Missy, I can barely manage a checklist re how to leave town for a week…so I don’t envy you your checklist
So I got the results of both my tests posted in my online health portal yesterday, and they were pretty much as i expected. Growth on adrenal was benign, so it really was a “cya” kind of test. MRI of the knee was a bit of another matter. Radial tear in the lateral meniscus, plus patellaer chondromalacia and a 6 cm bakers cyst that’s leaking.
Instead of fooling around with the new GP on this one, I called the top osteosurgeon who treated mch last year and booked an appt for him to review the MRI and give me some kind of guidance on options. Can’t get in until Sept 12th, but its already been this way 8 weeks with little change. I will just keep doing my pool physio in the mean time to strengthen everything…I think its helping a bit, and it might be what he suggests anyway. I have a feeling it probably should have been braced way back to enable healing, but here we are
MP, when I was leaving my job (and I had been the only person who ever held my job) I started writing little “how-to” guides. Of course what I did and what you do are totally different, but I thought about the major tasks I did and wrote up instructions/steps for each task. I put everything in a shared folder and made sure everyone knew where to find it.
It was helpful that I didn’t have to document how to do everything all at once. Breaking it into tasks made it more manageable. I had a couple of months before I left, and every time I did something I thought someone would need to know how to do, I made an instruction guide.
Guess it was good practice for the work I do now writing training manuals!
I also didn’t attempt to write instructions for things that defy instructions - such as, when something comes up, use your brain and figure it out!
I have had some great, some good and some so-so EAs (the so-so ones don’t last that long). Two EAs ago, a great one left abruptly when her biomechanical engineer PhD husband got his dream job at the FDA. She create a notebook with a long writeup of what she did for the next person in the job. It was both fabulous and kind of sweet as she pointed that she had to remind me to eat lunch and to leave in time for appointments. That kind of documentation was incredibly useful to her successors.
Wonderful news about your jobs RM and MP!
cq, hope you are taking care of yourself!
I am still dragging my heels about letting my office go. 43 years of my identity being a therapist.
I only go in one day a week now and I rather enjoy it. But soon can see where it will not be viable
financially. Am working out using a friends office but it will not feel the same. I have been in the same office
since 1997. It is calm and comfortable. Oh well life must keep moving forward.
H has been gone to visit his mother and family since Saturday. As predicted, he has turned nearly silent and
his tone is flat. Very hard to have a phone conversation with in the evenings. Something about them just zap
his energy. He is a quiet guy to start with but this is cadaver like! It is one of the reasons I do not go with
him–he changes so much. In my extended family you can count on loud voices and drama.
Two extremes.
I had planned on purging so many things this week but the weather it just too hot. I know I am inside
with AC but I feel so oppressed when the temps get up there. Monday it was 67 and I was so happy and
productive.
I have been posting about passive aggressive behavior. I had had a few ah ha moments this week.
I am now reading articles and books on this subject.
I believe that there is a quote by Ghandi that says something to the effect that the universe will
keep giving you the same situation over and over until you get it right. Does anyone know what I
am referring to?
D ordered her wedding dress! Here’s a link: https://www.maggiesottero.com/maggie-sottero/melanie/7267. Originally D thought she wanted an open back since she “really likes her back” – she’s very fit and toned from doing CrossFit. But, when she tried on this dress, she said she’d get the same effect without quite so much exposure. She also tried on some other dresses (different designer) that had lace that looked more like it belonged on a tablecloth. Anyway, she’s happy, which means I’m happy. Check that off the list!!
Happy weekend to all. It’s still hot and humid here at the beach, although we had a short reprieve the other day. Hard to believe next weekend is LDW.
We drove down to NJ to help my mother unpack and hang pictures. She’s still unhappy but getting better. There was a lot of traffic on the road this AM. Wonder why?
ShawD is at a Wellness Spa in Thailand and then is headed to yoga in Bali. She decided to skip Kunming for the Wellness Spa.
ShawSon was here for a week. he’s starting to think about startups versus jobs for next year. He and another Business School/CS person (a precocious Chinese-American woman) were heavily recruited into an entrepreneurship course run by some VCs. They end up funding a significant percentage of the companies that are formed in the course. They had turned it down a couple of times, but he called me to figure out if he could manage taking it, another entrepreneurship course, a hard computational and mathematical engineering course, and an independent study. He was thinking for the first time about whether he should get a job in the strategy part of one of the big tech companies, combining his understanding of Big Data/Machine Learning etc. with strategy.
