2024 Hasn't Been A Good Year So Far

 2024 - what can I say? We're only 5 months in and things just haven't been good.  

The first week of the year my mom needed moved from the rehab center to a nursing home.  None of us were able to give her the 24 hour care that she needed.  However, during that time, the nursing home was saying she didn't qualify for a nursing home; nor did she qualify for assisted living.  You're reading that right, too bad for one - not bad enough for the other.  During that same week, my brother-in-law, unexpectedly, needed to have quadruple bypass.

Also in January, my one Aunt passed as well as my cousin's husband.

My parents live with my sister J and this was her husband needing the bypass.  No surprise she was very stressed.  She has my Dad, her husband needs serious surgery and Mom's in limbo. Naturally the rest of us-myself and sisters E & S, jumped in to help with Dad.  Brother-in-law came through surgery perfectly and has healed nicely fortunately.  

I got the flu in January....which led into my 60th birthday....which meant really no celebration.  Though my sisters did take me to dinner.  They went out afterwards, I went home to bed.  For my 60th year I decided to invest in me by rejoining Weight Watcher meetings and buying a walking pad...neither has gotten much use 😞.

Because my sister hired an Elder Law Attorney (if you have the money, so worth it) we did get Mom into a nursing home.  Mom had her good and bad days.  I never seemed to catch her on her good days and several times she didn't know who I was; sometimes I couldn't get her to wake up.  It was sad and the mother I once knew, was slipping away.  I hit a point that I didn't want to visit her anymore; I knew I had to, but I didn't want to (E felt the same).  I started going over during my lunch hour; it limited the time I could stay.

Unexpectedly in February, my dog Dexter needed put down.  We knew this was coming due to a tumor by his liver; but it just was another thing to happen in an all ready stressful year.  I miss my Dexter Doodle Noodle. 

The end of February my Dad turned 90!  A celebration finally! Not a big one, but we took him to his favorite diner and that made him happy!  (by the way, he and mom celebrated 70 years in 2023).

Then March started.  At 1:30 a.m. on March 7th, I was awakened by a phone call from J letting me know that Mom had passed away.  We knew this was coming; but you're never truly prepared for it.  And also, once again, I was 7 days in with a flu! (no meds as the doctor says it was viral).  My work is very good with bereavement leave, so I didn't have to worry there; but we had all the preparations, contacting family and such and it just seemed so whirlwind.  We went through a lot of photos, reliving the memories.  My Dad kept insisting the photos of him in the younger days weren't him.  We told him that that must be our real dad - the mailman (inside joke, my Dad was a mailman 😀).  

We get through that.  And then, Dad is in the ER with an UTI....he was very ill, but doing much better.

The day after the funeral I went to Urgent Care and finally an antibiotic for my flu!!  It's gone, but I've been left with a dry cough for a very long time.  And of course, allergy season started.....

We spent our first year without Mom on Easter.  There will be a lot of firsts this year.  Mother's Day was hard.

Last week, Dad was back in the ER with an UTI again!  He was there a week and they just moved him to a rehab center; but things are just not going well.  He has several medical issues that affect his mind and we just don't know if the craziness (for lack of a better word) is going away this time.  More than likely he'll end up in a nursing home.  J can no longer take care of him as he can do nothing for himself anymore; we're not sure he'll be able to walk again.

So 2024 hasn't been a good year.

But I'll Try

 Well I tried and got nothing done.....

It's been a bad month.  I found out a cousin (who I have not seen in years) passed and no one notified anyone.  I lost an Uncle this month; and in this past week I had to travel south to stay with my sister as my brother-in-law was ill and passed.  

No time for dieting.

But I haven't given up....hopefully things will be more consistent now and I can do a restart!  I still want to do all those "tries" from my last post.

And I still want to give the new WW program an honest try.  I can't get to my meetings anymore as 5:30 is too early of a start time, but I'm going to try some virtual meetings (though I don't really care for them at all).

But I'll try....

Loki

 Last month we adopted a new dog that we call Loki:

He's a bassett beagle mix and cute as can be!

Loki is a year old and came from a rescue we've dealt with in the past.  Loki's a year old and not house trained at all!

House training doesn't bother me, it's the fact that this dog is a year old and no one has taken the time to even give him any basics.  Looking through his paperwork this poor dog has had several names - which indicates that he has been adopted out before and returned (more than once quite possibly).  I can even go back through the rescues fb page and see that he was adopted under one of those names back in April.

I don't mind that the rescue didn't disclose any of this....but I do think it's helpful to prevent future returns by being completely honest with what the issues were.  We have no plans to return him, wouldn't even consider it; but I'm sure the house training issues has been part of the reason he's been returned.  This dog has no understanding of inside and outside.  To him, they are the same.  I partially blame the rescue because they free feed and let the dogs all wander around in an enclosed area where they just do their business and they clean it up.  That's not house training.

