Put it on the Portal

 The ice maker was not letting us get ice.  It has been jammed for a while but we could at least reach in and get some ice but even that was not working well.  So this morning Jim “put it on the portal” for Barclay Square maintenance to come and fix it.  He warned me to get out of bed and ready for visitors because they can come quickly.

And so they did.  Within a very short time, Adriano was here.  There was a problem with the computer in the refrigerator and freezer and we hope it is now working just fine.  If not, we’ll call again.

This is why apartment life is the right thing for us at this stage of our lives.  No problems thinking of who to call for repairs, for a long wait, for high fees.  We pay plenty in rent but it makes our lives easier and we are grateful.

Now for the next step.  When will Stonebridge call? What will they offer us?  Another move is very daunting and it is much easier to stay right here.  And it is a big financial investment to go into a continued care facility.  But at age 80, it is probably the best thing for us to do when the time comes.

Third Injection

 I just did my third Mounjaro injection.  Each time it is a little different—the first time, well over ten seconds between clicks, this time about two seconds.  But we can see a little puncture wound and the plunger is visible in the apparatus.

The first week went deceptively smoothly.  Then I had a delicious grilled burger with the Conways on Friday night and after I took my last pills of the day, I began to feel like there was a rock in my stomach.  That lasted until about 2 am when I fell asleep.  The next day, Saturday, is always our day for grocery shopping and meal planning.  I felt as if the thought of food was revolting.  I could not think of anything that sounded good to buy but we needed to eat.  I was very sad and so aware of how important food is in our lives and how, in many ways, food is a reward. 

In the early afternoon, I had a voice mail from the pharmacy at Walgreens.  I thought I better return the call and it was the pharmacist calling to ask if I had any questions about Mounjaro.  I thought that was so kind.  I told him I was sad about finding thoughts of food so unappealing and he said that was very typical.  I was so hoping the next three months were not going to be like this.

And blessedly, the next day was better and this past week has been better.  I have enjoyed my food again and tried to be careful about not eating a lot.  I even had a few sips of wine with meals.  Jeff and Susan brought pizza one night this week and that tasted great and had no ill effects.

I hope that the side effects don’t get worse with each injection as they did after the second one.  But at least I know that I got over the worst of the indigestion and the despair over planning and cooking and eating.  And in any case, this is what I have to do to bring that A1C down to pre-diabetes levels.  I may have lost one pound but no more.  I have left food on my plate a few nights but didn’t feel like I usually overate before this regime.  I have a ways to go to lose 12 pounds by November 3 as Dr. Delacruz predicted.  Weight loss will help my back strain and make it easier for me to walk greater distances.  I may have lost one pound.  

Again,  TMI for most of my blog readers but Jim and I like using this blog and the book we make of it as a record of our lives and this has been our life this week!  

A Week of Doctors and Drugs

 This will be TMI for my blog readers but it will be good to record a consequential week for Jim and me.  It started with my “wellness visit” with Dr Delacruz last week and the phone call the next morning to tell me that after many years of pre-diabetes, I had gone over the border.  I scheduled an appointment for a “treatment plan” the next Monday.  

That treatment plan was to be Mounjaro once a week-to lower the A1C and also to lose weight so that my back strain would lessen.  Dr. Delacruz demonstrated the use of the injection and said it was “easy-peasy.”

Getting the prescription was not easy.  CVS was out of it so I asked Montgomery Internal Medicine to send it to Walgreens.  Then CVS said they had it but couldn’t fill it because someone else had filled it.  Eventually I got the injections at Walgreens for $308!  I hate the Mounjaro ads on TV with the fat people dancing and now I am one of them—not dancing and not all that happy about it either! 

Last night we began our Mounjaro adventure.  Jim read me the instructions step by step.  It did not go perfectly as we waited for the second click and it did not happen.  I put the shot next to my abdomen again and it did click.  We could see a little puncture wound and Jim saw the grey plunger in the shot apparatus so we figured it must have happened.

And…I was aware of my stomach later in the evening—and was not tempted to snack during the night as I often am when I am lying awake.  So we shall see how the next week progresses.  I hope not with too much nausea and indigestion.  In three months I see Dr. Delacruz again and he thought I would lose 12 pounds by that time!  

Plus Jim had a routine ENT visit in which his bp was high.  So he will see Dr. Delacruz this afternoon to see if he needs to do anything about that.  It was not emergency high, just elevated. (Jim’s bp was OK at the follow-up visit.)

