CF Philippines sent me an E-Mail with two letters from Mariel that I hadn’t seen. One thing I did notice is that the “Chit” attached to the thank you letter now gives the child two whole months to write a letter back. The money leaves the US at the end of the month no matter what day it was given. It takes 2-3 weeks to change hands into the local partner and made available to the child’s family. That’s 5-6 weeks after I spent the money from my account. Now that the family has the money there’s another 8 weeks before the thank you letter has to be back with the in-country partner. They also give 8 weeks for the physical letter to make its way to the central office in New York where the letters are actually mailed individually. So now there’s 22 weeks between the gift to the family and any acknowledgement from that family what they did with it.
We had a simple plate of scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast.
It’s sprinkling, albeit very lightly. (No lightning)
We discussed our options and decided to go to Longhorn for lunch to celebrate our anniversary because of a doctor’s appointment next door. We had a good lunch thanks in part to Tiffany.
Back home we took our medicine and took a nap. We forgot to bring our medications with us to the doctor’s appointment/lunch.
That’s been a reoccurring theme where we’re not home with our pill dispensers and we forget to take them.
We have a pill tray with all of our medications for 24 hours, but we need a reminder to (1) take the medications with us and (2) to take them at the proper time.
We bought two TabTime – Medication Management Products wrist timers to wear when we are going to miss our medications. That and the pill organizers we have should cover us for a short trip. If we’re going for more than a couple days, we’ll bring the battery powered 28 slot dispensers instead. (They’re not WiFi so the battery lasts much longer than 4 days.) We could power the WiFi dispensers we normally use with an external battery or the vehicle power, but I am thinking that’s a bit too much to travel with.
Tuesday
Got up around 7 and made some eggs sunny side up with breakfast sausage and rye toast. Checked in on the WW net and read some news before getting so tired I could not keep my eyes open. We have chicken and beef stew meat dated for the 19th to cook today since we went out to eat yesterday.
Chicken breasts are done, albeit a little overcooked. (They will be a little tough.) The beef stew is done too, but we have to wait until it cools before we can open the Insta-Pot. Dinner was really good, leftovers are in the fridge. Not sure what we are going to use all the chicken for since we have all the beef stew.
I cut up the chicken breast and added some salad dressing to make chicken salad for sandwiches. It was quite good and healthy since there’s no added salt or sugar.
Watched Sue Thomas FBEye for a couple of episodes. We did take our Glucose and blood pressure reading for tonight.
Wednesday
Woke up with a sensitive tooth this morning, on a scale of 1-10 it is a 2. It is like tooth #30 which is the same tooth that she almost had to have pulled. Well, I brushed, flossed, picked and rinsed with H2O2. I’ve been lucky so far with using Hydrogen Peroxide to ward off teeth infections. Well, no sugar until I get this resolved!
Line of thunderstorms rolled through last night about 2AM, slept right through it.
Lightning lit up the wet front yard at 2AM this morning.
We went to Longhorn’s after the doctor’s appointment;
Tiffany had it all setup for us!
We had a delicious meal and cheesecake for dessert.
We messed up taking our medications on time, we’re hoping the timer bracelets will solve the problem for us. I also attached my phone to her pill dispensers today. (I honestly didn’t think that I’d have too.)
Upset tummy tonight, old faithful crackers and coke.
Thursday
Up at 8AM and checked in with the HAM guys on the WW net. Took a shower with the Mrs. and we’re trying to organize our day. We’ve taken our morning meds, the next alarm is at 10:30.
We went to Wally World and got some $200 worth of staples, sheesh it has gotten expensive. I need to look back and see how much we spend a year getting groceries at Wally World.
Had chicken breast with BBQ sauce, it was actually quite good.
Filled our pill trays today, we empty the last slot every Wednesday.
We then swap out the entire tray after 5PM to be filled on Thursday.
Got four new trays today, battery powered (No WiFi.)
This is a much better solution when traveling, runs on batteries only.
Pulled all the pain medications from the other trays to put in the new dispenser.
It will rotate, flash green and dispense 2x 250mg Acetaminophen and 1x Ibuprofen tablets every three hours.
Reset her carousels to 2x and 3x per day after removing the pain meds.
