Chores, Chores, Chores

I've been doing the laundry for Mom. The lawn under the clothesline is uneven so she needs her cane to walk along it, which means she can't hang out the clothes. One of the problems here is that Mom keeps things well beyond their life span. Like the laundry basket. It is a wheeled basket that I remember from about 40 years ago. When I first saw it I was pretty sure the metal frame was the original, but I wasn't sure about the cloth bag portion. But now I am. It had a catastrophic failure when I put clothes in it the other day; both ends ripped out so it was barely hanging on. I spent a little time yesterday doing a quick and dirty repair so it is usable again

Laundry basket before repair, both sides looked like this.

Laundry basket after repaired with dental floss, mint-flavored.

Yesterday was a slow day, I spent some time watching Xander be cute.


As dementia progresses, the patient regresses, becoming more childlike in terms of language, interactions, and actions. I have noticed Mom becoming more childlike in her interactions with the cats and with people. Her questions are less complex, the language she uses is simpler, she has trouble coming up with more complex words, and some of her actions are what you would see with a child. Like when she drops thing when she is eating, she briefly looks at it, then acts as if it didn't happen. Here's what the floor looks like at her place at the counter. It reminds me of when Kai was first learning to feed himself. I'm glad I have a steam mop to help clean things up.


Because of Mom's compromised immune system, we make her wear a mask whenever she may be going to a place where she might be exposed to something. When I take her to the hospital for her blood tests or transfusions I use an anti-viral mask. If she's just going out we use a regular face mask. Using a mask is like hand washing, it has to be done right in order to be effective or its better not to do it. Whenever I find Mom saving a mask, I throw it out; keeping used masks can turn them in to a great bacterial breeding ground. Here's what I took out of her purse today; there were 5 plus a bunch of used tissues.


When I went to the humane society to check for Momo, the whole chicken family was there.


Got a call today from Dr. Chan's office, Mom needs a platelet transfusion tomorrow. Last Friday Nurse Rowena had guessed that Mom might need a platelet transfusion this week since she was at 1.45, the normal range is 1.5 to 4.0. We will see Dr. Chan tomorrow morning, then I take Mom for the transfusion in the afternoon.

Happy Birthday to CJ! Happy Belated Birthday to Dottie! Happy Belated Anniversary to Hazuki & Todd!