Each Day Already is a Challenge

Today's Hodgepodge

As I just skimmed through Reader's Digest today, a letter to the editor caught my attention. It was in response to an article about nursing homes. The letter writer stated that there are video cameras in childcare centers and even in pet centers. Then she asked, "Why not in nursing homes?"
That's an excellent idea. I wonder why it is not being done, especially since there are so many complaints about the care in nursing homes and assisted living centers.

My ex's mother was treated horribly in nursing homes. In one, they refused to help her to the bathroom. Instead, they put her in a diaper, then refused to change her for hours.

We moved her to a home that had a church affiliation, thinking that would be better. Know what they did? They refused to let her have any fluids except at meal time.

After two lousy nursing home experiences, we took her back home and arranged for nurses, home health aids and companions for when we could not be with her. Soon we had social services knocking on our door. We were under investigation for elderly abuse...having been turned in for snatching Elinor our of the church affiliated nursing home. Can you imagine??? Fortunately, after just a few days of observing our family and the nursing care Elinor received, the case was dropped.

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Diabetes (II), weight loss, and elevated blood pressure are issues that hubby faces. He sort of relies on me to do research on them, just as I do for my/our fibromyalgia and chronic pains. (Yes, that bugs me just a bit. I figure if you have an illness or disease or physical problem you should be interested enough in your health to do your own research. )

Anyway, as I was reading about blood pressure problems today, I discovered this:

You can lower your blood pressure by reducing belly fat. Why? Because the fat that is stored there feeds kidneys, liver and other organs. Supposedly, the belly fat pushes on the kidneys which respond by asking the heart to raise the blood pressure to drive the blood through.

So? It's important to watch sugar and salt and exercise - especially exercises that will help get rid of the belly fat.

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A joke: Why should you never marry a tennis player? Because love means nothing to them.

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The weather folks were not exactly right about yesterday's weather. Their predictions were that the snow would start about noon and go through about midnight, with the end result being between 6 and 8 inches.

Instead, the snow started at noon and came down faster than they precicted. It stopped snowing around 9 p.m., but depending upon which part of the Tri-State area (OH, KY, IN) one was in, there was between 4 and 8 inches on the ground.

There were problems on the freeways all around us until late last night and early this morning. But by the time hubby went to work, the major roads had been cleared.

It's still cold, but we're not expecting any more white stuff for most of the week. Yippee!

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A letter I wrote to the editor appeared in Writer's Weekly.

http://www.writersweekly.com/letters_to_the_editor/003881_02072007.html

Yes, it's a true story.

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Guess that's it for now. Later gators.


Another note: Today's Oprah show featured a couple whose home was a complete disaster with clutter. The expert (I'm not sure who he was) said that when people live with clutter, they stop seeing it and it becomes "normal." They compared it to a person who gains weight and cannot see it until the person sees a picture of him/herself. Perhaps that's our problem. Clutter in our household has become the norm.