September: Is summer over??

Jeri be sure to let us know what the doctor says about Mary.

Sandra give us an update on Pat.

Headed to the dentist in a little while. I don't have a cavity but I have a spot on a crown that is catching food so he is going to fill the crown to get rid of the spot. Then straight to the antique mall. I left a huge mess yesterday! I had to move lots of stuff to get the new pieces in and that always means whatever was hanging on the wall ends up also having to come down and be rehung. I also have some new accessories to take down to the mall. I try to get it back together as soon as I can but I don't worry about it too much. I do need to get it finished before the weekend. But people seems to like the adventure of digging through all the stuff piled around!

Hope everyone has a good day!

No, Jeri, you are NOT GUILTY! I too have either shared or liked something I want to come back to later (but then I usually don't, lol). I think you can also save them somehow but I usually don't even do that. I'm talking about this friend's husband (retired) who probably posts 15-20 of these per day!

I found a way yesterday to keep them from playing automatically on your iphone. I had a hard time figuring it out but I finally did. Apparently that is one thing that eats up data plans and battery life because FB has changed those to auto-play. It really was aggravating. If anyone wants to know how (on iphones) I can tell you how to do it.

Good luck with all the medical appointments and tests today!

Charlotte, hope you get your TVs straightened out. It's so frustrating dealing with TV or cable people! We have DirectTV and somehow this week we have no NBC local channel due to a dispute and lack of an 'agreement' between the local station and DirectTV. And you know it's over money and fees most likely. It's our favorite news channel of course. Not that we watch that much on TV but really, we don't have much of a choice here in the country as to our TV providers and now this! We are so angry. Hope they get it resolved soon.

Yes Elaine I would like to know how to stop them from playing automatically on my iphone. Glad to hear I'm not the only one that has those things just play automatically! I thought maybe I was doing something to cause it. I try to keep things cleared off my iphone but there is something that keeps eating away at my battery life.

We lost our local NBC also and I have been following AGT since it came on, makes me want to go off on Direct TV!! We can get local ABC and CBS but I prefer NBC for news and weather.

I am sitting here watching the echo being done right here in the room, they should be coming to get her after that. It is going to be a very long day I am sure.

Praying for good news for Mary !

Here is the easiest way to change the settings:

Go to 'Settings' on your iphone main page. Then scroll down to the 'Facebook' item and tap it. Just below the word 'Facebook' there should be another 'settings' button. Tap it. Then select 'auto-play' and make sure either 'off' or 'wifi only' is checked. If nothing is checked, make sure you tap one of those and a check mark appears. On mine, nothing was checked. This should stop the auto-play when you are roaming with 3G or 4G service. I checked 'off' on mine so they will only play if I select play.

For Android phones, you have to go to the Facebook page itself and then go to App Settings and change the auto-play settings as above.

Hope this helps.

Thanks! I'll work on that later today. Now if I could just figure out how to do the same thing on my laptop! I have a touch screen 8.1 and things just start playing when I'm trying to scroll through. Sometimes I just give up and check my notifications and just open things I'm interested in. I just don't like FB as much as I used to.

I think you can do the same thing in FB, you just have to go to the settings within your Facebook page. I've got to do it on my laptop also. Haven't tried it yet.

4 new stents, ranging from 75%-99% blockages. One was a clot, another was an old stent that had scar tissue formed in it. The new ones are the medicated kind and the doc said that should prevent scar tissue from forming again. I am home Tommy took her home and is staying until Sat or Sun if necessary.
They went into her wrist this time and got her up and out a lot quicker than the last time.
I left a few minutes before they discharged her trying to beat the school traffic as I needed to make a couple of stops in Tupelo before I came home. This has been a very hard week on all of us.

Sandra I'm so glad she insisted that they send her to the heart hospital! You really have to be your own advocate now days!! That's a lot of blockage for the first doctors to say nothing was wrong. I know you are worn out! They keep improving on stents. It's been 8 years since my brother died but he had a lot of stents. Even back then he used to say he would rather have a stent than go to the dentist.

I'm pooped myself tonight. couldn't go to sleep last night. I think my mind was just racing. Then I've been on the go since I got up. I need to call uverse back but dread doing it! They do need to give me some additional credit. I don't think the first technician ever set up the parental control properly. Just hate to have to deal with them again!

