Macho Man Bob

 

Most of you know, Bob stopping walking except when using a walker, on March 26th. The story is under the label Bob's Walker. This is the diagnosis we have from the 4 days in hospital.

Neuropathy, leg ascending paralysis 

Partial paralyzation lower extremities

CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy)

Moderate Spinal Stenosis 

Bi Lateral extremity weakness, high risk for falls

Vascular Dementia

After a visit to Neurologist, we have been pre-approved for the infusion drug, Gamunex, to treat CIDP and are awaiting the phone call for the first date of the first visit to our home to do the first treatment. 

I found this on the website for the drug, and now it easier to understand how Bob has felt for the last 3 months. We are blessed and thankful that his is toe to knees and not to the hip like this photo. He simply has to drag himself by his True Grit and swimmer arms and shoulder, along the floor by his arms. 

I used these photos to show you that he is a perfect example of True Grit. these photos below were taken on the 15th and this is the 3rd time he has worked on the pool filter, sitting on a 15-inch-tall bucket, with my help and the help of the grab bar my son put on the wall to help. In his mind he can do it, which means he does. Yes, I have fretted, cried and tried to make him stop. NOT Gunna Happen.

Pray with me that this drug will help heal him of this rare disease CIDP and allow him to walk again. My prayers and yours have kept him safe during these 3 months, 4 falls, 1 hospital stay as we deal with the dementia. I am thankful that the Lord has shown me how to look at Bob and see what he is going through and think about how I WOULD FEEL, if I were locked in dementia and my legs had trapped me in bed/sofas... if every bite I ate, every drink I take, every step I walk, someone has to help me do it.

Trapped in our own body, 100 % dependent on others, on the person I live with. Sometimes even help with using the TV remote. 

At first, I was angry and shouted back when he shouted at me and cried at the hurtful things he says. I talk with God daily and ask him to remind me of this verse and he does. And when I forget and say hateful things back at him, I asked forgiveness and help in seeing him through Gods eyes. This verse has allowed me to come back to blogging.

Luke 6:31: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Also known as the Golden Rule.

I look at him and say to myself, if I were in his shoes, how would I want to be treated. If I had been a Macho Man who could do anything and all things, and lost those abilities, how would I want to be treated. 

TREAT OTHER THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED! 

Some of you may worry about him in the pool. Don't Fret, he is fine. I sit at the table and watch him and assist in and out. 

I am thankful he has not fallen, has not injured himself, has not got infections from algae, and that we have the pool that keeps him going in mind and soul and that he has been swimming laps daily for 25 years at the YMCA and in our back yard.

Joining Thankful Thursday at Brian's Home Forever

https://brianshomeblog.com/

Dementia LOOMS

 

Dementia LOOMS, or maybe I am just crazy....

I have 14 black T-shirts hanging in my closet.

Scoop neck, Round neck, V-neck

different lengths, butt long, all different lengths, some below butt long and slight scoop and long scoop in back.

Above t-shirt on the left came with the knot on one side.

the one on the right was straight, longer in back, I used a hair clip to hold up one side.

When dressing to take bob to heart doc, I wanted the clip one. It's warmer and the office is cold. Twice through the shirts and not there.

I yanked out the one on the left and dropped I over my head and ran out the door fussing about where was the clip one.

Back home again, as I removed the blouse I had on, I noticed it was the clip one, I could not find it because I HAD IT ON. OMW!!!!!!!!

Earlier that day I jumped out of bed and I ran in the kitchen and wrote gabapentin on a pink sticky to put on my wallet to remind me to ask the doctor if it might help bob's legs.

As I stuck it on my wallet, I pulled out the white paper to see what it was, and it said....

GABAPENTIN 

Our dog Beau has been on the drug for 2 and a half years and it works on his legs. What's good for the dog should be good for Bob. Just Sayin

I did get bob there, I did ask, and Doc did call it in, and we are trying it, both notes worked, I did not lose my keys or get lost on the way to doc office.

We are testing it starting with 1 each night for a week, 2 each night for a week and if that doesn't help 3 each night for a week and back to the doc to report how it worked.