Good luck with your transition, oregon. I was an LCSW for many years but don’t really miss it. Sounds like it will be hard for you to walk away and wish you the best.
Glad the wedding dress is ordered. Maggie Sottero has very nice dresses.
shaw, I think some of that may depend on how long he wants to keep studying and not drawing a paycheck (lost income) and how long you are comfortable with continuing some level of support to him. Startups are , by nature , risky, but sometimes do pay off down the road. If he ever wants to work in industry or in one of the major tech firms, I would think some real world job experience could be beneficial.
The dress is gorgeous! And glad it’s checked off the “to-do” list.
Yes, next weekend is Labor Day! We’ve had a long-planned trip to see my in-laws. Doing a big family reunion. It will be my first time back since we moved. We’ve seen them 3 times since we moved, but in other locations. Both our S and D are going as well, but they’ve both been back more recently.
shaw, not sure where in NJ you were, but I have an up-close view of the GW bridge which connects NYC and NJ, and it is almost ALWAYS crowded.
CBB - lovely dress. I don’t even need to click on the link because that was one on my D’s short list. I think there were 4 Maggie Sottero’s on the list but then she found the Justin Alexander one and it was all over. I do like the one my D picked as it is great for her but I do LOVE that dress and many other Maggie Sottero’s!
Up early today. H left at 3:00 AM for a race. Even though I went to bed late - stayed up and watched a movie I woke when he got up and then at 4:30 just said forget it and got up. So far I have vacuumed my downstairs, made blueberry muffins and a coffee cake from scratch. Currently have some chocolate ice cream going in the ice cream maker. Will water plants outside shortly and brush the dog and then I think I can go into the sewing room and get some stuff in there done before the nap that I’m sure I’m going to need!
Good luck Oregon figuring out what you want to do with regards to work. I will be working at least a couple of more years so taking a new job in my company was a good move I think. Old boss asked me where I wanted to be in 10 years - I said retired. Good thing he didn’t ask where I wanted to be in 5 years because the answer would be the same and I don’t think that would go over good with the new job - not that he has much to say about it!
For those of you who buy stocking stuffers for girls: Target offers once a month Beauty Boxes for $10. A nice black box arrives with different products to try…some full size mascara, lip balm, lipstick and sample size hair products and face and skin creams/lotions to try. I have been ordering and holding back the products for Christmas stockings. Good items for the price! They sell out really fast so you have to be watching for them. The September box is out now! Good luck! http://www.target.com/p/target-september-beauty-box/-/A-51264864?clkid=615c5693Nd2514c77fb056daad114eb79&lnm=81938&afid=POPSUGAR&ref=tgt_adv_xasd0002
I love that idea, NM! D would love that ( so would I).
Back at work and very busy. It was nice to visit last week, but a few things happened that I will not go into here and it was not my best visit. H is talking about going back at Christmas which we haven’t done in years, but I am concerned about my parents. On a brighter note MIL is doing really well.
Although I just read some reviews of Birchbox online and apparently their products and business has declined some. But, there are different subscription companies out there, ,like the Target one .
Good morning. Just back from a sad trip to Canukistan, where my mother’s boyfriend is in ICU with end stage pulmonary fibrosis.
He does not want palliative care or hospice but wants to go home (meaning mom’s home), meaning mom will be doing the lionshare of palliative care. We’re collectively concerned about her ability to do so and are hoping that one death sentence does not become two. Two of my sibs are so opposed they’re essentially not getting involved…leaving two of us who are resigned to helping her manage the practical aspects and working with ccac to get adequate supports in place where possible, not that to my mind that’s enough. (Notably the two sibs vehemently opposed are a nurse and a social worker, both familiar with what’s involved.)
The trajectory of this disease is so unpredictable I fear she really doesn’t know what she’s getting into. With my dad, who’d died at home according to his wishes, she was a wreck after 3 weeks. But with cancer, end-of-life is more straightforward.
I know she’s scared and has reservations but at the same time is determined to try to honor his wishes. I’ve been unable to convince her that this may not be the best plan for either of them. We have secured overnight care so at least in theory she’ll be able to sleep, but as yet don’t have anything in writing about periodic daytime respite/help.
I think the head nurse on the floor is trying to help her see what it will be like. She’s orchestrated an interim move out of ICU, where the big forced oxygen machine is, to palliative care saying he has to show he can get used to what it will be like on less oxygen at home (with which he’s not doing well).
His children will be of no assistance from what I can tell. They also live out of town. But perhaps this will be a mercifully short EOL situation, though i have my doubts.