The cancer is back. They have to schedule her for a CT scan and the Tech is gonna insert a needle into the mass and withdraw fluid to determine what kind so Dr. Fort can prescribe the best type of chemo to battle it. He told Mary that the cancer is a slow growing cancer and that was why he wasn't in a life and death hurry. It's not the news that I was wanting to hear for Mary but here she goes again. Hopeful this different chemo (Doxil) won't be as harsh as the Taxil & Carboplaxin(sp) was.

That is amazing that the blockages could hide with that much blocked. TG, Pat knew her body and didn't give up until she found someone to help!!! That's a really good improvement on those stents b/c Jim has already had to have 2 or 3 re-stented due to scar tissue forming not a new build up of plax.

My body has already adjusted for Daylight savings and I'm waking up around 5:00 AM every morning. So needless to say I'm dragging by around 3:00 PM. Hope you get more rest tonight Charlotte. The weekend is here and I know you'll be extra busy.

So sorry to hear. Mary's cancer is back. Another example of knowing something is not right with her body. I know she is so weary of having to deal with chemo treatments.

I'm actually in bed! My problem is I am just a night person! I've got to start training mysel to go to bed earlier. When i don't go to sleep until 2 or so and then get up at 7:30 it starts to catch up with me. I don't intend to go to sleep at 2 but some nights I just can't seem to go to sleep. It seems the more I tell myself I need to go to sleep the more awake I get!

So glad Pat will be healing and glad they found out what she needed.

Jeri, so sorry to hear Mary's cancer is back. She knew it, didn't she? Just like Pat knew something was wrong.

We just have to insist we be taken care of. Imagine if we can't communicate one day what this will be like to get proper health care.

Charlotte, hang in there with the uverse thing. Y'all don't want to know what I think of all these so-called 'providers' right now. I'd insist they take care of your problem and provide a refund for all the charges due to the situation you're in. We previously had very good & nice technicians from Direct TV at our house but this last one was a doozy. He left the biggest mess at our house, Earl was furious. He even took photos and gave the guy a lousy review when he got the follow-up phone call after the visit. Not that they will do anything about it.

Hope you get some sleep this weekend. When I get keyed up, I can't sleep either. Sandra, you get some rest too. Sounds like everybody needs it!

(((((((Mary))))))). I am so sorry she has to go through this again, but thank God there is a treatment. Is the cancer in her belly?

Just FYI---the only way to truly know what is happening inside your heart is to have a CATH the echo provides some information, but the cath is the answer.

Here's hoping we all have a peaceful and happy week end.

I claim that peaceful & happy week end!!! Thanks!!!

We don't know exactly now but in the past there was a mass between the pancreas and the liver. So far it's not been attached to either but just kinda there. I had wondered if they were gonna check her for diabetes and yesterday they did. She has had a yeast infection that she can't get rid of and the Dr. suggested that she have that blood work done. She didn't have to fast or anything just go give blood. Now we need them to schedule the CT scan and then we will know more or at least the Dr. will.

Charlotte, I hate having to deal with cable, internet or phones. Seems like regardless of the carriers it is always a pain. Hope you get it worked out soon! Some of the time a letter will accomplish more than a phone call and if they break the chain of reply you automatically have them.

Jeri who in the world do you send a letter to?? I have a hard enough time trying to just get someone on the phone. They never give you an address to send a letter to. I guess to the payment address but my guess is that's just a processing center for money. The lady I was on the phone with trying to get the parental control set had me on the phone for an hour and a half pushing this button and that and unplugging and replugging the boxes. I have four of them and two are downstairs and two upstairs so I was running up and down the stairs also. Some combination of things she had me do totally took the den tv off the source and I could never get it back on the source. The uverse technician couldn't either! He finally had to use some cables to connect it differently that it had been. He said that if one tv was on parental control that if it was hooked up properly all the other tv should also be on parental control. The first technician put the one in the tv on parental control but never checked to see if the other tv's were actually on. I have never used the parental controls before so assumed he knew what he was talking about and that all tv's were on parental controls.

I slept good last night. Working on getting some things ready to take to the antique mall in a little while. I've got to get my mess in order before the weekend. We have lots of traffic on the weekend. Today will be busy too but at least I got the major stuff done yesterday. I still have a lot of fluffing and straightening to do today. But at least people can walk through the booths.

