Advice for caregivers?

[Tamara]

Hey Jan,
  I AM looking forward to the cleaning woman.  She's going to use Murphy's on all our wood furniture, wipe down all floorboards, empty the dead ladybugs out of our light fixtures - all the stuff I hope to get to SOMEDAY- plus all the regular dusting, vacuuming, mopping, etc.
  While my boys (all 3 of them) are really very good about everything, and I have no reason to complain at all, I just know that the ability to see dirt is not found on the Y chromosome.  This way it won't make me crazy.
  If you can arrange transportation, I see no reason why you can't have her when I'm done.  She IS kinda pricey, but this is my Mother's Day gift (along with the mono-earbud MP3 Player) so I'm good with it!

Tamara

[lori67]

This cleaning lady sounds like a dream come true.  Almost worth having brain surgery!  Maybe I should have married her....

I agree that the ability to see dirt is not on the Y chromosome (along with many other things), but the ability to create dirt and leave a trail of it certainly is! 

Lori

[leapyrtwins]

Tamara -

you're making me feel real bad here!  I've lived in this house for 20 years and I can't recall the last time I did some of the cleaning you mention.  It's been so long since I've used Murphy's to clean my hardwood floors, I'm surprised it hasn't gone rancid or solidified in the plastic bottle.  Lori's probably thanking her lucky stars right about now that I'm not having everyone to my house for the symposium 

I bought myself an Ipod for Mother's Day last year - right before my AN surgery - I figured I'd listen to it in the hospital during recovery.  When I ended up SSD, I hated not being able to hear my music in stereo.  I read about the mono plug from someone on this forum and I'm so grateful I did; makes all the difference in the world.

Rock on,

Jan

[robynabc]

Hi,

As the caregiver to my son.  I think the few things that surprised me was the length of the surgery.  13 hours.  Our doctor told us not to stay at the hospital and stay home.  Best thing we could of done.  He said the waiting room is just others anxiously waiting and it was much better being home with distractions and it helped.  Of course,  we were very lucky.  The nurse called us every 2 hours.  That was a godsend.

The other thing that was hard for us was the difference in Erics personality for a while.  He still says he doesn't think he was different but he was.  The nurses and docs had to keep reassuring us that it was not permanent.  We got no sleep at all the night before and I really think the waiting before surgery is the hardest.

One other thing is Eric had surgery in the summer and the first night home we weren't sure where to put him it took some time to realize we wanted him in my room with air conditioning and that sort of scared Eric.  So maybe have a plan of where you will want to be when you get home. 

Those are the things I can think of.  One other thing that may sound odd.  If I were you I would make sure you eat lot of vegetables and stay away from any kind of binding food like cheese.  It will make that first bowel movement easier.  Being under for that long makes BM harder.  I know that sounds like too much info but really you may thank me for that info.  LOL. 

I know you will be just fine.  Good luck.

Robyn