My husband went into the kitchen to get me two Naproxen Sodium tablets this morning. (My neck and its problems have flared.) My daughter was in the kitchen emptying the dishwasher. They started talking. As my husband’s attention focused on their conversation, the tablets in his hand, that were suppose to end up in my stomach, ended up in his. Oops! Thank goodness he wasn’t holding two of my prescription tablets. He probably wouldn’t have made it to work and would have needed some care himself.
This has got me thinking of more “hazards” and sometimes amusing changes that my husband faces living with and caring for me:
-Putting his back out having to lift chunky me off the floor
-When in a work phone meeting (he works from home) and I’m suddenly shot by severe pain, having my unsavory expletives fly out to his coworkers ears
-Waking up in the middle of the night near suffocation due to one of my abundance of support pillows falling on his face
-Jumping every time his cell phone rings thinking its me needing him to pick me up off the floor
-Morphing his nature from “typical guy” without a clue about “woman attire” to a rather metro-sexual fashion expert– learning from having to pick out my outfits when I can’t…this includes the right shoes to go with them and the correct garments to wear underneath.
-Being approached by single woman who think he’s a single man, because outside of home and attending events, he’s solo most the time. (Wait that one’s a hazard for me!)
I know how fortunate I am to have this guy to help me along this chronic illness journey. It can get pretty serious taking care of someone who is sick and sometimes it can be darn funny! Feel free to share your own stories. (If you are one of those tough cookies who are a care-giver to yourself…maybe you have a story about a hazard you’ve encountered in doing so.)
*Hey its almost the fourth of July. I’ll be tucked away in a nest of blankets in the quietest room in the house when the fireworks go off–our bathroom. I miss our dog who passed two years ago, as he couldn’t tolerate the fourth of July noises either and would hide away with me. Here’s to all of our CNS’s staying as soothed as possible this weekend and to feeling well enough to have some fun.
Hey Kerry!
I’m glad that your hubby is OK too- Could have been disasterous!
There are many hazards for caregivers, or for us at the hands of our caregivers…! But I am guilty of one misdemeanor which could have resulted in a simlar fate to the one that your hubby narrowly escaped!
I take a prescription drug, but each day I have to take a half a tablet so there is often a spare half laying about in a brown mug in the kitchen cupboard.
Most days I forget I’ve got a spare half ( M.E. head! ), go right ahead and break another, and pop that resulting spare half in the brown mug too-often theres a fair few of them lurking there!
One day I was to put some rice into the steamer, and as usual I used a mug to measure out the right amount……. are you ahead of me?!?!??
Yes, when I came to take my tablet the next morning I was pleased with myself for remembering the spares in the mug, but where were they? Oh the guilt when it dawned on me that I had used my tablet mug to measure the rice, and I’d given my hubby and son rice al a Thyroxine!!!
I’m ashamed to say I never did tell em…..but I’ve now got a new little box to keep my tablets in!!!
Oh Kerry, to think of you in the bathroom on the fourth of July, can’t be the most comfortable place to stay, bless you! But I know your hubby will make you as comfy as possible. Here it will be just another day, but think of us in October/November when we get Diwali, then that just drifts into 5th November- Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night.
Great post, great topic, one that will run and run I bet! I’ll keep thinking, there have to be more stories that have happened in my chaotic household!
Take care Kerry,
Zar
xxx
Zarla´s last blog ..Teenage Manual wanted- any price considered-
We can think of each other on Sunday as we “hide” from the fireworks, Kerry.
Caregivers: the unsung heros. Here’s another burden they carry: having to listen to well-intentioned people (usually) suggest cures for me, most of which I’ve either tried or, if I haven’t and did, would render me comatose. I’m joking, but it’s hard for him. He has to be polite because people are just trying to help but, after nine years, he’s heard just about everything over and over again!
Zarla–Oh mi gosh, your tablet in the rice story is hilarious. Thank goodness it was a half a tab spread through a pot of rice or those two might of had a tough time sleeping that night. I keep devising more efficient and safe medication “remembering” systems. I thought of having a clipboard with a list of my meds and checking them off when I take them. Right now my medication box with the days of the week works well…that is when I remember to put my meds in it!
Toni, oh the well meaning cures, the tips, the advise…and to listen to all of it and keep being nice. What patience that takes, along with the gift of being able to hold one’s tongue. Sounds like you’ve got a good guy! I’ll be sending you calming thoughts Sunday night…from my bunker to yours…
Kerry,
There were quite a few tablet-halves in there….. and it was thyroid hormone. Too much of that could have raised their heartrate a bit!
I too have a little box like my gran used to have, with the days on! I often forget to fill it too!
Earplugs in the post to you both!
Thinking of you, take care,
Zar
xxx
Zarla´s last blog ..Teenage Manual wanted- any price considered-
Kerry,
I will be thinking of you when you’re in your bathroom bunker. I’m sorry you won’t have your dog with you to keep you company for this lovely session.
I think the biggest hazard for my husband, honestly, is when I have something serious enough come up where I have to call him at work and he (or I… or both of us) feel the need for him to leave work (either to come home to take me to the ER or to meet me at the doctor/dentist to drive me home because I’m in no shape to drive… most likely after some unexpected multiple chemical sensitivity reaction).
