Is the Day Over Yet?
Good morning. We’re up early this morning. It’s 1 am. But, then we went to bed very early … About 5:30. Maybe we’ll get a nap later in the morning. Something had happened to us on the way home, in that we had started to feel the affects of what I thought had been a cold. We were achy, our forehead and cheeks were very hot, and we had the chills. It was pretty terrible by the time we got home. We talked to V. for a couple of minutes, and then our friend came over. We were in our pjs wrapped in a blanket. He had brought sandwiches, so we had a half, and then he made sure we got our medicine and put us to bed. He reportedly stayed for a while. I know that he was there when we lay down, but we have no recollection of him leaving. Now, this morning we seem fine, but I’m thinking let’s not push this one too much. We’ve got another 3 day weekend and the last thing I want is to be spending it sick. Maybe since we went to bed with three blankets, we sweated the darn thing out. Hmm?Hmm, that turned out to be a false alarm. We went back to bed after just one paragraph. It is now past 4 am, which is a little more reasonable time to be up. Besides now V is up The world is right again!
*Sigh*
What to think what to think … let’s see … yesterday? Hmm, went to work! YAYYY work! Hehehe I know, I know … ya right … work! We’re still liking it though. Yesterday morning we did mmmmmm something. Think we were going through our journal notes … oh yeah, because we hadn’t recorded the meetings held on Thursday with some of the staff. I know at 10 am we were called to the administration meeting. Our friend was 45 minutes late and Sr. said she wasn’t going to hold the meeting. He came in during the last few minutes though … Sr. stopped the meeting … she said she wasn’t going to explain things twice … Ohoh dog house! So, after we got back to the office we read him the notes … We take pretty good ones. Best surprise was that the secretary did indeed have her baby. He’s a healthy boy baby! She sure is a wonder! This is her third son.
We got a few assignments from the meeting. Like we’re supposed to write a policy on when the DSPs can call us for behavioral incidents. Sr. doesn’t like it that the DSPs are calling as often as they are during the first instant of a problem. That’s going to be tricky. But, I like the thought of not being called out as much. I can’t really remember much of the meeting at this time. Just know there were 6 pages of notes. Ugh! Maybe my forget everything because it’s a Saturday thing is happening
There were a couple things I presented, but Sister said on both CARF and policies & procedures that we should talk one-on-one. She shifted more the burden of CARF on us. She gave me one of those messages that say, I’m depending on you to do this! Then she said, “DON’T GET BEHIND!” ACK! Not me … oh no the sky is falling in! Well, at least it seems like it. I almost brought the work home, and then I thought … nope, nope … if there is extra time at home, I need to be working on that final paper. No need for further distractions.
The only other marker moment was that we had Thinking Group. Hehehe we sent ourselves notes home through an email so we would remember some of it.
The meeting was broken into 3 parts. There was the information part, the stretching part, and the game part. The information part took about 40 minutes. These are the topics discussed. All of it had to do with why one should exercise.
self confidence
contentment (we taught them about endorphin highs!)
social interaction
sleep better
mental acuity
metabolism
body composition
balance and flexibility
mobility
muscular strength and endurance
immune function
cardio-respiratory and cardiovascular function
bone density
gastrointestinal function
chronic conditions and cancer
Yup yup went through every one of them! Hehehe But, it gets way broken down into things that are more understandable. For example, just after I brought out sleeping better, one of the more verbal clients let out this voluminous roar of a yawn. So, we rushed over asking did you see that? Did you see that? Maybe this person isn’t getting ENOUGH sleep at night. She would sleep better if she exercised! We explained mental acuity as the brain being very sharp and attuned. So there we had a client stand up, close her eyes and state within 20 seconds all her girl peer’s names. She did very well … she got 10 of them in. (We umm were soft on the clock). Then, we had about half dozen of her peers trying to do the same. There was one male peer that reached her number of names remembered, so then they had a face-off … hehehe those are always crowd pleasers. As it turned out the female won, but in the last game of the day, there was another competition between males and females where the men won. They had 6 people on a team and one mistake you were eliminated. The goal was to between two items name the one that was worst in amount of fat.
There were all kinds of goofy in between things though. Like for the bone one, we had several of the clients standing up to give their interpretation of an old person. In each situation, they imagined the older person bent over with a cane hobbling along. So, then it was easy to say they didn’t have enough strong bones to hold them up straight. Gastro problems … well, we were pretty frank and beans direct with that one. Hehehe. Strength we had two of the guys lifting lunch bags to see who had the most strength. Balance and flexibility … we gave a dozen people the opportunity to walk a straight marked line on the floor. Between everything there is laughter and gaiety as they are watching their peers challenged. If ever a group of people who wanted to be in the spotlight it would be this group!
After we’d gotten done on this part just explained, we had everyone stand up. This was not an easy chore to do. We had to push one of the large three tables mooooorre so than the others. We were telling them that there were options beside watching television and if they were going to watch TV, they could at least get up to stretch during the commercials. We do silly things like imitate them only moving their arm to get another chip from the bag. They thought this was pretty funny. I think at least it is because they can identify with what’s going on. We went through some basic stretching and at the end we played the game already mentioned. I was pleased in that this time, the cabs weren’t so early and the group held solidly. There was not one behavior problem other than telling one client three times to sit down before the meeting started. After that he complied. It’s very distracting to the group to have people wandering around unaccounted for.
