We're still here folks.
We have our new routine in place now.
It's taking longer to care for Bill.
The past two years before Bill's latest hospitalization the morning routine took about half an hour. Now because of his leg wound, getting him ready for the day takes at last an hour.
As in the past, every third day is Shower Day. Bill continues to hate Shower Day (I'm not so fond of it either) but it is something we must do. I don't want any more fungus growing on Bill. He doesn't and can't bath himself. Thank goodness he can walk to the shower on his own.
Now every morning I have to dress his leg wound. That leg wound is taking much longer to heal but it appears to be healing, albeit slowly. I needed a lot more dressing with the VA sent this week. I wonder what the UPS driver thinks of all this medical equipment and boxes of Depends being send to Casa Tipton-Kelly. I'm pretty sure they surmised that there is caregiving going on here.
The VA has been so good to us, supplying us with whatever we need. Hospice has also been very good to us. They have offered to have someone come in to help me and have a hospital bed installed downstairs in Bill's bedroom but we both demurred. Neither one of us wants a stranger semi-living in our house. I can still take care of Bill. Of course I am concerned that if my health changes what will happen to Bill. But I push that thought out of my mind when it rudely intrudes.
Bill has stabilized somewhat but he hasn't gotten stronger. He no longer walks around outside. He may as the weather warms up but I doubt he will survive the summer. He feels the same way too. He feels his strength ebbing. I see it too.
I cannot say often enough how thankful I am Bill isn't in pain. His leg wound hurts when I clean it but the rest of the day there is no pain. He's still sleeping about twenty hours a day.
I felt sad that he no longer checks the weather patterns on his iPad. His appetite is down, he doesn't eat the shortbread cookies that I used to make weekly. That's a break for me because making those cookies was very labor intensive for me. After I made a batch of them, my back was aching on a scale of one to ten at a six or sometimes a seven. His favorite cookies are the Oreo Lemon Thins. After I'm done posting this blog, we'll go out for our daily ride and I'll buy some more of those cookies.
Earlier this week I was thinking of posting about other subjects other than the sometimes depressing health issues and caregiving here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. I have so many memories of my life I would like to post about. Wonderful and interesting (to me anyway) memories. I think I've posted enough about the bad memories in my many previous blog postings. Time to post the fond memories. One of them is from my childhood when I attending East Ward Elementary School in Downingtown, PA. I lived three blocks from the school on Washington Avenue. I would walk those three blocks (which seemed so long to me in those days with my little short legs) to the school every day. Sometimes our little kid network would get word that a nice old lady in one of the grand old houses had cookies for us kids. 
I think this is the house. It was one I just pulled from the Internet. I would go to the right side of the house for my cookie
Her house was on a small hill, steps which I had to climb to go to the back of her house where the kitchen was located. We kids never assembled en masse but individually we would climb those steps and walk the sidewalk to her backdoor and knock on the storm door. She would come to the door and I would ask "Can I have a cookie?" She would smile and say something like "I'll get one for you now."And she would return with a big sugar cookie. Oh what a treat that was! The cookie was so big, and had sugar crystals sprinkled on it. Often the cookie was still warm from her oven. Thinking back she must have timed the cooking of those cookies to when we were returning home from school.
By the way, here is something interest from my childhood. These days you hear so often of little kids being abused or taken advantage of. That NEVER happened to me. All my interactions with adults was always positive. I was always treated with kindness and respect. No one even came close to abusing me. And I was a cute kid! In a future blog post I'll have to tell you about that brief time when a church volunteer young man would pick us young boys up after school once a week to help clean the church. Just from that brief description it sounds like a perfect opportunity to take advantage of your, gullible boys doesn't it? I think I was about ten year old at that time. The only things I remember was how thrilled I was to be chosen to help along with about six other young boys, to help clean the church. I can still remember the perfect peaceful quiet of the church pews as we polished the wooden benches. The smell of the furniture polish. And the young man (he was about twenty-five) was a very handsome man so I was thrilled even though at the time I didn't know why. Of course I discovered later why I liked this attention. These days I wonder if an old lady can hand out cookies to little kids from elementary school and an adult male can pick up pre teen boys after school to help clean a church. Probably not. These are just some of the many fond memories I have never forgotten from my youth and adult hood. At this time of my life I think I will recount more of them in this blog so when I am gone, someone will enjoy reading about those experiences that I was so fortunate to live.
Have a great day everyone!