Depends

Back at the end of October, Mom had some problems with diarrhea during one of her transfusion visits at the ATC. Actually, it started earlier that day and we had brought 3 extra pairs of underwear for her. But after about 7 hours she had gone through all of them. We checked with the ATC to see if they had anything we could use. (Yes, but only in extra large.) So we crossed our fingers and hoped she could make it through the rest of the transfusion and the drive home. She did. I bought a package of Depends that evening & took them to Las Vegas with us. The second to the last day in Las Vegas she had another bout of diarrhea; she has been using disposable underwear since then.

I started with the Depend brand, size S/M (28"-40" waist) for women. When we started to run out I bought the CVS brand because I had a coupon. And I discovered there was a difference. The elastic on the leg holes for Depend fit more snugly than CVS, which means the Depend would be able to contain a load more securely. (The CVS ones are cut higher on the thigh.) I asked Curt to buy some via Costco since it appears they are becoming Mom's normal underwear. He got the Costco-size box, but discovered later that he got the one for men (size S/M, 28"-40" waist). Earlier I had read that Depend disposable underwear were developed in 1984 & originally were unisex, then in 2009 they developed gender-specific products. We weren't sure if there really was a difference or if it was a marketing ploy. We decided I should keep them; if there was no difference, then Mom could use them. If there was a difference, Dad could use them when he began to need them also. Or I could give them to Curt for his father-in-law.

Today I compared the 3 of them, to see whether there really is a difference. As noted earlier, there is a difference between the Depend women's and CVS women's products. I discovered there is also a difference between the Depend women's and Depend men's products. Even though they say they are the same size (S/M, 28"-40" waist), the cut is different, with the leg holes on the men's being larger than on the women's. The men's was just larger overall even though they were supposedly the same size. And the difference in figure did not really account for it. You would think that the women's product would have larger hips for the same size waist but it did not, the men's was larger in the hips for the same size waist. The absorbent panel size and placement was also different, for obvious reasons. I had Mom try one on and it was a little looser than the women's. So I will be getting a couple packages of Depend women's disposable underwear from Longs for the immediate future.

All size S/M, 28"-40" waist, L to R: CVS women's, Depend women's, & Depend men's.

I was asked not to post any photos of Mom's thumb along with the Thanksgiving food photos, so I didn't. But mainly because there were none (of the thumb). The new dressing and Medihoney needs to stay in place undisturbed for a week. So the NTC nurses will be the ones removing it next Monday morning. I was greeted Thanksgiving morning by something that I took a photo of but decided it was probably in the realm of a mangled thumb so reserved posting it til today. When I pulled out the coffee grounds container there was a baby house gecko on top of the container.

Hemidactylus frenatus

As I pulled it out, I noticed that the little guy seemed to be staying rather still. It turns out it was dead, but since they have no real eyelids, it looked like it could still be alive. I kept it aside to see if it would revive. (Like the little jumping spiders that we used to put in the freezer when we were kids to see if they really did hibernate when "winter" came. Growing up in Hawai'i I missed out on some of the natural science phenomena found in temperate zones so had to create them on my own. And, yes, the jumping spiders did revive when "winter" was over.) Alas, the little house gecko never revived. I am still trying to figure out what it might have been on when it went in to the refrigerator. Since they are a tropical lizard, if it went in as an egg it would never have developed and hatched out; so it had to go in after it hatched.

Both Mom and Dad have been complaining about being cold, even when the temperatures are in the mid- to upper 70's. Dad especially. He spent all day Tuesday and Thursday in bed because he said it was too cold to get up; he would only sit up to drink water. (Which he wanted cold, not room temperature. Go figure.) On Wednesday and tonight, he stayed in bed and drank water in the morning and at lunch, then got up for dinner and stayed up for several hours. He was acting normal while he was awake. I've decided to take notes on when he is awake, eating, & drinking to see if I can find a pattern.

By the way, I have learned how to "make coffee". I am not a coffee drinker, so the first time I made it, I followed the directions on the can. Mom said it was too strong, I should have remembered that Kai said Mom's coffee was like colored water. When I put half the amount of grounds in as stated on the can, Mom says it is "good coffee".

Happy Birthday to Kari!