3x per day is nine days for 28 slots, so we’ll just leave the eight extra slots empty to stay on a weekly schedule. 2x per day works out to 14 days, which means we fill it every other week which is ok too. Mine is still 4x and seven days since I only am using one dispenser.
Friday
Woke up with a rash down both arms and around my neck area. It doesn’t really itch, but I can feel the warmth. Checked in with the HAM radio guys on the WW Net. Made eggs and had breakfast with the Mrs. this morning.
It’s 11AM and the rash is still on my arms and hands.
The tops of my fingers itch up to the first joint.
The rash is just below the sleeve of my shirt down to my wedding ring. Google Foo says it is common to have this rash on the forearm when getting off the Gabapentin drug. I also have a bit of a rash around my neck, all of this feels very similar to a mild sunburn. (But I’ve not been outside for any length of time.)
The muscles on my torso just under my left arm are sore for some reason.
Salmon for dinner, with sweet potatoes and frozen veggies.
Met up with our garbage hauler, he had a NICE pair of sunglasses!
I tried my best to show the rash on this website to no avail.
(It looks much more prominent in person.)
This is a women’s belt that I use as a chin strap, I sleep on my left side away from the buckle. The normal chin straps are elastic and always apply pressure, the belt only applies significant pressure when I try to open my mouth. If I open my mouth while I am sleeping, it will dry my soft palate. The soft palate then becomes sticky and will not let air flow to my nasal passages. The belt is not tight enough to prevent mouth breathing. (An athletic mouthguard does prevent mouth breathing.)
The women’s belt (chin strap) fits nicely under my CPAP mask.
Mowed the back yard and then sat down for a bowl of sweet potatoes while watching Sue Thomas FBEye. Her Glucose was over 150 and she can’t remember what she ate for it to be that high. (Me Either, mine was 108)
Saturday
Our wrist timers should be here today. Hard time sleeping, had to take a whole 500mg of Acetaminophen and 500mg of ibuprofen before I got some sleep. Checked in with the HAM guys on the WW net this morning. We did a load of whites this morning. The four pill carousels have been doing well. The medicine was loaded correctly after changing the three of them from 4x per day.
Lunch was beef stew in the Insta-Pot, we were a little light on the veggies. We were thinking of going to Longhorn for some drinks until we remembered that this weekend is school graduations.
We gave away another wagon today.
We got our His & Hers timer bracelets today. We set them according to the pill dispenser times and they vibrate soundly when the alarm arrives. (It can store 10 alarms)
I did disable the 05:30 alarm for her since she’ll probably be sleeping. I disabled MY 07:00 alarm for the same reason. (I don’t want it to “Wake” us to take our pills that have an arbitrary time that will likely wake us.)
The timer part comes out to be charged with a regular uUSB cable. The manual says it only takes a couple hours to charge them.
Our neighbors brought over some Mexican food for us to eat.
(I kinda stabbed her fingers with my nails trying to get under the plate.)
My lower jaw from #30 to 28 all are sensitive tonight. It started with #30 last night. I drank coffee after lunch because none of them were bothering me, and I had whole grain cereal for breakfast. It all started tonight when I flossed with dental tape. Maybe I pushed food down into the roots of my teeth? (No more dental floss!)
I used a water pick to flush my gums with a 50/50 mix H2O2 and water tonight. I also use a soft bristled electric toothbrush to clear my gums. They will be sore from all the scrubbing, but hopefully not divulge into a tooth infection/abscess. For now, without any pain meds the pain is not uncomfortable unless I am chewing with those teeth. My jaw below the teeth is sensitive and hurts when pressure is applied, which is not good! It got a LOT worse in about 4 hours tonight when I chose to take care of it later. Oopsies!
02:30, gums still sore, maybe just a bit more sensitive than when I went to bed several hours ago. Rinsed with H2O2 and then mouthwash to clear the bacteria from my mouth and gums. I know that there is a cavity in my bone in both sides of my jaw, if that cavity gets infected it could cause the removal of all the teeth on one side. Last time this happened I used a syringe to push H2O2 into my jaw to kill the infection.
17:00, gums not very sore. (I am hoping this is all behind me, boy I am hungry.) I broke down and had two rice cakes with creme cheese on them. Time to check the website for today’s service.