Oh, and we did have shingles vaccines  too at the Plainsboro CVS.  We had no reaction to that except a bit of soreness on our arms. (And I had some unusual fatigue two days later.)

We are thankful we have places to go when we need medical help and we do trust Dr. Delacruz for good counsel.  

A Tsumani of Loose Ends

 I don’t like loose ends.  I like closure.  This has been a few days with too many issues—not all that important—but too many loose ends.

I was convinced by an ACLU post in my email to give them $100 online.  Jim happened to be checking our credit card that day—the 20th of the month—and asked if I meant to give ACLU $100 four times.  No!  I called and talked to Vicki who was so appreciative of my being a long time supporter and so sorry for the error.  She said it would be fixed and they would call or email me. A few days later, there were no emails or calls but Jim said the credit card statement no longer had those four $100 gifts as “pending.”  They were gone.  I had thought if they didn’t go away, it was a worthwhile cause to stop our president.  The ACLU had argued successfully before the Supreme Court on the birthright issue.  But it is better that the mistake be corrected.  I will give to them again but I fear doing so.  Vicki told me to do it by phone but I don’t see how that would prevent errors if someone codes it in wrong.

Jim got his real ID in the mail several days ago but I did not.  He looked on our temporary IDs and it says that if you don’t get yours in 20 days, there is an email address to contact.  So I will be patient and hope this is not an issue and mine is lost somewhere in the postal system.  (Hooray!  July 27–my real ID came in today’s mail!)

Jim said we had two Amazon Prime Video charges this month and how did we have two accounts?  I do a yearly Amazon Prime charge in November to get our free shipping and that is probably worth it for the convenience of ordering.  But two video charges?  It is possible that one is for BritBox and one for Premium Amazon. He cancelled the premium charge with some difficulty and we will see if we can still get the TV sports that we want to watch.  And BritBox?  We used to enjoy some shows and should look them up again for a few laughs.  (In fact, we just watched with great amusement the first show of season 5 of Shakespeare and Hathaway—worth the monthly fee!)

Then there was my new hair styler with puzzling instructions on a sheet that was printed so faintly that it could hardly be read.  But my patient husband helped me figure it out and the styler that has been sitting in its box for a month or more can be used the next time I wash my hair.

We had two additional $45 charges on a email statement from the wedding hotel for getting early check-in even though the kind clerk said she had removed said charges because we had called that morning.  But those charges did not come through on the last credit card statement so that was settled too.

I guess the lesson here is to always be aware of the charges on one’s accounts and to be careful about what one is signing up to give or buy.  I appreciate my husband’s patience on all these issues.  Our lives are so involved in technology that it is easy to make mistakes on our part and that of others. 

A Passport and a Real ID

 We have no travel plans but I was motivated to get a passport out of fear that President Trump was going to make it difficult for me to vote next November by requiring a birth certificate and another document that gave my married name. And I definitely want to vote to get opposition in place to that man!

  I had my photo taken at the UPS store and with some trial and error, filled out the form to get a passport.  It was not possible to renew a passport at any of our local post offices. And the online form seemed problematic to me. Our daughter-in-law Susan who always has good advice suggested we take the forms to the Rocky Hill Post Office where parking is easy and the staff is not busy and had been helpful to her in the past.  We took her advice and it worked out so well.  The clerk knew exactly where the forms had to go and how to safely mail them.  So for $130 for a passport and $12.99 for mailing, off they went. And the renewed passport came back in the mail one day before our appointment for a real ID at our local BMV.

And that was another process I dreaded.  We went over the requirements more than once and put them in two folders, one for each of us.  I had a SS card with my present name so that was helpful. Jim’s SS card printed up a variation on his middle name which concerned him.  I had a birth certificate and marriage certificate and we found utility bills in each of our names with our present address.

The lines were long at the BMV but the staff was amazingly efficient and patient and we were in and out of there within 45 minutes.  The clerk did notice the discrepancy for Jim’s name and brought it to the attention of his superior, but it passed anyway.  My clerk did not even use my new passport but felt the other certificates would be easier for the typist to read.  So for $11 dollars each, we have temporary real IDs and will get the permanent ones in the mail in a few weeks.  We have no plans to fly anywhere, but if the need arises, we will be OK. 