He has no slept more than 3 hours in a row for 2 years, because of his legs burning.

The past 4 nights he slept 6 hours. we are hoping they will help with his walking, which is really bad. 

Visit to Orthopedics Doctor

 

We sat down to wait for the brown door to open and call us back. I took 4 photos.

Below is the other wall

I love the furniture in this building. Bob would not sit facing me on my favorite of the sofas. We only had to wait five minutes, and the tech came to get us and said we will take X-rays first, I sat in front of this brown door, bob was inside, he had 6 x-rays, and we went to the exam room. to see all the glory of this sofa CLICK ON IT.. but only if you want to

Suprise! I have no story, The Doctor said Bob's x-rays are perfect, the 3-year-old knees he put in are perfect and no arthritis. Simply Put, Bob's walking pain is Age related. Gave him a 5-day package of steroids to see if it helps and sent us on our way...  Good news is also Bad News. Take Tylenol and walk as much as you can. the other Good news is the copay for visit was only 20.00 and all else is covered by insurance, and the RX was only 5.. 

Stop in the name of love

thanks for stopping by. Nothing much to report. This is a photo practice shot of taking a selfie by holding the handout and waving it. Hold left arm out as far as I can, wave hand.

Just remember to remove the hand before it counts down from Three.

 

Bob and I both went for 6-month body scan at the dermatologist. We had his finger prick, known as INR to test his coumadin in blood, at 8:30, and Bob at 9:25, Me at 9:50 and we were there a while.

I am fine, 3 frozen thingys

he had TWELVE frozen things, a biopsy on face that looks like carcinoma and the back might be another Melanoma. She removed two places about the size of a pencil eraser, if you can remember back that for when we used pencils.

Waiting for results. He has had 3 melanomas; this will be 4. 

Beaus lab work results came in an amazing PERFECT. Vet's words, not mine. Will post the text from vet on Beaus blog, to keep a record.

Fish Tale

 

Where Bob is and where he rather be!

My son David bought the shirt for him when he retired at age 62, he is now 85 and still wearing the shirt. It's a rag now, but he still wears it.

Salty old Sea Dog is what my other son Dan said when he saw him the first time in 1984, and he was right.

Throwback Thursday-Bob's House

 

All Images from Google earth

We spent our first hour one day this past week, drinking coffee while Bob talked about memories from this home above. His family, parents, 2 son and 3 daughters lived in the half a house, your left.

The moved here in 1941, when Bob was 6 years old, he was the baby of the family. His brother was  14 and the girls were between.

His room was not the two windows with the wreath, but the attic room, you can't see. there were 3 bedrooms, one or the three girls, one for the 2 boys, but Bob chose to live in the attic, because he liked it there.

His dad died when Bob was 16 and Bob  lived there until he was 17.

Across the street was a sewing factory, and his mother worked there every day, and when she went home to cook dinner for 7 people, Bob's dad and the 5 children, went across the street to clean the floors and empty the trash. Bob's job as a 6 year old was sweeping with a push broom all the lint and threads from under the sewing machines. He worked there until he was 16, at age 13 he became a presser, using an iron to press the seams his mother sewed. The factory made men's suits, his mother sewed on the collars and he pressed the seams. 

Bob left the sewing factory at age 16 when his dad died, to take a full time job at a gas station, to help support his mom. His brother had gone in the Army.

In spite of all this, he loved his life. During the summer, the factory closed and Bob went to spend his days at the local swimming pool and played baseball and rode his bike.

In 1998, at age 62, I suggested he retire early, since he had been working from age 6.

Now he has been retired 22 years.

I found these photos on google earth to preserve with his story.

On the FUNNY Side, he married in 1957, his wife was one of 9 children, but had never learned to cook.

He came home from work to find Elaine in tears because she had ruined the spaghetti's sauce.

She did not brown the ground beef, but brought the sauce to a boil and put the raw meat in it.

UCK! 

Another day  he came home to find her in tears again. He had told her to make pigs in  a blanket, by splitting the hotdogs, stuff with cheese, wrap with bacon and use tooth pics to hold the bacon fast and bake in the over.