Hope everyone has a good day. Jeri hope you have that peaceful and happy weekend!!

Charlotte here is a link to the Customer Complaint Dept.

Contact ATT Customer Care here: At the bottom of the page is a Contact me tab, click it, and you can send them an email.
http://forums.att.com/t5/notes/privatenotespage/tab/compose/note-to-user-id/192773

I hope we all have that weekend!!! I'm going to a brunch/bridal shower in the morning and then a plant sale at a g/h here in town.

This message was edited Sep 5, 2014 3:10 PM

Thanks Jeri! I'll give that a try.

I had another interesting afternoon. The neighbor on the right side of me called me this afternoon to tell me Richard was walking down our street and seemed confused. I was at the antique mall which is only five minutes or so away. So I jumped in the car to go check on him and about the time I got to our street the neighbor on the left side of me called to tell me the same thing! He hadn't made it a whole block from the house by the time I got home. I asked him where he was going and he said he thought he would just walk to Drug Emporium to get some M&M's!! He said he just thought it would be something to do. I just gave him a medium size bag of M&M's yesterday! When we got home I gave him a spare bag of M&M's I had and saw that he still had about a 1/4 of the bag from yesterday. He said he just wanted to make sure he didn't run out!!! I hope this is not starting a pattern. At least we live at the bottom of a steep hill and he walks very slow. All the neighbors know to call me.

Charlotte, TG!!! You have the best neighbors, ever!!! My heart was in my throat just reading your post!!! You are doing better than I think I would in this situation. My mother was blind and I can't tell you how many times I flew from my house to hers in absolute fear after my Grandmother died. How old is Richard? I know that age is not a factor for this disease. My Uncle is 94.

Has anyone heard how Genna is doing or talked to Sandra?

He just turned 76. I have discovered that Alzheimer's/dementia runs in his family. I knew his grandmother had it but my SIL just recently told me that he also had an aunt and an uncle that had it. I didn't know about them. The grandmother and aunt and uncle were all on his dad's side of the family. His mother died just before we started dating so I never knew her. His dad had died a few years before she died. So I never knew either of his parents. My SIL also told me that his mom had dementia problems. As she put it "she was pretty confused". Richard's daughter had also told me her grandmother had dementia. His oldest brother died several years ago at 80 and was fine. His other brother is now turning 80 (4 years between all 3 of them) and my SIL want say much or maybe doesn't want to admit it but it seems that he is also beginning to show signs of some dementia.

Yes I do have wonderful neighbors! We all look after each other. I sent a text to my neighbor to thank him for calling me and to tell him where he was going. His reply was "I'll keep a bag of M&M's handy!" He is a new neighbor that just moved in the first of the year. But he and his wife are super nice too! I told him about Richard right after they moved in and he told me to be sure and let him know if there is anyway he can help me with him.

I haven't heard from either Sandra or Genna .

I never knew that dementia was so prevalent. I had a great aunt that had it and out of our large family that was it. Now my uncle has it and about 4 of my mom's 1st cousins have it. My son is already trying to sign me up but he needs it worst than I do. LOL!!!

I haven't heard from either of the them. I pray that things are going well!!!

Tonight is our 1st home game for both LSU and Southern and the city is bussing with all kinds of activity!! I sure hope traffic is not insane today!!! Jimmy is having to work a double shift b/c all the other officers took off to work the games. So I want even see him until Monday.

Jim surprised us and came home late last night. His truck broke down so he had a wrecker take it to the shop and they can't work on it until Monday so he came to get the motor home. He found an RV park and is gonna leave it there so if he does get a little time he can go get a good nights sleep. I just hope he doesn't let other people stay in it. For all my purposes, I'm kissing it good-bye!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

We are doing fine here, haven't heard from Genna either. I played catch up with the laundry and cooked something yesterday.
Tommy is going home today and I told Pat I would come stay the night with her tonight but she said she is FINE ! She walked to the mailbox and back and no pain.

Where has Jim been staying?

I thing dementia/Alzheimer's has always been around but years ago people didn't talk about it. I think families tried to hide it. Now it's open and people talk about it.