So, that was that … It took us an hour to calm down after the meeting, because your adrenaline is still going off … takes a while to calm the mind down. I like to hold meetings that are exiting. AND, we tested ourselves. Even when the clients offered to get me a chair, I passed on it, AND we stood up for the entire hour YAYYYYYYYYY!!! I couldn’t have done that a month or two ago. It is all pretty amazing … and on that track, this morning when we woke up to weigh ourselves we had finally broke the barrier we were up against this last 3 weeks. YAYYYY!!! 268.0! 44 pounds official! There was one sore spot in the day … After we’d gotten to the multi-purpose room to watch the back end of the client’s lunch, we noted that our client … the one that tips the 335 mark, had in front of him a whole entire package of fig neutons that he was gobbling down as fast as his mouth could chew. It was like ACK! Was that whole bag full?? Uh huh. Are you going to eat alllll those cookies? Uh huh! Oh MAN! That’s soooo wrong! Maybe you could save some for later?? That’s way too many cookies! Yes, Ms. Ann……..
BUSTED!
So, now we’re up to today … you already have my morning … was sick, got better, now somewhere in between. I think we are going to have to plan another nap during the day. Just so we give our immune system a chance to fix things. I’ve got two things going for me. I’ve had a flu shot, AND I’m taking anti-biotics. That all should count for something! Probably going to have to stop driving with the window open. *Whimper*
BUSTED!
Things with the friend is obviously going well, and sometime during the week my younger son dropped off an IM suggesting we set up another visit. I asked him how about Sunday at 11 am. He hasn’t responded yet, but we’re thinking we’ll be out in that direction come tomorrow. I hope, I hope.
Dr. M. was another hard session. For the majority of the time there were a couple of parts out who were very depressed, angry and hurt. The system had trouble talking out loud, so the most part was spent fairly stony. During the last 10-15 minutes the Casies were out. So, that softened things abit. They are scared of some of the “mean” parts inside. Said they were like dark shadows. They were saying bad things. I think the recent changes are affect a core level trust and the system has withdrew somewhat in that direction. We ARE doing work and school and for this we’re very grateful, but there is knowledge of that other part too. I think in general it is better to have those kind of strong emotional responses with Dr. M., than here on our own. Now, we are up to the part where from here out, we will see him only a couple of times a month. Time will tell.
Hmm, TWO long kitty pets … seems like this has been worked into their regular schedule. What I ever do to get two such nice kitties?!
I’m worrying about myself again though cuz face is still flush and I’m feeling achy again. Can I ride it out? Maybe not so good. I think I’m going to lay down again for a little bit. Not long … just enough to sooth the achyness … I wonder if I should take some kind of cold medicine first? It be good to take my regular stuff too. Better do that while I’m still up to it. BRB
Ok, there that’s done. Need to get where I can go to school and concentrate. Maybe I will peek over there to see how its going.
Hmm, ganged up on had to take another nap … So now it is 8 am already. Not getting very far very fast. Maybe I should do school pretty soon? Hmm. Have to figure out where to start. Think we need to write a paper on Older people. Going to need starting from scratch … better get the focused question first, brb. Hmm, here we go …
If you were asked to help draft practice guidelines for working with the elderly, state two or three guidelines that you would consider important to include. Provide a rationale for each of your recommendations.
Yoooo HOOOO! Went ahead and started looking up resources … we are now 20-25% done with the paper and we’re going to start another section now. The first one was on end of life advanced directives and the elderly and the second section is going to be on physical activity for the elderly. After we got done reading this section, we went to the bedroom and walked for 10 minutes. New record!!!! We figure we’re going to try walking 3 ten minute periods over the next three days … cuz we have a 3 day WEEKEND!!! That will get us up to the minimum standards for adults being able to do 30 minutes minimal exercise per most days. That would also mean I have to get up to 2 fifteen minute periods during the week cuz we’re not home in the afternoon. Well, at least that would be optimistic. Do you know that yesterday during Thinking Group, we stood for the entire hour??? This is tremendous considering a month ago; we couldn’t stand for more than 7-8 minutes. I am so totally flabbergasted with the change of feelings due to this advancement I couldn’t tell you how happy it makes me feel. We had absolutely no idea that weight played this much affect on the osteoarthritis. If someone could have only told me I could walk and stand again … shoot, I don’t know maybe someone tried. We’ve been out of hope for the last 3 years, but this last couple of pounds has busted through that record. We are better off physically now than in all these last three years. It’s taken hold now and we’re thinking … if we just keep at it it could get nothing, but better. I’m thinking now of taking walks in the forest preserves with my sweetie! I’m going to get there and the timing is perfect! NOW! Hehehe
Ok, you all happy people … back to school! More water too!
Ahem … need that smoke? Ok, ok … maybe we look at that issue at 225 or 250 hmm? Don’t mean to startle you all, just thinking ahead some … It’s ok, it’s ok … go on back to the school work, there will be time enough for those decisions later Hmm, maybe at 250, we kick it up a notch to exercise one hour a day and 225, we stop smoking? Umm, ok, ok enough … but it sure is pretty damm exciting! I want to tell Jacob! He is going to be so happy with us!
STUDY!!!
Yes maam.
Whoops ... finished the paper, but we're draggin here again ... same thing fever chills. Going to bed ... Don't worry we're tough!
xoxoxo
Us
posted by Ann Marie @ 3/04/2006 05:40:00 PM
Comments: 4