She fried the bacon crisp, FIRST! and tried to wrap it around the hot dog..

these buildings are almost 100 years old and look in great condition.

The Surgery Part 2

ME waiting for 1 hour 10 minutes that felt like 10 hours.

I have taken Bob to 5 offices since the virus thing started. Yowsa!

I had a beautiful view, and it was nice they let me wait in the lobby, BUT, it was really hot. 97 outside and the ceilings was about 12 feet tall, the back where Bob was was icy cold.

You may notice I had on a different mask from yesterday, NOT that it matters but i have 23 masks, I only bought a pack of 7, the rest were gifts. Sorry my brain is rattled and I don't know what i Meant to say.

OK, brain has rebooted, back to the update

Above top left is the eye at 5 pm when we got home from the 2nd surgery. the sad face is at wakeup today, 4 AM and a close up of the incision in the GOOD eye. she took what she needed from the exact same spot as the other eye, he was awake through all this. Just numbing shots in the corner of his eyes.

You can see it is puffy.

The Big Problem Now!!!

She gave us a LIST of DO NOT DO THESE THINGS and a short list of DO these things.

First she said make 3 small baggies of frozen peas, put the tiny ice packs on the good eye, for 48 hours. Keep one on for 20 minutes wait 20 and repeat. HE DID IT 3 times when I used MY LOUD voice!

Do not lie flat for 72 hours

Do not bend over, do not lift anything heavy, do not do ANYTHING that makes you sweat!

We LIVE IN FLORDIA~ Sweat Country

Stay inside AC! if you sweat it wets the bandage. do not get the bandage even damp until Tuesday when we remove it.

DO sleep with head propped up for 72 hours! use a recliner!

Do NOT lay flat!

We have no recliner! I made a bed prop and a sofa prop

He said I can't sleep like that. ARRRHH

PAUSING HERE TO ANSWER PHONE

While creating this, phone rang at 9 am, 2nd day.

Doctor Chapman calling, she asked about how the good eye looks? ask a lot of questions, gave me new instructions and her cell phone and said call me any time if he has a problem.

I said I forgot to tell you he started antibiotics 2 days ago. His annual blood labs said he has UTI and primary called it in.

She said that if great, I was thinking of putting him on them. Perfect she said.

new orders

Stop Tylenol, use the pea ice bags, take Benadryl 1 every 5 hours, to help with swelling, itching and to help him get through the aggravation of the big bandage. He was shocked to hear me talking to her.

This may sound easy peasy, but Bob has a routine for each day and he can do NONE of it until next Tuesday.

3:30 am swim laps in our pool

coffee and TV news and breakfast

6:30 walk Dog

Watch more news

9 am pole brush our pool, get in pool and use skim net while swimming and walking

10 am MORE NEWS and Motor Trend shows

12 lunch

12:30 swim in pool

More TV

3 pm feed dog, swim in pool

each day between these things he does the lawn, or pulls weeds or yanks vines off fences.

This is making him crazy and it has not been 24 hours yet.

HE IS FINE just miserable

I am fine, Just on "guard duty" and miserable for HIM

Big thinks his daddy has lost his mind. 

The Surgery UPDATE

10 AM, July 31, 2020. The Office Lobby.... No photos of the 55 minutes to drive 19 miles to get to the office. Picture Me, the driver with 2 hands clutched on wheel, 87 million cars, looking for an office we have never been to...

The MadSnapper, madly documenting the surgery. They let me go in with him. What a relief.

The hubby, after the surgery, I am sparing you the bloody picture I took.. Bob laid like this from 10:15 until noon.

My chair was next to the bed and I had nothing to do. I got to watch the surgery, and the good news is she only had to cut TWICE. It could have been much more. We checked out at 12 and drove the nasty 20 miles back home, the Big Dog went balistic! 

 had lunch, fed the dog, and left for the 55 minute trip to the Ocular surgeon. 45 minutes, I knew the way... both offices are in the same area about 2 miles apart.

Bob said over and over, I hope I don't have to wear this bandage very long. 