These two procedures caused me some anxiety but both turned out well.  We had carefully prepared for both. And the people at UPS, the post office, and the BMV were competent and helpful.  And we won’t have to do it again for a long time, maybe never! 

Katie and Eli Got Married!

 My preparations were nothing compared to what others had to do but they caused me some stress.  My “cocktail dress” was going to be too tight because I gained far too much weight in the last year.  But I had another dress in the closet, never worn, and needing a hem.  So I hemmed and pressed that and knew it would be comfortable.  I realized that I needed a slip and the only ones I had were midi length or black.  But Amazon came through with a next day shipping—even if the order was delayed probably due to the flooding of our roads.Then there was a haircut on Friday and the difficulty in scheduling an early check-in from the hotel.  

The weekend started on Saturday at the Princeton University’s Prospect House with a brunch hosted by Jeff and Susan.  It was a lovely setting in the Alan Turing Garden Room—a long walk for me from the parking lot but I made it!  Jeff noted that I “worked the room” and I did mingle and chat with people I knew and didn’t know.  

We were not planning on going to the rehearsal dinner  Saturday evening but Susan seemed to think we were included and offered to pick us up.  It seemed a bit overwhelming to me but Jeff was disappointed that we were not going, so we said thanks and took advantage of their taking care of us again.  It was a nice dinner at the Ryland Inn, the wedding setting, and there were various toasts from parents and friends.

Sunday morning Jim called the Hyatt House and got us a 2 pm check which made it easier to get to the rehearsal at 3.  Katie wanted the grandparents there to practice the procession.  And yes, it was important because we were the pace setters and the first ones in.  I set a slow enough pace with my cane in hand.  The weather was great after the previous week’s heat and storms.  The wedding coordinator was no nonsense and gave everyone their orders. 

Jim had a role in reading I Corinthians 13 which he did well.  The other reader was cousin Erin who is a rabbi in training and she read Ruth’s promise to Naomi in Hebrew and English.  

Katie was beautiful and the vows were original to each other and very touching.  Eli was quite emotional in reading his vows.  We were amused when he said that his roommates upon meeting Katie warned him “don’t mess up!”

Photos took a long time during cocktail hour and then there was a sit down dinner in which we sat with the Conways and the Moorheads.  There was dancing and toasts during the evening.  Katie and Eli’s dance was a big hit as they put on quite the choreographed show with lifts. I did  join in the Hora where Katie and Eli were lifted high on chairs in the middle of our big dance circles.  

It is hard to converse in noisy rooms.  We were happy enough to be in our quiet hotel room around 9:30 pm.  As always, I didn’t sleep well but got in a few hours and was glad to have Jim in charge of driving home this morning—after one last good-bye breakfast at the hotel.

Seven Years

It’s an anniversary for us today!  On June 30, 2019 we left South Bend for Princeton, New Jersey.  We left the AirBnB where we had been living for a month.  Our house in Granger sold so quickly that we had to move out before we planned to do so.  We found a place right next to the Notre Dame campus that we think was a prime rental for football weekends.  There must have been ten football posters on the walls. We spent that month saying good-bye to friends and good-bye to our community for 28 years.

Then on July 1, we moved into our next transitional housing at Homewood Suites just a short ride from the Barclay Square Apartments in Princeton, New Jersey where our lease began on July 17.   We spent two weeks signing up for utilities, WiFi,  library cards, driver’s licenses, and buying the necessities that we had not moved—mattresses and many bookshelves.  

Our earthly goods all arrived on time and in good condition on an incredibly hot day.  The poor movers worked hard and the A/C could not keep up with the demand for several days.  Our family all showed up for a house warming party that weekend  with time in the apartment pool and was it pizza? And we do remember the ice cream cake that wouldn’t fit in the freezer so we had to cut it in half.

It took some time to find a church, and to find medical personnel that we liked and trusted.  And there were some hard times ahead with Jim’s prostate cancer diagnosis and then the Covid pandemic that affected all our lives—even if Jim and I never succumbed to the disease itself.  

But seven years later, we can still say we really like our lovely apartment and are finding it difficult to think of uprooting ourselves for continued care senior housing.  We are so happy to be nearer our children and some of our grandchildren.  One family is just ten minutes away; another about an hour, and the third sadly some further about 2 12 hours.  But all of that is so much better than 700 miles.

We miss South Bend friends and our church—and the opportunities on Notre Dame’s campus.  But we have not regretted our move and can celebrate seven years in our new home!