Reflections of My Life

Well yesterday, Committed Care (agency for my aide) called and had a new aide for me. She was on the line and we had a three way interview. I told her exactly what I needed......Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11-1, cleaning only and told her what I needed exactly. Asked if she drove and would be able to pick up stuff from the store for me and she said "absolutely!" Then she said she was excited about it and had done cleaning in the past for people. She has to get a physical and do some paperwork so will start the week of May 15th. Fingers crossed.
 

katlupe said:
Well yesterday, Committed Care (agency for my aide) called and had a new aide for me. She was on the line and we had a three way interview. I told her exactly what I needed......Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11-1, cleaning only and told her what I needed exactly. Asked if she drove and would be able to pick up stuff from the store for me and she said "absolutely!" Then she said she was excited about it and had done cleaning in the past for people. She has to get a physical and do some paperwork so will start the week of May 15th. Fingers crossed.
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well.. I really hope this one works out for you Kat... 🤞
 
I spent most of yesterday, watching all the YouTube videos that were about KetoCom 2023. There were a bunch so it took awhile. It is a big keto convention that takes place in Austin, TX every year. All the latest developments in the keto world. Can't see the actual talks that were given as they charge $100. for that. I think it was $300. just to go unless you were a presenter or a vendor. This is not my favorite keto event, I just like to see my favorite channels' videos on their take on it.

Every morning, one the first things I do is to look at my feet. They are consistently down in the morning now! I am so pleased with that. Not even red anymore at all! They were always bright red. I still have the spot on my ankles that has fluid and is puffy. Don't know if that will ever improve or not. For the most part though I am happy.

I want to attempt the knee sleeve again. I think it is a good thing and would work for my knees. The problem is that due to the compression of it I am afraid of it having the tourniquet affect on my fluid. The compression stockings sometimes do that but I can adjust them. Not so with the knee sleeve. Maybe I should purchase a larger size. The sleeve overlaps the top of the compression stocking. I think the compression stocking pushes the fluid up my legs toward my heart. I do not want the knee sleeve to stop it right there.

So many things I have to do every day have to do with my self-care. At first I thought it was a waste of time. Now after more than a couple of months, I am seeing progress......results. I have been walking laps around my hallway since January 1st and still doing it. I have been following a keto lifestyle more closely than ever before since about then too. It is paying off, just have to have patience and do not give up. Not having to eat with other people makes it so much easier.
 

Last day of April! I don't know why I am always eager to see the end of another month. Means my life is passing by pretty fast. Seems like it was just Sunday, now it is Sunday again. I remember when I would wait eagerly for the week-end and the week would go by so slow. Not so now.

I am collecting some new recipes from YouTube right now. I have to run to the Service Pharmacy today if there is a break in the rain. It is close by so I can make it there and back quickly. I forgot to order sour cream in my recent grocery order so need to get some. I use it in my chaffle recipe so need to get it. Otherwise maybe I could double up the cream cheese amount but not sure I want to test it. I saw a recipe on Keto Focus for a pizza chaffle so might get some pepperoni to make that too.

Sad to say that one of my neighbors, a young guy who is developmentally disabled was evicted from here on Friday. I think he was ganged up on starting with his immediate neighbor on one side. Constant complaints about him talking at night. He played games using headphones. From the start people here did not want him here because he was obese. I am so tired of hearing people gossip about him and talk about getting him out of here. His neighbor could not talk about anything but getting him out of here. From now on I am avoiding that guy.

Yes, I did believe he should have been in a group home and not living on his own. I wonder what happened to compassion? I always talked to him and he would tell me jokes or ask me some kind of weird questions about the universe. He was really into his games and could play them with no problems. The management here has rented apartments to severely developmentally disabled tenants in the past. Just not at the same level as he is.
 
May 1st. This month will be the beginning of beautiful NY weather. I expect the first day we get sunshine after these rainy days we've had will be beautiful. Hopefully I can get some time out in the parks this week. I am trying to get outside daily and being in the sun for at least a couple of hours if possible.

I am going to make my homemade mayonnaise today. Then make half of it into ranch dressing. Going to make more cornbread flavored chaffles. Since I am out of sour cream going to substitute mayonnaise for that. I only need 4 tablespoons (2 for each batch). This month I planned on cutting down on so much dairy. Cream in my coffee, cheese on ground beef, butter and cream cheese in recipes is basically what I use outside of Keto Chow. I have been using salsa and sour cream on scrambled eggs so going to stop doing that this month. Eliminating tomatoes, onions and peppers also.

This morning my left foot and leg is swollen a bit and feels tight. The only thing I usually do that I didn't do yesterday was my morning walk. My friend came to my door and was having an upsetting day so could not walk. So neither did I. Next time she can't walk, I will walk anyway. Just put my mp3 player on and walk away!
 
katlupe said:
May 1st. This month will be the beginning of beautiful NY weather. I expect the first day we get sunshine after these rainy days we've had will be beautiful. Hopefully I can get some time out in the parks this week. I am trying to get outside daily and being in the sun for at least a couple of hours if possible.