My mother's oldest sister had Alzheimer's. Her husband hid it from her sisters for a long time. It was finally very obvious something was wrong and he finally told them her problem.

My dad's mother was 95 when she died and she had problems with dementia the last few years before she died. Her's was not Alzheimer's but just dementia. Probably just from old age. She would be perfectly lucid some days and then other days out of it.

Those are the only people in my family on either side that I know of.

We don't have but a couple of home games for Arkansas in Little Rock anymore. They used to split the games half and half between Little Rock and Fayetteville. They have over time shifted most to Fayetteville. But when they do have a game in Little Rock there are certain areas you for sure want to avoid driving!!

Sandra does Pat just have the one son. Glad to hear she is doing so well. Certainly glad she insisted there was something wrong and got it fixed!

Genna is probably busy with her kids.

I'm glad that Pat is doing so well!! Seems like someone has been down or the other for a while now. I pray that this changes and we all have good health!!! Jim's 43 yr old cousin just had 8 stents done to his heart. Never smoked, ate healthy and exercised. A total shock for the family to absorb. He told me that he feels better now than he has for years.

The brunch I went to was very nice and Lauren received a lot of nice gifts. This is Camile's granddaughter and we have been neighbors & friends for over 40 years. Our kids were all teenagers together. So it was like a family reunion seeing people that we hadn't seen for years.

Jim has been living in his truck mostly. They are on call 24/7. Once they get loaded and to the rig site they can be in detention with pay, up to 10 hrs. then they don't get pay for 10 hrs and then they can go back on detention. Some of the time his detention pay is more than the load pay. Jim's bed in his truck sleeps as good as our bed in the house. We've gotten him the memory foam bed topper and he loves it. He's also working circles around the young guys, 2 of which are my nephew & great nephew.

This message was edited Sep 6, 2014 1:46 PM

My sister has 2 daughters, but neither of them are able to do much of anything for her. The oldest one has a child in school and has to be there every day and the youngest had most of her colon removed a few years back and she can't do anything at all much, keeps upset stomach all the time. The oldest daughter did stay with her while Tommy went and got her medicine and some groceries the night she got home from the hospital.
Tommy is the only son

Jeri sounds like Jim doesn't have a lot of spare time.

Sandra you have probably mentioned Pat's daughters but I just don't remember it. It's good that Tommy can get away to help her. It seems there is always one person in a family that always ends up being the one that takes care of most things. I've always said I don't have any patience and I'm not a good care giver but maybe I'm better than I think. I was the one that always took care of everything for my dad and after my dad died my brother turned to me to help him with his marital problems. He told me one day "you had to take care of dad and now your having to take care of me". Now I have Richard to deal with so I guess the good Lord above thinks I can do a better job than I think I can.

Not sure where the day went but seems like I didn't get anything done I planned to do. That's just the way it is sometimes.

The daughter's child that is school is very badly delayed. He does really well for his age now, but it hasn't always been that way. He could not be left alone for sure.
Yes, it usually boiled down to one who does most of it. Even if they were available she would want me with her. I have always taken care of her since Jim was killed. Tommy or I one would still have to be there--LOL--in the case of a procedure, both of us ! Her second heart surgery was after Jim was killed and Tommy had committed to a trip to Italy for the school. He was gone for 3 weeks and I stayed 2 whole weeks with her. That was the one she had to go back to the hospital with blood clots in her lungs. That really scared me worse than the surgery did.

Charlotte, that's another scary incident with Richard, and you have wonderful neighbors who look out for each other. I hope he doesn't continue doing this, but it is exactly what Earl's Dad would do. Do go to the police department and ask about the bracelets or call a local senior center and see if you can find out about them. They program them with the identification and emergency contact info.

Haven't heard from Genna. Hope she's ok after her fall and that she's busy with the kids.

My company had a picnic today at the botanical garden. We walked thru the gardens and the butterfly house. There were so many Monarchs today I couldn't believe it. Really enjoyed it.

