It's a two-fer
2005-05-18, 9:52 a.m.

Day 268 Toiling on the Treadmill

Two days in a row now I have felt lousy running on the treadmill. I stopped at the gym last night to get in a little workout. Ended up leaving after running only 2 miles in a terrible time. About 1.5 miles into my run, my stomach started feeling pretty bad. Well, it was a little farther along the alimentary canal than my stomach, but maybe you get the idea.

After cutting short my run, I hit the locker room, changed and headed out. Quick. Feeling rather uncomfortable. Spent the evening at home, trying to stay within spitting distance of a bathroom. Fun way to spend an evening.

Feeling a little better today � at least don�t have the sense of imminent disaster like yesterday. Seem to be able to eat most anything with no problems. But, like I said, the issue seems to be further downstream than my stomach. I�m sure it�ll resolve itself soon, just need to wait it out.

During Z�s first day back at work for the summer he got to meet the medical staff at the warehouse. While he was loading boxes, he picked one , brought it to his abdomen, turned and put it in on the conveyor. Went to get the next one, and noticed a breeze on his stomach. The breeze was coming in through a tear in his shirt. He looked down and noticed blood. Turns out the last box he moved had a shard of glass sticking out. When he moved it, it opened up a cut on his abdomen, about 5cm long, maybe � cm deep. The medical staff cleaned it out and butterflied it closed. No big deal really. Z went back to work and finished the day with no problems.

C�s Dad (B) arrives today. We�re thinking that by the end of the summer we�d like to have him talked into moving back up here (upstate NY) permanently. By this winter. With his condition, any sort of long distance care is insanity. He does have in-laws and friends down there, but he is not their responsibility. They have really done a lot so far in watching out for him, but as his Alzheimer�s progresses he will require more direct contact from C and her brother, W. B already has mild bouts of paranoia, depression, and especially CRS. He will have (or initiate) the same conversation with you multiple times a day for days on end. And every time, it�s like he�s telling you for the first time. I really don�t think we can have him live with us long term because he will drive me totally insane. W and his wife (M) have mentioned they�d take care of him long term (M has done this on the side before, and she�s an EMT to boot), but they live 35 miles from the nearest hospital. There are other concerns too, like they�d be driven insane after a couple of months and want to get him placed in a facility of some sort. We�d like to save the time and head to some sort of supervised living situation now, with options to increase care later as it becomes necessary.

We�d also like to try and convince him he does have memory issues. This is a multi faceted problem. First there is the risk of pissing him off, alienating him and having him head back to Fla. and never talk to us again. If we avoid that, so what if we do get him convinced? Tomorrow he won�t remember what we convinced him of yesterday. In any given week, we could convince him 3 times and alienate him another 4. Tough way to make progress.

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Well, had to take a break in there. It�s now into Day 269 (Wed. 5/18) We officially have the thundering herd in residence at the house. Both boys, the FIL and Z�s girlfriend all had dinner with us last night. Chicken Parmesan for 6. C finally went and saw the doc about her twisted knee. Her prescription (regular icing, 600mg ibuprofen 3x daily, rest & elevate plus an ace wrap) kinda has me on dinner cooking detail. So � having to whip up dinner for 6 kinda put a crimp in my going to aerobics last night. Actually, by the time I got home, went back out to the store, got home again and started dinner it was already 6:30. I�d have preferred either eating by 6:30 or after class (8:30 or later). No way I wanted to do aerobics on a belly full of chicken & pasta. But with 5 other hungry looking folks hanging around and me being the new default cook � I had to make the big sacrifice and forego my favorite aerobics class and do kitchen drudgery (that was meant to be VERY tongue in cheek by the way)

I really don�t mind cooking, and this just reinforces the need to get my butt up early and go to the gym at oh-dark thirty every day. Some evenings I may be able to sneak off to the gym, but I get the feeling that until late June or so, it won�t be too regular. Oh � tonight we�re having a beef round roast, done in the crock pot. Tossed in some taters, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, a little bullion, red wine vinegar and some cracked black pepper, marjoram, rosemary and water to almost cover. Oh yeah � the beef too. Set the crock pot on low and let it simmer all day long. By tonight, it�ll be delicious. E has his summer work orientation tonight at 6:30-ish, so we need to eat a little earlier than last night.

The real fun starts when E needs to be at work at 9am, Thursday. Z is at work by 5 (poor kid!!), C and I get to work at 8. E�s car is not on the road, nor is it likely to be in the near future. That means 4 of us need to get to work in only 3 cars. I wish E could switch his start time to the same as Z�s. They�ll end up parking in the same parking lot all day, but that 4 hour shift difference is a killer. Most likely means that E will take either C or me in to work, then Z gets to pick us up at the end of the day.

Better go fix my machine. Finally got my simulations running right, fixed some old issues. Now there are new issues to fix. Dagnabbit. Always something.

269 days down. I need a place to hide at home.

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