Patchwork

Tonight's photo shows some "creative" patching of a barn = a patchwork barn! We both woke up early and got underway with dialysis a little earlier so actually finished before noon. The routine of the morning is: When I wake up, I print off that day's crossword puzzles for Woody. i now print off four to hopefully keep him occupied during his three hours of dialysis. The puzzles of choice currently are The LA Times, USA Today, The Boston Herald, and The Plain Dealer. Some days they take longer than others. Woody says that a couple are harder on Friday. Lately I work The Plain Dealer online...sometimes while I am waking up and sometimes after I have dialysis up and running. Before I get the puzzles from the printer, I gather up the iPad, the cell phone, and the landline. I need to have those with me to be able to communicate in case of an emergency and they orovide entertainment for me at times during treatment...cell phone and iPad have the current books I'm reading. The landline has caller ID so I know if I need to answer that line during treatment. There is a phone in the kitchen but it is a corded phone and has no caller ID. I place those three items on a table in the family room so I have access to them during treatment. Once I am downstairs, I fix Woody's breakfast. While he is eating, I begin the set-up for dialysis. From when I start that till everything, including Woody, is ready and treatment can start, it takes about 1-1/2 hours. Some time will be cut out when we start accessing through his graft...but I don't even want to think about that. That is when I will be sticking him with two needles for every treatment using the graft that was put in his upper left arm. That hasn't been mentioned by the nurses lately, but I know that the time to do that is approaching all too quickly! Our reprieve is the fact that the nurses are too busy to fi us into their training schedule yet. Once his treatment is started, Woody does crosswords or watches TV or dozes. I have to monitor the treatment on the iPad that belongs to dialysis. The iPad keeps us on our toes by reminding us when to take Woody's blood pressure...before treatment, at least every 1/2 hour during treatment, and post treatment. I have data to record pretreament, during treatment, and post treatment...called a flow sheet. I submit that daily after the treatment is over. So the nurses have access to exactly what happens daily...alarms, blood pressures, pre and post weight, when meds are given, etc.,etc., etc! After Woody is disconnected I still have to "tear down" the machine and wipe equipment off with antiseptic wipes. Usuallly before I wipe off equipment I fix Woody's lunch and then complete the rest of the routine. That gives you a little peek into a dialysis day's routine. Today I made soup while I monitored pressures and recorded blood pressure. We have just enjoyed a bowl of it for supper. Woody chose this one to change up his same ol' same ol' soup routine. He said that Ham and Barley Soup sounded good to him. This soup has a lot of veggies so I did a lot of peeling and chopping of vegetables. It has a longer cooking time so it wasn't ready for lunch. We had Arby's sandwiches again today as Melany brought extras yesterday. It is supposed to frost overnight tonight so beefore it got dark, I cut a lot of basik and brought it inside. I'm going to freeze some chopped in ice cubes. I have some special freezer containers to do this. Guess that is on the agenda for this evening. I covered the basil plant with a pillowcase. We'll see if it makes it through the night or not. But at least I got some in to use. I will freeze some and let some dry. My basil has done so well this year. I hate to have the season to pick fresh pass us by. I still have a pretty messy kitchen from my soup making so that is ahead of me this evening, too. I put that job off as I was ready for an afternoon nap because of my early rising hour. I believe that Woody snuck in a snooze or two this afternoon, too. Looking forward to a day off from dialysis tomorrow. Well, off for basil and KP duty! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! (I keep thinking that I will stop my little Covid slogan at the end of each blog, but as soon a I think about stopping, I hear of another case or two or...amongst my friends and their families es.)