The second surgery started at 2:50 ended at 4 pm. They let me wait in the lobby. YES there will be photos. Bob said tell them I don't understand English and you have to go with me. 

NOPE. I had to wait.

I am glad I did not know before hand what they were doing. The 70 minutes was long, i was hot, stressed from 3 trips of traffic, 

PLUS my bra was killing me. I DID SUFFER TO YOU KNOW

The nurse came to get me to tell me what HE CAN NOT DO!

He looked like this.

I took this when we got home, not in the office. Just so you know.

They had to do a skin graft and put meat from the other eye to fill the hole.

She explained if they did not do the transplant his eye lid would not close because the tumour took the hinge part, my word not hers, away from the right eye.

He had a horrible night. but is fine, but wait there is much more...

He MUST wear that patch until we take the long drive Tuesday morning for her to remove it.

I sent text to a few family/friends that started with this sentence.

Please gather bail money, I may need you to come get me OUT....

BUT WAIT THERE IS MUCH MORE to be continued

PS: as I sit here creating this post, i want to know why Blogger decided during this stressful time to once again CHANGE things around

Corvette cont

In yesterdays post, I told a story of the Corvette and ME, the drag racing queen. The 3rd photo in the collage is my 17 year old son, Daniel, Bob and I are standing by the staged cars, the 68 Olds Cutlass belonged to Daniel. No we did not race, but we all three wanted to. Bob was a drag racer, as in trips to Indy and other drag strips, back in the Day before he took on my two teen sons, along with me.

You can tell by the three cars at the top, we both loved fast cars. This is the car below that we replaced with the Corvette. It was an Opel GT, we called it the Baby Vette... OH BABY! I loved that little car and lucky me, Bob loved fast women me enough to take on crazy teens and a crazy wife.

See that red, 1970 Chevy Blazer? We named it Blaze, because it could blaze a black spot on the pavement with the touch of a toe.. It had the ability to raise the front 2 wheels in the air when I scratched off quickly, It also made a nice Sound while doing it...  Yes! Bob was not only a racer, he built race cars. Need I say More?

Bob once drove this Opel so fast over a railroad track, it went air bound, and the battery fell out when we came down so hard. He dragged it a few feet and stopped, replaced the battery in its container, used pliers to pinch the radiator together, where the battery poked a hole and we drove home.
There is something about a low to the ground, fast car, that makes it hard to keep off the gas pedal. It seems I was at one time MadDriver. Way back before I became MadSnapper

NOT TO WORRY! I am safe! I can't get down and into these low riders now and I drive a box of an SUV.. I end with this little tidbit.... I have never had a ticket! But I can't count how many Bob got.

Thankful Thursday..Suvivors

Today is Thankful Thursday
I am thankful for our home of 28 years and I am thankful that Bob is a Survivor and that we all 3 survived his heath issues and a few other crazy things last year that involved our truck held hostage by a broken spring on the garage door.

The year 2017 started when our water heater died and had to be replaced at a cost of $897

As I played with the mono setting on my camera, my two Men just walked around me and into the photo

Then Bob's health went berserk.

 June 9th melanoma cancer removal 

June 19th stroke

June 25th 4 hour cardiovascular surgery 

Sept 10th Hurricane Irma 

Oct Bob's Cataracts removed
He is now back to 100% from all of it.
I am thankful to have Bob and Jake to walk into my photography efforts.
Let the PHUN begin...
We made it to Feb 11, before the OUT OF POCKET started.
$490.00 for a POOL Filter, we ordered it from Amazon and it came yesterday.
VERY Thankful Bob can install it... 

I am thankful that Jake has watched Bob cook breakfast for 13 years and that Bob has cooked his own breakfast for 20 years.

Bob, Bob and More Bob

I decided to go through my photos and gather all my Hubby Bob Photos... Bob is the best thing that ever happened to me. My life changed for the better the day we met. And continues to be better.

