mommato3boys

2 hours ago, Cowgirl said:

. I never figured on  and starting into it with DH as an invalid and me as a caretaker on top of everything else. That scenario was too scary to contemplate, but here I am. Many older people are in the same boat, or worse. Way worse. At least we have food, water, and shelter, so I am trying to get back to a positive outlook. 💜

Right there with you. Hubby just turned 60 and I turned 57, but because of our medical history and his age we are considered high risk. Never thought I would see the day that we would be considered high risk. Good thing we are not social butterflies and the only time we are really around people are my work and church. Church is now 10 or less meeting in homes and well I have to work if we want to have lights, a roof over our heads, and food. I think we will all agree that this is what we have been preparing for and yes Cowgirl  is the best description I could come up with too. 

As much as I would love to be on here more right now it is just not physically possible. As I have stated before I work as a registrar at the local hospital. So things are a little tense. I come home and put on praise and worship music and just chill. Hubby ask if I want to watch TV and I tell him no, please just let me sit and enjoy the silence. Nine times out of ten I fall asleep in my chair and hubby has to wake me up and send me to bed.

The start the ORANGE procedures yesterday. Not that we have had a positive case but they are locking down hoping to prevent it in the hospital. There are no visitors, unless you have a minor child in the hospital then there must be one adult. Once you are in the room you can not leave, you can not switch out with another adult. You are there for the duration. Same with OB patients. One visitor mostly likely the dad and once you are there you are there no switching out. Sorry grandma you have to wait till they are home. Yes this has caused some major meltdowns. 

If you come with a patient for out patient testing you will be asked to wait in the car, unless you are an interpreter or you are their care giver and they are unable to speak for themselves such as a minor child. And yes this has caused major meltdowns.

Things are changing by the hour at work and it is highly stressful. So I will say as of today I am fine, I am blessed that I have the weekend off as of now but am on call if needed. Monday we start the ballgame over and will have new rules.

In our mandatory meeting yesterday at work. We were told that they are lessening the restrictions on health care workers. But we are still to be proactive, clean everything several times a day with the cleaning wipes. Wash hands with soap and warm water and use sanitizer between patients. Oh and mask are not options, if someone comes in coughing and fever they will be handed a mask and told to wear it if they refuse we are to call Infectious Control.

Has anyone bought the Homeopathic Remedy kits from Amazon? I have an acquaintance that swears by them, but I am not sure about investing that much money in them right now. 

Your opinion please.....

https://www.amazon.com/Helios-Homeopathy-Homeopathic-Remedy-Kit/dp/B004Z2U2PM/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2TYGAXSUUSMZI&keywords=homeopathy&qid=1582818995&sprefix=homopath%2Caps%2C221&sr=8-5

1 hour ago, out_of_the_ordinary said:

I think about the only gadget my kitchen we don't use is the garlic press thing.   

I have about worn our garlic press out, it and the juicer. They were old any way.

So hubby and I are not much of bread eaters, so a loaf of bread will ruin before we eat it. This last year I moved away from traditional loaf bread and have gone to making Native American fry bread, tortillas, and I am trying to get the hand of pita bread. We do still eat biscuits and cornbread but I can make  really small batches of these types of bread. I am noticing that I am not using as much yeast with this other types of bread. 

Do have bread recipes that you could share that does not call for yeast and can be made in small batches?

Ratchet can opener...must google this. I detest electric can openers and will not have one. I think they are a waste of money. I just the old fashioned hand can opener but I will check out this ratchet can opener you speak of.

The kitchen has sort of become hubby's domain since he is disable and I work 40+ hours a week, but I do get in there on my off days. Today being an off day I made tortillas. I was looking for something and I was amazed at the "stuff" we have accumulated. Some of it we do not even use. So I thought I would fix a kitchen tote for the pop up and that way I wouldn't have to move stuff around.

Plastic spoons/ladles, I am beginning to hate them so I guess they will get moved to the pop up.

My pans are mostly cast iron, I have a few stainless steel pots. So only one skillet is going to the camper and one small sauce pan.

Wood spoons, the love of my life, (please don't tell hubby he thinks he is LOL) But I do have quite a few of them so several will find their way to the pop up also.

Bowls, I really don't have any bowls to part with, we have slowly switched over to glass bowls and done away with plastic stuff. I think I will invest in some metal bowls or melamine bowls for the pop up.