He works an hour away. So the hazard happens when he speeds to get to me. When these scenarios occur, the last thing I say before hanging up the phone is, “please don’t speed because it’s not worth having an accident”. I know how he is, though, and if I’m sick enough to need to call him out of work, he speeds.
As far as keeping track of meds, there is only one system that works for me. I have to keep my prescriptions in their original containers with the directions on them. I know pill boxes work great for some people but not for me.
My in-laws got on a kick once (after we traveled to visit them out of state – which was NOT easy on me – and I made the mistake of taking of medications in their presence). They’d never seen my medication-taking ritual at night. They apparently thought my system of taking my meds was “disorganized”. (It’s not). So, they suggested a “days of the week” pill box for me.
I take far more medications than I’d like to have to take but I do what I have to do. Sadly, I take too many meds (or some that are simply large pills) to effectively use the “days of the week” box they bought me. They simply didn’t fit into the compartments.
Also, by taking my meds out of the original containers, I lose the directions for taking them properly (risking mixing up what’s what). As familiar as I am with the appearance of this pill or that, it’s dangerous for me to switch containers because sometimes the pharmacy switches brands and the appearance of the very same med changes (and then they affix a warning label to the pharmacy bottle).
So, without that bottle from the pharmacy, it can get confusing. Also, one of my meds is a controlled substance and my understanding is that (in some states at least) it’s not even legal to carry such a med out of its original container that specifies who it’s for and what it is.
So, the “days of the week” boxes just don’t work for me. My step-mother-in-law was pushing hard (she is very controlling) on me using that D^MN box but I firmly said, “thank you anyway but the box doesn’t work for me”. She didn’t like this much… but I never asked for the box. (In fact I told her “no thank you” before she bought it).
Anyway, caregivers do so much… you’re quite right! I know my hubby does!
Jeanne
Jeanne´s last blog ..Plastic And Oil… And My Take On Dawn Dish Soap
Jeanne–Your hubby sounds like he takes good care of you! Before my husband worked at home we’d go through the same thing, where I’d need to call him when a physical emergency struck. I’d feel guilty, and worry that I was affecting his career. I hadn’t thought about the danger of speeding though…but its there because they’d feel a bit like an ambulance driver without an ambulance, lights or siren.
I keep making a go of the pill box…and usually end up back at using the bottles as you do. The task of filling a pill box up for the week is tough when you feel lousy.
I understand how hard it is to HAVE to take medicines, and a lot of them due to problems affecting many systems. Pre-illness, I prided myself on rarely taking anything…now it is a process of acceptance that to function, I need to take medicine.
As always Jeanne, your candor in sharing, brings to the table MORE of the details of daily life that we share, and the feeling of not being alone on this chronic illness journey.
You made so many cool points in this post…and the one that has stuck in my cute little brain…is that your fella has become a metro sexual kind of guy! That cracked me up. Maybe for his next birthday you can get him a mani-pedi
Hee hee! Does Hubby know you’re telling the world of his ability to choose the ‘perfect’ shoes for your outfits?!!?
Zar
xxx
Zarla´s last blog ..Headless again-
Awwww!!! You can borrow MY dog for the night! Dottie is really REALLY scared of fireworks. And she is pain medication now so you guys could take some together and huddle while the blasts go off. She’s a good snuggler, I can promise you that.
It is so wonderful that you are recognizing your husband publicly for what he goes through too…. you aren’t letting him get lost in the shuffle – you have found a way to be good to him while he is good to you!
Katherine´s last blog ..Pelican 1- Katherine 0
Zar, Yes, he was fine with my writing about his increasing skill at picking out my woman’s wardrobe, and thought it was funny…He often reads my blog posts so I don’t write anything if I think it’ll embarrass him. I’m lucky he’s not easily embarrassed aren’t I?
But, Lynne’s no mani-pedi’s, his the aptitude in fashion stops at mine…as does any interest in his own nail care beyond a pair of good clippers. He does clean up well, but most days its jeans or shorts and an old t-shirt.
Katherine, thanks for your thoughtfulness in letting Dottie come hang out with me tonight…I love snuggling too. I’d love her company. I’d buy her some doggie snacks she can munch while I munch my comfort chocolate.
Also, Katherine glad to know that kudos to my hubby (more deserved than words) are coming through!
Wow! I don’t have a ‘hubby’ so this was very interesting. The pill in the rice story…oh my gosh!
I had never thought of the kinds of things that could happen. My word!
And I feel bad because I forget to feed Dekker! I don’t think I have ever mistakenly given him my herbs but I have attempted to mistakenly take his herbs a few times. I now have them in different spots.
I am writing this as the fireworks are going off – couldn’t go this year due to my chemical exposure – but I am praying for you and thinking of you right now.
Dominiquue´s last blog ..HAPPY 4th of JULY
Hi kerry and all
I have a story pre getting ME when my brain was on the slide . I was working in a school for 11 to 16 year olds and during a busy day I offered 2 other teachers a lift home after work.
On leaving school, we walked to the school carpark and I had to turn to them and say ” Oh no I came on the bus.”
Im working (in a very laid back way of course) on finding the man to feed my meds to so no story there yet! But enjoyed yours!
Take care. Love Ali x