I had no idea how many I have.. LOOK UP TOP see the Tabs with yellow words? click on BOB... there is a lot of Bob in there. Seems my camera seeks him out a lot

Bob, irritated with MADSnapper because he hates the camera and I am stubborn and always aim it at him anyway....

the below photo instead of snapping I asked him to POSE... thus the number....if he sees this post I might be the one wearing the Number when he has me arrested for stalking.

Picture This!

Wed. 4 AM, Sandra and Bob, drinking coffee in bed....if you follow me you may know we do this every single day of our lives.

Sandra: Follow 9th St and go past Tyrone Mall, when you get to State Road 70, make a right and it is on the left.  (this is taken out of context, just so you know)

Bob: Past TYRONE????   ( you may need to know Tyrone Mall is in Saint Petersburg and we are in Bradenton, 50 miles away)

Sandra: You know which Mall I meant.... so what is the name of that Mall?
Bob:   Can;t remember. Is it Bradenton Mall?
Sandra: NO, I know the name, I can think of Oglethorpe Mall (Savannah) Clearwater Mall, University Mall.... WHY can't I remember the name.... HE HE HE we all know the answer to that.

 

Sandra gets out of bed and brings the Samsung Tablet back to bed and taps Google Girl and says

Mall In Bradenton.

She Says .. DeSoto Square Mall is in Bradenton.

THAT"S IT! Sandra shouts... (we both worked in that mall, Bob worked in that mall for 18 years) 

Sad, isn't it.

Since we had the tablet in bed, we spent the rest of our time Asking Google Girl Questions.

When YOU get OLD, you will find your fun where you can... Trust Me.

Speaking of Fun...

The picture below I took with the tablet later that day and drew on it with my finger because the tablet allows me to... then because it has this cool thingy that makes it look different, you now have seen all the filters I tapped. 

 PS... there is more than one way to look SKINNY

Disaster at home

We were mopping and vacuuming the floors, TV talking, Jake on the sofa watching and At 5:28 on Saturday May 21, 2016, our Cable/Internet/Phone modem went down and NOTHING worked... It was dark outside, we had 3 hours before daylight, nowhere to go and nothing to do... I could read my Kindle but then what would Bob Do???

NO TV for Bob...

NO Tablet for ME

NO Laptop for ME

NO Desktop for ME..

NO INTERNET AT ALL

No Phone..doesn't matter on this one, I mean who would we call that time of the morning?

YES, we had POWER but what good is power without INTERNET?

Bob, do you think I should use the NEW SMART phone to call the provider?

No, give it a little while..

Should I call Now?

Give it a few more minutes....

SUDDENLY IT ALL CAME BACK ON...

The phone had a dial tone, the TV talked, the Tablet Connected...

Thank you Thank you Thank You Brighthouse.

IT CAME BACK ON ALL BY ITSELF AT 5:48 AM...

We were without for TEN WHOLE MINUTES...What a Disaster....

P.S. we kept busy with doing the floors while waiting....

May I Buy A Brain??

Bob leaves home at 7:30 any day it is not raining or to windy. He goes to the park to fly his radio control airplanes. He comes home between 9:15 and 9:45 and never ever never comes home later than that...

Tuesday AM I sat watching my DVR show, The Good Witch and looked up at the big red numbers and it said 10:05.., my mind kicked in gear...
Scenario 1.. heart attack and laying in field Scenario 2..stroke and laying in field Scenario 3.. plane hit him in his head and laying field bleeding out.

By 10:20 I was sick to my stomach and at 10:30 I got up went down the hall to put on clothes and drive over to the park to check on him. I lifted my gown over my head and turned to step in the closet and the big red numbers on the click said 9:30.,.

What? Am I crazy? I walk back in the living room and look at the big red numbers and this is what I see.....

There is a clock on the DVR, that morning the big red numbers were 3 minutes ahead of the DVR clock, our life is lived by the BIG RED numbers NOT the DVR which is to tiny to see. I had reset the minutes correctly and SOME HOW had changed the hour up an hour.

May I buy a brain?? I did not notice it when I did it, I  did not notice it for the 3 hours it was that way, Or for the Half Hour of Misery playing scenarios in my head.... Of course I could blame it on the tiny red numbers.. I mean who can read those???