her, and we had such a good chat and decided to get together when there were fewer people and more time to catch up. She would come out on the 20th, so I asked her if I changed the tickets to the 20th what she and her daughter wanted to go to the Monterey Bay aquarium, and she said yes, so I was excited. I thought that if we drove there, maybe I wouldn't have to move my chair more than three or 4 miles, but what if I did? I don't want to go somewhere where somebody's going to have to push me everywhere, so I called the company that fixes my chair, they were supposed to come out on the 15th to bring my new motors for my chair… I was hoping that would improve the battery problem, but what if it doesn't? The company told me that they were going to send somebody out on the 20th just to look at my batteries, and then from there, I still have to wait until they can bring them to me; after this being my third set of batteries, they just can't believe me that my batteries are dying?? I started panicking, and then I message my friend Roger, he knows all the vendors, and they all want to stay on his good side, so he said he would talk to the general manager for me and see if he could get somebody out there sooner. I can imagine having to stay in my bed another three weeks until somebody can come out and then even longer until they can get the batteries. I just can keep my fingers crossed and, for now, go as far as I can. Rachel came in and fed the hungry pooch, provided me, broke up some of the boxes that I was saving for the organizer because they got all wet when it rained. She did some laundry and cleaned up before she went home. My cousin Debbie sent me some pictures of her daughter Carmen getting ready to go to the homecoming dance; she is gorgeous! She looks like a princess, and she is so sweet! I watched TV and tried not to move my arms and eventually fell asleep.
Sunday, I just wasn't having a good day, so I stayed in bed, and then I looked at my calendar and realized why...Robby would have been 13 years old today. I still miss him so much; sometimes, I think about him so fondly, and other times I just can't stop crying. I grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains and had dogs my whole life, but I think maybe because he was my personal service dog. Although other people helped me care for him, he was specially trained for me, and we had an excellent bond; when I first got him from CCI, I had to take him back up for several months because I had to get flap surgery. When I finally did get to go home, I had to stay in bed for several more weeks, only getting up an hour one day and then increasing it by an hour the following days; it seemed like it took forever. My caregivers had to feed, water, toilet, exercise pretty much do everything for him that I wanted to do. He was so sweet. I love everyone, but after he got attacked a couple of times, he would jump straight up in the air and bark whenever he saw another dog, and I couldn't get him to stop. It got to the point where everywhere that we went, I would look in the direction that we were going to see if I could see another dog and if I did, I would just go away around or turn around to go another way. Everybody that met him loved him, he was such a special guy! Even when I got a successor dog, I would take him out first for two or 3 miles depending on how he was doing that day, then he would just rest at home or have a puppy play date with the dogs at the Woofpack… He just adored those guys and all the pups, and they loved him.
Cindy came in and fed Dude, fed me, and then started separating the outside Halloween decorations into a pile that we should keep and a pile to donate to the Santa Cruz Municipal wharf… They got a new lady that works there, and she LOVES holidays and just trying to get the waterfront to decorate more and have more fun games and stuff, so I wanted to encourage her as much as possible. All the guys down there are super talented and creative, so the decorations are just incredible! Cindy went home, and I tried to catch up on my blog for a couple of hours until Karen came in. We did some personal care and a nice long hot bath, and then she put me back to bed, fed the knucklehead, fed me, and then went home. My cousin Rick came by to discuss the farewell barbecue for his daughter Lexi; she's moving away to Florida on Monday, so we wanted to get together one last time. I watched TV, listened to music, and then watched some more TV until I fell asleep.
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