Knives---I am always in the hunt for good knives. The handle and blade must be one piece and it must come with it's own protective blade cover.

I do however, need a marble rolling  pin and marble slab, for rolling out dough. I would like a larger wood cutting board and a smaller wooden rolling pin. I only have one wooden rolling pin.

Hopefully I will have a basic functional kitchen soon. I really don't need the "convenient" stuff like the watermelon slicer, or the corn on the cob handles that you stick in the ends so you can eat it easier.  I don't use most of it so it needs to go. This is all part of downsizing and making the work think we are not important. You know keeping our head down and not drawing attention to ourselves.

What do you have in your kitchen that is taking up space and you can do without? How do you plan to have a functional kitchen that will allow you to prepare stuff from scratch.

On 2/17/2019 at 12:18 PM, Annarchy said:

I’m considering building a tool shed out of scrap wood, thinking about the supplies needed... without a big supply of nails, screws and such... a daunting task. 

 

Making a a piece of furniture, without electricity, having to use hand tools to cut and sand the wood....

 

Ignore me, just thinking how grateful I am for what we have the we sometimes take for granted.....

 

People say diamonds are a girl's best friend...well not this girl, this girl's best friend is pallets. Yes you read that correctly, pallets. You would be surprised what you can fashion of those things. Best of all they are free.

I want something like this...

https://youtu.be/pnddfHdjsmM

https://youtu.be/PI6eld1eMiA

This is from an email I received at work....

As of 1/31 there were approximately 10,000 cases worldwide most of which are in China

There have been approximately 200 deaths I. China

There are 6 confirmed cases in the US only one case has been human to human, none of the US cases have been severe

The incubation period thus far is proving to be an average of 5 days but anywhere from 2-14 days.

I have forwarded the to my personal email and will cut and paste it here tonight.

____________________________________________Edited to add.

This is the email in its entirety...minus the email address and names of sender.

Hi everyone,

                The following are bullet points I took away from the CDC COCA call today, if you joined in I apologize for the redundancy. 

• There are approximately 10000 cases worldwide most of which are in China
• There have been approximately 200 deaths in China
• There are 6 confirmed U.S cases with 1 being human to human case, none of the U.S cases have been severe
• Incubation period thus far is proving to be an average of 5 days but anywhere from 2-14 days
• There still remain a lot of unknowns there has to be a heavy emphasis on Precautions (PPE)
• There must be an aggressive approach to protect and contain spread
• Infection Control begins on arrival perhaps before (screening patients when they call for appts, EMS etc)
• Masking of patients with respiratory symptoms, fever, flu like symptoms should be standard practice
• Lack of airborne isolation does not negate the utilization of PPE indicated for the patient and the staff
• Staff should have a high level of comfort doffing PPE so as not to contaminate self
• At this time there are no recommendations other than routine procedures for environmental cleaning, laundry handling or waste
• Make sure you have contact numbers at ready access (state/IC/Administrator/Directors)
• There has been a wide spectrum of clinical illness sometimes vague.  The most common are fever and cough, less common has been diarrhea and sore throat.  Fever may be intermittent and some have not had fever.
• The hospitalized patients have been ones who came down with pneumonia.  17%-29% developed ARDS and 10% developed a secondary infection.  ¼ of the patients required ventilator support and a small percentage required ECMO support
• There has been a 11%-15% mortality which has been only those patients who develop pneumonia, there have been 0 deaths of patients who did not require hospitalization.  
• Presenting labs in 1/3 of admitted patients have shown leukopenia, leukocytosis, lymphopenia and/or elevated AST, ALT
• The 2 resp panels in the US detect the 4 known human coronavirus’s but there is no cross detection for nCov
• X-rays in the hospitalized patient has shown bilateral pneumonia with unilateral abnormality and ground glass opacity
• Those with advanced age, immunocompromised, chronic medical conditions have been shown to be the ones at higher risk for severe illness
• While no pregnant women have been confirmed it is hypothesized that pregnancy is a risk factor for severe illness potential
• Clinical deterioration is being seen in the 2^nd week of illness with lung auscultation suggestive of pneumonia confirmed by x-ray and hypoxia
• Viral shedding at this point is unknown
• Viral RNA was detected in blood and in the U.S case was detected in stool
• Detection of viral RNA does not mean infection with the virus its significance is unknown at this time
• The key is to identify and isolate
• Airborne+Contact+Standard+Eye with a mask on the patient
• Supportive care of any complications (pneumonia)-follow guidelines for CAP
• There is no treatment or antiviral for the virus
• Avoid corticosteroids and administer only if for other reason such as COPD or critically ill with refractory septic shock per guidelines….why…because they prolong viral replication in resp tract making disease more severe
• PPE should be the overall framework of a healthcare system, it should be everyday business for all respiratory illness or other exposure potential cases
• Masking the patient who arrives with respiratory symptoms is essential and must be everyday business
• Respirators/N95 are effective for nCov
• As with all PPE doffing avoid self-contamination
• Process of PPE, masking of patient, travel hx applies to EMS as well CDC is in process of developing tools however a suspected patient should be masked, with advance notification to receiving facility that a positive contact patient is en route, EMS personnel in the compartments should be with airborne, contact and eye protection
• Cultures on a suspected patient should not be done in hospital labs, collect samples as per CDC guidance and hold pending State recommendations…protect integrity of samples as directed on CDC guidance
• Possibility of co-infection (flu and nCov)