That's a good idea Elaine about the bracelet. I for sure also need to get a card in his wallet with my name and cell phone number. One place I read said to put a card in ther wallet that says they have a neurological problem and to call if found alone. I think I'm going to have to forget about trying to limit M&M's. Every time he's decided to walk away it seems to be about getting M&M's!! He called a cab one time. I also need to call the cab company and see if they have a do not pick up list I can get him on. That experience didn't turn out at all the way he wanted it to so maybe he want try that again. He wanted more M&M's after dinner tonight so I stopped by and got him 2 more medium size bags. He went on about how he was happy now and thanked me . I put one bag up and let him have one bag tonight. He's going through a bag in about a day and a half. I'm just going to have to keep a supply of them put up and give him a new bag when he finishes one off!! There's no explaining he can't have more. Maybe he will burn out on them if he eats enough!! The doctor said it is normal that he wants to eat so many sweets. It seems they lose their taste buds and the sweet taste buds are the last to go. So sweets are just the things that taste the best to him. He does eat plenty of other food. He always eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. Tonight we went to Pei Wei and he had sweet sour shrimp and ate every one of them. He usually eats all of whatever he has for dinner. All of the meat that is - he want eat any vegetables other than a few french fries. He also drinks too many diet cokes but the doctor said not to worry about it. To just let him have them. I guess he figures it is also one way to keep him hydrated. The other thing he likes to do is go riding in the car with Sirius on.. He never used to like to ride in a car for very long. I have to take him out riding every few days. We go for an hour to two hour rides. I can burn through a tank of gas in a very short time! I just chalk it up to entertainment!

Sandra I bet the blood clots did scare you.

Elaine glad you had a fun day.

Charlotte, I would let him have whatever brings him pleasure, he is not diabetic so let him eat M&M's if it makes him happy. While we don't have that problem with Jerry's Mom I keep the little snack size bags and put things like grapes already washed and ready to pull out and snack on if she needs a snack. You might try putting a few in the snack bags and doling them out, might not work, but you could try. If he likes grapes they are sweet also. I have been putting grape tomatoes in them for Jerry's lunch lately.
I am thankful for your good neighbors also, these days people had rather not be involved so your neighborhood is the exception !
That is interesting that he like listening to Sirius, is there a certain kind of music, or is it talk ?

I think I will try putting M&M's in the snack bags. I always keep a box of those bags. He want eat grapes or any other kind of fruit. I do buy granola bars and keep them here. He will eat some of them. I fix lots of cookies, brownies, etc. I almost always have something like that for him to snack on. You would think with all the sugar he eats he would gain weight but he doesn't.
He likes old 50's and 60's music. In the books I've read they also mention playing music. There is something about music particularly music of the era when they were young. He was in high school and college in the fifties and it brings back lots of memories for him. It also seems to be very calming for him. I put a sirius radio in the room he spends most of his time in. He can remember all the old songs. It's sort of like reliving his high school and college days. It stays on 24/7.

I do live in an exceptional little neighborhood. It's actually like the neighborhood I grew up in back in the 50's!

Have you tried those liquid drink mixes like Mio or crystal light that you can just add a few drops into a glass of water? There are several brands now I can't remember. It is fairly sweet and there might be a flavor he would like that would get some water into him. You don't have to make a whole pitcher. There is a guy at work who uses these because of a kidney issue he can't drink soft drinks.

Yes I've tried those Elaine. I have several flavors of them in my cabinet now and tried putting some in several bottles of water in the the fridge so they were already mixed up. I've also bought crystal light. He want drink either of them. For lunch he always drinks sweet ice tea. Very sweet ice tea! We go out to eat every night and I've gotten him in the habit of always just having water to drink. That's the only time I can get any just plain water down him. And he will only drink a small amount of it. But during the day he is constantly getting cokes to drink. He doesn't always drink all of the can which is a good thing.

