Rough Week

It has been a pretty rough week. My nervous disorder has been plaguing me for the entire week leaving me somewhat exhausted mentally. Ed was stronger yesterday and managed walking about a number of times as well as biking. He  did not sleep quite as well as usual and is somewhat weaker today. I am letting him rest in bed for a little longer before he gets up. 

There are drugs to treat my nervous disorder but they leave me somewhat confused although I can be surprisingly clearheaded but not always in a meaningful way. I tend to do too much and become exhausted so will refrain from looking at that avenue of support. I think that I can only see one clear path at the moment which is to keep Ed at home (must get that hospital bed soon) until he is fully vaccinated and then for as long as we are able to do that. I shudder to think of him in Long Term Care as he really likes to be at home so am keeping that as a far distant option. Would we be better in an apartment/condo? The biggest problem is too much stuff. Although we have downsized we still have far too much to go into a condo or apartment or even a smaller house. Time is something that I need to continue sorting books out that can go to libraries (we gave most of our National Geographic hardcovered books and journals (50 years worth) to the Maniwaki Reserve Library but during the pandemic that is not likely a possibility to give them any more plus I wasn't involved in that transfer so do not know the people).   

If it would help Ed to move I would do that but I would really rather stay here and continue to downsize so that all of his work in genealogy goes to family members or local libraries where he grew up. It will take me time to organize all of that. 

So I am in a bit of a quandary with respect to all of that which doesn't help my nervous disorder very much. Although it is great to have support coming in I am of course nervous for Ed since he is still not yet vaccinated.

Hospital Bed

 Starting to look at which hospital bed to buy and the attachments to go with it. We needed to think through where to put it. Initially we were just going to put it into the bedroom but a better idea is to put it in the living room (our living room is quite long (includes a dining room) and we could continue with our TV area and then have the bed back where the dining room is and then across from that Ed's computer desk so that he could get up from his bed if he wanted and work at his computer although likely he will always wait for me to be there. Thinking it all through and it sounds like a plan.

Occupational Therapy

What a great field Occupation Therapy is. The bridge to all sorts of ways to make life easier for a patient. They are dedicated to help you be able to stay at home in as much as is possible. We are moving forward towards purchasing a hospital bed, getting a wheel chair and other equipment which we need to make life easier for Ed.

For the first time in our entire marriage of 54.5 years Ed has spent the day in bed. He was always one to be up and dressed long before I would manage to abandon my housecoat and nightie!

Ed's uncle and cousin were both physicians; his uncle was a General Practitioner in small town Ontario and his cousin was an OB/Gyn in the United States. One of his cousins was a pharmacist but Ed decided on Chemistry (Phd) as his field of research and eventually with all the draft dodgers taking all the University positions at the time he graduated (along with his classmates) he did his Masters in Library Science and worked at the National Research Council for thirty years. He was a very effective researcher (judging by the citations to his original work) when he was working in Chemistry but he enjoyed working as a Technical Scientist as well. I still wonder what the world missed with his leaving research (I am a great believer in the idea that everybody has a gift to give  to prosperity unless thwarted by some external force!). 

He is eating much better now (has had his breakfast later than usual and just finished his lunch). Dinner will be sole and stewed tomatoes. NO salt so somewhat bland. I grew up with a mother who was on a low salt diet so I find the food delicious without salt!!

Cleaning; if I can finish the dusting then I will have accomplished cleaning the two floors in the allotted time although this is actually my day off cleaning.

Family comments

I did find the family comments that Prince Harry and Meghan shared to be rather common within a family unit and perhaps a little unfair to share them with the world. Taken out of context they sound absolutely terrible but occur I suspect quite often within families that suddenly step outside of their usual marriage partners. It isn't easy to listen to family prater on about such things but the nuclear family should be strong enough to withstand the reactions of family members. I do not see it as racist particularly but rather curiosity. One does have to be dreadfully careful in family situations not to read too much into what is being said. But I must admit when you are suffering from a nervous strain it is a problem because items tend to dwell in your brain for a longer time and can have catastrophic results unfortunately but they are your problem really and you have to resolve them. Possibly unkind not to have provided psychiatric/psychological support but I am not sure that people in England are so into that type of support. No ideas on that except when I was very ill with my nervous disorder I am not at all sure that my parents or family really understood what was happening to me and as it turned out I did not really wish to share the depth of my thoughts with them at that time or really now in actual fact. Occasionally, I have made a statement about that time in my life when with my family but it is pretty rare. 

I do hope that Prince Harry and Meghan can move beyond all of this and enjoy their lives. At the moment they are doing irreparable damage to the Royal Family for what may well have been an innocent comment. I do feel sorry for Prince William and Kate especially in all of this happening. Their children are losing that wonderful relationship that first cousins do have and one hopes that that will change in the future. Not having had any first cousins I feel sad for those young children. They will have and do have lots of second cousins within the Royal Family but first cousins are extra special since you share grandparents and your parents are siblings. 

On my 23 and Me account I now have a few 3rd British cousins who are definitely of African descent. I think it is rather exciting actually. Since I have not really corresponded with any of my matches in a number of years other than my second cousins I haven't written but I would love to hear from any of my cousins and share what I know of our mutual family history.

Managed some of my church service today

 I managed a little of my Church Service today. Hopefully I can expand on that. The PSW comes right in the middle though and I need to let him in and then be ready to help if Ed needs me during that time period. Lifting him is a problem as his back bothers him a great deal and the method of lifting him by putting one hand under his bottom and the other in his armpit seems awkward to some. Hoping that his back strengthens. He is walking around more and that will help. 

Big washing day today; I try for a quiet Sunday but haven't succeeded in quite a while. Using our sharp blade to take some of the ice out of the laneway. I have pretty much cleared the top end but the bottom end is pretty thick ice but we actually have some warm weather coming so maybe a thaw! That would be lovely to have a thaw. The snow is pretty deep in the backyard. I haven't been out in the backyard really at all this winter. My daughter dragged out the snowshoes and has walked around quite a bit out there. There is a definite track. I am wondering if those huge marks have kept the racoon away as he/she hasn't been seen for several months now.