Patients treatment plan (home or stay) once they present to emergency room is determined by the local health department if condition permits a choice

These were just the notes I took from the call today so I hope they are helpful to keep everyone updated.   The main point that I took away is be sure you have PPE available at ready access and ease of access in your area at all times not just when something is causing heightened awareness.   PPE is essential to protect yourself and others as well as signage on entrance to rooms to ensure communication to others.  Be sure you know how to doff your PPE without risk of contaminating yourself, this is covered in orientation and yearly when you are fit tested and should be covered and reviewed by your director please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions or would like to be observed doffing PPE.  Have a good weekend everyone, let me know if there are questions and please share this within the organization who may benefit from the notes.   

+++PPE = personal protection equipment

On 1/23/2020 at 2:13 PM, Jeepers said:

What did the sign say? Not word for word. Just the gist of it. 

This is the sign and it is on every door leading in to the hospital and plastered all over the ER.

On the radio news about an hour ago it was announced that 12,000 cases have been reported in China and 74 deaths.

I am sorry I don't remember. Hubby and I were just laughing because on the back it was in Chinese. When I go back to work on Monday I will take a picture with my phone and post it. 

At work today  (remember I work at a hospital) I saw a small "info/warning" sign taped on the door heading into the medical clinic aka doctors' office. And I am in Podunkville, USA

3 hours ago, Ambergris said:

This is, sigh, completely twisting the thread.  I have been looking at calorie crops and protein crops. Beans, potatoes and squash.  Anyone want to talk about that now?

The thing with veggies there are not many calories. So need to look at ways total increase the calories when you cook them or add things like bread. Lima beans are higher in calories as well as pinto beans.

Sorry, I forgot to post that I got Snowmom's this week.

We have Total Wireless through Wal-Mart but we can now buy refill cards at Dollar General. We pay $60 a month for two lines and 30g of data that we don't use but other than having to buy our phones I can't complain. We have travel with it to Alabama the only place we have trouble is spots through OK. We have been told everyone has trouble in these spots. Also the only place we loose serves when traveling to Laredo is through the mountains around the Frio River. 

I keep a note book of items that I buy on a regular basis and keep track of the prices that way. I check my sale papers against my notebook before I go shopping.

Well after a nasty battle with the insurance company and threatening to call the state Benefit Commission on them, hubby finally got back in to see the doctor. Yes this was for his post surgery check up. Needless to say my blood pressure was up and my bp meds were not working. 

But the good news is... .drumroll please....no treatments in the near future. The day of surgery his PSA was 9.11 at this post surgery check up it was 0.08  so no radiation in our near future. Thanks for the prayers.

Oh I had my 6 month check up and all was good. We are both cancer free!

Not only are prices going up but the packaging is getting smaller. Less tissues in the box, 42oz is the new 3lbs.

I got Snapshotmiki's Tuesday.

Mine went out Saturday 11/30

I am liking the idea of mylar bags also for meals. Takes up less space and easier to store. Plus not as heavy when you have to grab and go. Not just running away but for vacations also. I had rather take the bags in a plastic bucket than try and haul glass jars.