CAREGIVING: Wednesday Kathy has a check-up at her doctor’s office. I got her up a little too late. It takes so long to do things, and get places. A step for you and I might cover 10 or 12 inches. But it is a lot of effort for Kathy’s foot to move 1/4 of an inch most days. I gave her a sponge bath because I didn’t have time for either of us to have a shower. We had our cereal breakfast. I fed her so it would go faster, and the food wouldn’t go all over. Today I tried to pick easy-off clothes for Kathy to wear for her exam. I thought I would need to strip her. i brought the transport chair with us. I wasn’t sure if there would be a wheel chair there for me to use. It was the first time I actually used the handicap placard in the car. We got there on time and signed in. Kathy wasn’t coughing at the time so she didn’t need to wear a mask. I wore one because I was still coughing. No sense in spreading cooties.
Kathy’s doctor is very nice and very kind. Almost seems shy. I’m guessing Kathy is the only patient she has had with HD. Kathy has gone downhill since her last visit six months ago. (from walking — to not walking.) We talked about her medications and I might try to replace some of them with other forms that would be easier for her to swallow. (Note to self.) The doctor is concerned that the coughing is the result of her swallowing problems and food or liquid going into her lungs. So we might have to have a more involved swallowing study done at a hospital, where she will need to swallow something while getting x-rayed. It’s a step above showing your meal on facebook. She also gave me a referral form for Kathy to get a mammogram.
In the actual exam part she was still wondering about the chest x-ray from last Wednesday. It showed gas in Kathy’s intestine. I tried to joke about it. I said that it seems like the right place for gas. But she started tapping around on Kathy’s stomach. She asked if Kathy’s stomach seemed larger than it had been. We got an appointment for a follow-up in February.
Wednesday afternoon Su, our extroverted Chinese aide, came over. We had just eaten lunch and Kathy was exhausted and lying down. Su is really pretty interesting. She is from Taiwan and always apologizes for her talking and her accent. It is almost the stereotypical Chinese-American accent. She is pretty funny and self-deprecating about it. She talks a lot. And she knows it. She always asks Kathy, if she “talk too much?” She says “My husband say I talk too much!” She is perhaps more religious (Christian) than we are comfortable around, but it is OK. It helps her. She has a son that is developmentally disabled. I think she said he is ten but he has the mental capacity of a three year old. So while she is working as a caregiver she hires people to take care of her son.
Su tried to get Kathy to do some exercises, but Kathy was too zonked from the doctor and lunch and her medications. Su loves to cook and that is always entertaining. She uses whatever we have around. She cooked Chicken with Butternut Squash Asian style. She admitted that there is no such thing in her country but she can cook anything Asian style. Lots of garlic, onion, ginger and carrots. I really need to get a wok. It was great and we always get two meals out of it.