I am going to make my homemade mayonnaise today. Then make half of it into ranch dressing. Going to make more cornbread flavored chaffles. Since I am out of sour cream going to substitute mayonnaise for that. I only need 4 tablespoons (2 for each batch). This month I planned on cutting down on so much dairy. Cream in my coffee, cheese on ground beef, butter and cream cheese in recipes is basically what I use outside of Keto Chow. I have been using salsa and sour cream on scrambled eggs so going to stop doing that this month. Eliminating tomatoes, onions and peppers also.

This morning my left foot and leg is swollen a bit and feels tight. The only thing I usually do that I didn't do yesterday was my morning walk. My friend came to my door and was having an upsetting day so could not walk. So neither did I. Next time she can't walk, I will walk anyway. Just put my mp3 player on and walk away!
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Good for you Kat. Walking is always good for you. Be sure you spend some time in the parks. I know I use to visit them a lot when I lived there. They were pretty at night and probably a lot safer than now.

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Well, I did not get outside until a little while ago. Took my garbage out. Could not do it all day because it rained and then when the sun finally came out it was really windy. It would have blown me away! So I finished my supper dishes and saw the wind had stopped and it was actually dry out. Glad I got that done. I hate having garbage overnight inside my apartment.

A man came today to look at the apartment next to me. It is a really nice one, real sunny during the day like mine. There are now 4 apartments on my floor empty and 2 upstairs. I hope we get some friendly tenants. Not whiners and complainers. We have three that I know of right now. I stay my distance from them. Don't need anyone to share their negative energy with me.
 
Today the maintenance man painted the apartment next to me. He keeps the door closed so I didn't smell it. I saw the kitchen in that apartment when he left the door open and it is tiny. I don't know how that guy cooked in there. My kitchen is small but roomy. It is designed perfectly for a disabled person. I could use a wheelchair in it if I had to.

I am reminding myself constantly today that I am not on a schedule. I can take my time doing things because it doesn't matter when I do them. My father always hurried to get things done. My mother told me they were going somewhere and he was driving fast and she asked him why he was in such hurry. He didn't know. I am not driving but just whatever task I am doing I ask myself what I am in such a hurry. I slow down. So right now, I am just relaxing with my feet up for a bit.
 
We have had constant rain here the last few days. So much so that it is hard to get outside to the dumpster. I hate getting my walker all wet and bringing the dirt in from the parking lot. So I avoid it. Today I am not sure what it will be like. Sonny is picking me up to do my errands. He will be taking me grocery shopping too. He mentioned going out to eat so will do that. I am still working on my grocery list.

I am updating some of my blog posts. For some reason the older ones have changed. The font is smaller and some of them have the sentences running together. The photos too have become much smaller. Not sure if Blogger does that since it is free. I would have liked it on my own site but the cost of it is too much for me right now. Plus transferring it to a new site is too much for me and then if it got where I could not afford it I would lose it. So best to stay with Blogger I guess. So I update and put the date I updated on the bottom. I don't really change the information because that was correct when I actually wrote it.

Maybe after I finish my spring cleaning, I will work on the calendar for our building again. I see a real need for it. I just have been very busy lately and could not get to it.
 
Sonny & I had a really nice day yesterday. Went to lunch at the Chinese restaurant because he was starving. So I strayed from keto because I can't find anything keto on their buffet. But I didn't eat a lot. Anyway after that we did our errands.

Walmart was quite busy as usual. I had 2 large packages of chicken on my walker seat and Sonny left to go to the dog food area. He was using a scooter yesterday instead of the regular cart so not a lot of room in that basket. I forgot that I did not put the chicken in his basket and after he left I got one more thing and then went to wait near the check out for him. I could not sit down on my walker seat because of the packages on it. There was no place to put them. So I stood.....and stood some more.

Pretty soon I was kind of bent over and a kind check-out guy came over to me and asked if I was okay. I said no I can't stand much longer and I am waiting for someone. He told me to follow him and he took me to the courtesy desk where there was a bench. I sat there until I felt well enough to go back to our meeting spot.........Sonny still was not back! Then I saw him headed my way. I had tried to call him when I was sitting on the bench but he left his phone in the car! Standing in one spot kills me every time. Walmart and all stores should have benches or chairs for people through out the store. Actually that is something causes me to stop shopping and get out of the store.
 
Wheelchair friendly benches
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Awhile back.........a long while back, I wrote somewhere on here that I was going through some stuff that I would share when I felt comfortable enough to do so. I felt terrible shame, embarrassment and stress. So I could not write about it here or anywhere. Today, I am ready to share.

As much as I love my apartment (and I still do) I have had a recurring problem of pests......mainly the one that strikes fear in every apartment dweller......BEDBUGS! I first had them in 2020 and my apartment was fumigated for them. They seemed to be gone, but I developed an aversion to sleeping in my bed. So I started sleeping in my recliner but did not recline it back due to my pet rabbit and not having enough strength to work the handle on the side (so used and still do use a foot stool for my legs and feet).