Loki's been getting better but the other night he peed in the bed!!  That seemed odd since it was a sleeping area.  So today I dropped him off at the vet so they could check his urine for an infection, give him an examine and check for a few more things.  I mentioned this on the rescue's fb page (I'm not the only one dealing with house training issues).  People gave some advice.  The rescue's advice?  Put a wrap on him.  Wait, what?????

A wrap???  If you're unfamiliar with wraps, they are diapers you wrap around the dog to catch urine. 

Wraps do serve a purpose - if you have an older dog that can no longer hold itself or leaks urine; however, that is not an option when it comes to house training.  I want the dog trained; not trained to think it's okay to go in the house.  

Anyway, hopefully the vet visit will help (I could tell from his poop that he did have tape worms) and we can get things back in order!!!

Hershel

 On Wednesday I had to say good-bye to my dear sweet Hershel.

Hershel was a stray neighborhood cat that followed me home on a dog walk one day about 8 years ago.  He never left.  We were never truly able to find who he belonged to though someone mentioned that they thought his owners had moved and left him behind.  Hershel ran the neighborhood, hunted the wildlife and made pit stops at our house.  He was much loved.

This past year Hershel began to lose weight; half his body weight to be exact despite lots of eating.  Though this was probably due to thyroid issues or diabetes; when you run the neighborhood making pit stops, there's no easy way to medicate.

I was concerned he'd wander off one day and we'd never find him.

So this past Wednesday I took him the vet and said good-bye.

We will meet again at the Rainbow Bridge.

Long Month

 It's been a long month.....

Yesterday we had to have our sweet Lucy put down.  Lucy had throat/thyroid cancer and was slowly declining but really declined the past week.  We had hoped she'd make it to Labor Day or at least the end of the year; but it was not to be.  The situation wasn't without some drama though; we got to the vet's, hopped out of the car, and the back hatch wouldn't open to get Lucy.....hubby had locked the keys in the car!!  We had to wait 40 minutes for a locksmith!!  Only my Lucy......

Lucy was such a good dog and loved everyone - she never met someone she didn't like.  It broke my heart to lose my baby girl.  We do still have Dexter and realized that it has been a long time since we've only had one dog.  We'll get another at some point, but right now we need to grieve.

Needless to say....I haven't done much in the weight loss department.  I did go back to Weight Watchers this past week and am finally getting myself back on track.  It's still hard; but I'm moving forward.

A Few Losses

 But the week didn't start good.  This week I had to say good-bye to my dear sweet Cooper.

Cooper was 13 years old and age wasn't well for him.  It was time to go but I stayed with him to the bitter end.  I loved this cat.

We've been looking to adopt another dog.  We found one and applied for it at our local shelter.  When days went by with no word; we stopped in and I explained that I had put in an application on Ginger but had not heard anything.  Without even asking my name they informed me that they were behind on applications and I wouldn't hear anything until the following week.  I asked to get Ginger out and the happily allowed it.  Hubby and I spent almost an hour with her, playing fetch, taking photos, bonding...  A few hours later she would be gone from the website - adopted, to someone else.  I wish they had told me there were other applications, that I would of understood; but allowing me to bond with a dog that you already had approved to someone else?  REALLY!!

So the week was about loss.

But I'm trying to not let it get me down.  There will be other dogs; Cooper is in a much better place.

And Finally An Update!

Yep....I've been gone for a while.  These times have been so crazy, haven't they?

I started back on track yesterday.  Doing well so far, but it is only day 2.  I decided I needed to get lunch under control.  One of the reasons I have such a hard time with lunch is that my co-workers mostly eat out which makes their lunches look so much better than mine, lol!  So I try to come up with ways to recreate take out meals so I don't miss out.

Today I declared sub day (the rest of the week most likely).  When subs are ordered I always favor ham & cheese (I just don't like deli turkey meat).  One of the things that makes a sub a sub is the roll!  So light bread or hamburger/hotdog roll will not do.  I either use the club rolls or I buy hoagie rolls/steak rolls.  Depending on brand and size...the club rolls run about 4 sp and the larger ones run 5-6 sp.  When I buy the larger I cut them in half giving me a 3 sp roll.  Yes, you heard that right...I cut it in half and yes that makes a rather small sandwich; yet it turns out to be just enough!  I add 3 oz of ham and a slice of swiss cheese.  Buy the thin slices, they're only 1 sp a slice and it's the real thing.  Obviously you can use reduced fat or fat free varieties as well.  I top with 1/2 a tablespoon of light mayo.

I planned on having cucumber slices on the side but forgot to buy them at the store, so I dug into the guinea pig stash of baby carrots and had them instead.  I added two dill pickle slices as well.  With a sandwich, I do need something snacky.  I bought a bag of Utz Reduced Fat Potato Chips - 20 chips is one serving for 4 sp; I only counted out for 1/2 a serving for 2 sp.  I then added an orange to finish up. 

I ended up with this:

And it was very good - 8 sp total!