Hello all! I am here. Got on line this past Saturday to try to catch up with everyone - and got interrupted and never made it back! My sister took to LR on Thursday for my colonoscopy. I had to get up at 3 and drink some more stuff, and my sister picked me up at 5. We had to be there at 7:15. We were out by around 9:30 I think and he said everything looked great and I don't have to have it repeated until 10 yrs! which was FINE by me! That drinking 64 oz of fluid in an hour was rough - or at least I thought it was.... particularly at 3 in the morning!! I had hoped that Alex could take my stitches out on Thursday while I was up there. They were supposed to have come out on Wednesday - but the clinic couldn't get me in until Friday. My sister and I went to NLR to Cracker Barrel to eat, and then to the NLR Sam's because I needed some things from there that the LR Sams no longer carries...... by that time it was almost noon but Alex didn't think he would be out until 2 or after, so we headed on back. We detoured thru Arkadelphia to drop some things off at Jessica's apartment that she had forgotten and gave my sister a chance to see her apartment. We were home by about 3 and I laid down and took a short nap! Friday was catch up day here at work, and the weekend was a blur, although I don't know that we really accomplished much! I started a new bible study at church last night - so I have to make time to get my studying in for that as well. It is about the 7 feasts of Israel and then will move into another bible study that deals more in prophecy..... I may be in WAY over my head because I have never studied most of this at all before. Time will tell.........

Jeri, I am so very sorry to hear that Mary's cancer is back! Bless her heart she has had such a hard time with it. I pray that this chemo is less harsh for her, but very effective! I am so thankful she is back close because I know you will take care of her!

Sandra, thank the Lord that Pat insisted on going to the heart hospital. Our local hospitals put WAY too much stock in an EKG - that is my opinion.... and i have thougth that since I was a young girl because my Dad had a series of heart attacks when I was 9 and so the rest of my life was spent dealing with heart issues. I am glad that she got somewhere that would actually check her out thoroughly....and you are right, the angiogram is the ONLY way to know for sure! When I had mine a few years back when I was having all those breathing problems, they went in thru my wrist as well. Much faster recovery - although my arm was sore for several weeks and I could tell exactly the path they took...... That was the first I had heard of them going in thru the wrist. My sister had her last stint that way as well. It is amazing the progress that they have made in the treatment of heart disease since my Dad was first diagnosed.

Charlotte, I am so thankful that you have such awesome neighbors! You and Richard are truly blessed in that regard! I have a friend whose husband has alzteimers and they had to move into an assisted living type facility lin order for her to have some help with him. It just got to the point she couldn't do it all by herself. It is good that the Dr will let him have those M&Ms and softdrinks - so many would restrict his intake, but if he isn't diabetic and isn't gaining weight I think it is great they let him have what he wants.

We have training starting here on the software training that I did some of when I was at Magnet Cove. Part of it will be a refresher - but part of it will be new stuff. We will be in class most of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday. I will be gone on Thursday to go to my endocrinologist for my appointment and Jessica's. I will also have my MRI that day. Please say a prayer for us if you think of it - I am praying they can help Jessica and that she likes this dr.

Hope everyone has a great day ! I better get back at it............

Genna

Well, the busy Genna, as usual, lol! So good to hear from you, girl!! I guess I totally missed that you were having a colonoscopy, but glad to hear everything is A-ok and you don't have to go back for 10 years! My 10 years is almost up I think (next year), so I guess I better start thinking about that old thing again myself. Anyway, glad to see you're doing well and the family too. Can't keep a good woman down for long!!

Thanks Elaine...... yeah, I had a long list of things I wanted to get done on Saturday, but very few materalized! We had to work on a rent house, and then we had to run some things to Kyle that he needed for Barn Bash that evening....... so then we ended up going to Hot Springs to get some things at Lowe's that we couldn't get locally after spending part of our Saturday trying to find them here. Then after going to church yesterday I went to do lab and buy some groceries and by the time I got back, it was time to change and go back for that bible study..... doesn't seem like I accomplished much but I sure did a lot of running! LOL...... It is cooler here so I hope to be able to get some things done in the evenings outside. I am sooo far behind out there!

BTW, has anyone heard from Marilyn? I saw on the news that Ocean City and several cities on the East Coast are flooded and still getting rain. I knew they were going to Ocean City, but figured they had left there already but I just wondered if anyone had talked to her.

I talked (by text) to her today and they are ok or were the last I texted her around 3 I guess

That's good to know! Thanks Sandra! They just showed some pretty rough videos of the flooding.... just wanted to make sure they were safe!

Is Pat feeling a lot better? I would suspect that once she gets her strength back some that she would feel a lot better than she has in quite a while............ although my sister says she has lost some strength with each of her stints but she has more stamina.

Jeri, do you know how soon Mary will start her treatments? Will they be weekly or what?

Pat is feeling better, but she says she is sore all over. She is starting her walking again and she did 5 minutes this morning.