After that was done, I put the encasements on my box springs and mattress. I went back to my bed then. Sometime during the night I will get up and go back to the recliner. I don't know if I was just paranoid or what. In my imagination I felt them biting me. I needed to put my legs and feet up due to the swelling of Lymphedema but could not use the wedge to really raise them. So I was badly stressed. After your home is sprayed even three weeks later you may find a few stragglers. So it was like, "is this nightmare EVER going to be over?"

The spray that is used is not toxic to people or pets. It is a fungus spray called Apprehend. You have to be out of your apartment for the spraying and 2-4 hours afterwards. So Rabbit and I stay downstairs in the community room. Last year, October of 2022, I found a couple more of them. If you have even one......you have more. The guy down the hall from me was infested with a lot of them. He is developmentally disabled and did not understand about them. Nor how to prepare when being fumigated and nobody helped him. So him and I were sprayed again.

His apartment was sprayed again a couple of weeks ago. Then he was evicted due to other reasons, not the bedbugs. In NY, landlords are responsible for this service and to get rid of them so nobody else gets them too. After putting a new bedbug trap in my apartment, the bug guy came and I asked him to check my furniture. He found a couple in the recliner..........so I will be sprayed on Monday. I am glad to have this done because I want them gone. I want to sleep laying down in my bed.

What I have to do is to prepare my apartment for the spraying and it is a lot of work. Cleaning out all my dressers, vanity, cedar chest & closets. Move the furniture away from the walls. They like to live in the area where your carpeting reaches the walls. Take everything off your walls too. No clutter on top of things. Putting all my clothing, blankets, sheets, towels, etc. in plastic garbage bags and tied tightly with a rubber band. I am going to put them in my storage area till this is done. Then I will wash them all in hot water and dry in a hot dryer for at least 20 minutes. Yes, all my laundry that I have always washed in cold water and hung dry. Have no choice though.

I will come back and write more about these pests later. This is getting too long. I want to warn people about how to avoid them. I have learned a lot because I am a researcher and now I know how to change things to avoid them. But even doing all that, there is nothing you can do to never get them.
 
@katlupe, I have never experienced the problem but I feel bad you have to go thru this. My understanding is often when they get in a building it is hard to ever be free of the problem. Even if treated, they can arrive any time a new tenant moves their stuff in. Then it starts all over again. I hope this latest treatment will stop them again for a long while.
 
OMG..kat.. I can understand your anxiousness completely.. I've never had bedbugs... but I remember the first time I saw a cockroach in Spain... I'd never seen one before and it was in a holiday rental. The place was clean.. but there was a building site out the back.. where new houses were being built, and the workmen would eat out of cans like tuna etc.. and just throw the empty cans on the ground. Well this caused a real cockroach problem.. and I was absolutely horrified and freaked out, and even after my husband killed the few that were in the house I was paranoid that they were still there.. it was horrible.. so I can't imagine the disgust and the hard work you have to go through when they're in your actual home ! :(
 
bedbugs are really awful and so much work you have to do. My kids lived in a condo building that kept getting them. Finally they rented a storage unit for their clothes, etc and sealed everything in plastic bags and left them for a year.

They threw away all their upholstered furniture and moved. I remember what an awful experience it was. Luckily it’s never happened again.
 
Teacher Terry said:
bedbugs are really awful and so much work you have to do. My kids lived in a condo building that kept getting them. Finally they rented a storage unit for their clothes, etc and sealed everything in plastic bags and left them for a year.

They threw away all their upholstered furniture and moved. I remember what an awful experience it was. Luckily it’s never happened again.
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The pest control guy said when they spray they will hide in your walls and even in wood furniture and will live there for years before they come out again. And the problem is you can get rid of them, but go somewhere like a doctor's office or a store and one might jump off someone on you and you take it home. The biggest way people get them (they say, I don't know for sure but I have researched these things like crazy) is when people travel. Hotels, airplanes, luggage is a big one, etc. I don't travel at all, but we have a building full of people who go different places and then there are people who come into our building. What about aides and social workers who go from one building to another? I think they are going to take over the world.
 
katlupe said:
The pest control guy said when they spray they will hide in your walls and even in wood furniture and will live there for years before they come out again. And the problem is you can get rid of them, but go somewhere like a doctor's office or a store and one might jump off someone on you and you take it home. The biggest way people get them (they say, I don't know for sure but I have researched these things like crazy) is when people travel. Hotels, airplanes, luggage is a big one, etc. I don't travel at all, but we have a building full of people who go different places and then there are people who come into our building. What about aides and social workers who go from one building to another? I think they are going to take over the world.
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When I was a social worker I never sat on furniture that had upholstery, didn’t carry a bag or anything that bugs could get into. Luckily I never brought anything home. I have heard that you can get them from staying in a hotel.
 
The hospital where I worked offered a class on bedbugs. Patients were not allowed to bring things from home like pillows or blankets, stuffed toys, etc. I learned that bedbugs stay hidden when it's light and come out in the dark. Movie theaters are loaded, and come out when the lights go down.
 

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