Month: April 2024

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1512: Pesto

RachelLeave a comment

Went to see my dad at the hospital then picked up food for lunches and dinners at the Italian grocery and went to my dad’s house to have lunch with Matt.

We had turkey/capicola/olive spread/provolone sandwiches and then for dinner pesto pasta.

I’m so exhausted. The grill issue is unresolved, things keep breaking or not working right randomly, so much is going on with both of our fathers and I’m not seeing much of a break. At least mine seems better and is off of the ventilator.

No one seems to give me updates unless I’m there so I’ve been visiting in the mornings when they are finishing rounds to catch the doctors and it takes up so many hours of the day. Taking care of his house and dog is a lot.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1511: Trout

RachelLeave a comment

Visited my dad in the morning—I managed to catch his doctors while they were on rounds so I might try and go early again tomorrow. He’s doing okay. We will see!

For lunch we had chicken sandwiches with the leftover Costco chicken.

After the hospital I did a quick shop at Lidl so we had trout for dinner and some spinach wild rice pilaf.

The days are so long and weird. How is it both only Monday and almost May?

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1510: Leftovers

RachelLeave a comment

My dad was transferred to a better hospital today and they seem more optimistic. We will see!

I visited early then came home and had a fancy sandwich for lunch.

For dinner I had leftover ham pasta and Matt had some shrimp, eggs and rice. I really need to get to the store but it’s hard to know day to day what is going on and I’m exhausted. We are down to like sausages and Brussels sprouts.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1509: Shrimp

RachelLeave a comment

Today started out good with a crochet class and the Frederick Yarn Festival. I wasn’t hungry so Matt got a chicken sandwich from a food truck there before the class. Then we came home and I had a chicken sandwich with leftovers from Matt’s Costco chicken dinner last night.

We got pandan doughnuts at a bakery that I think sometimes does the baked goods for the local Filipino restaurant we like. They were based in Rockville, I think, and this is the second store in Frederick. They are amazing and I wish they weren’t an hour away.

Matt ate dinner but I wasn’t hungry yet. He made corn muffins and broccoli and had bought shrimp cocktail at Costco.

I had some later and it was interrupted by the hospital call. Matt had gone to drop off the nonprescription hearing aids, visited and had just left when the doctor called and said he had coded and was revived with basic CPR. They seemed very surprised and we are still waiting for him to be transferred to a hospital that may be able to help him more. Matt was probably just driving away when it happened!

It’s really been a lot, especially if you think he had just been walking his dog and living his normal life early this week! Hopefully they keep him stabilized.

The doctors keep calling my old landline which is fine when I’m here but I don’t know why! Luckily no one called while we were away. Then they called back while I was turning off the sleep setting on my iPhone and somehow it didn’t go through so they called the landline again! Anyway, I’ll take that phone to bed with me tonight.

It’s so nerve wracking but at least we put plans in place after my mom died. My dad didn’t want to handle her health stuff for various reasons and it was tricky since she still had a living spouse. Now we have it all set up that it’s me and then Matt as a back up and I just update my brother. It’s not a job that’s easy or anyone wants but it does make talking to the doctors so much easier.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1508: Ham

RachelLeave a comment

Today was rough but I got a lot of organizing done.

For lunch I had popcorn because the plan was to get a big dinner. But Matt ended up leaving to take care of my dad’s dog so I decided to get Fresh Market’s Big Little Meal deal to make and have leftovers. It was this pesto shrimp pasta plus veggies and dessert,

Why did the shrimp leak all over me as I left the store? I thought it was raining. I had to return it and have them throw out my reusable bag because it was covered in shrimp juice. At least it didn’t make it into my car.

I came home and ate a ham sandwich. I am exhausted.

Tomorrow they are moving my dad to another hospital that has more tools to test him and we are going to a fiber festival and class. I figure he is safe at the hospital and there are so few outdoor, free activities to do I’d hate to miss some and we can’t really visit if he can be moving at any time anyway. Maybe he we be moved by the evening? I ordered some cheap hearing aids from Amazon that needed to charge overnight so we can give him them or at least one to try

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1507: Ham & Cheese & Cauliflower Pasta

RachelLeave a comment

My dad got into a room and seems to be doing okay, he probably won’t be home for a few days. We will see! The worst part is his hearing aid stopped working and the one for the other ear is missing. Taking care of his dog is challenging so I hope he can go home and resume her care soon!

For lunch Matt picked up some chicken from the Halal place and then for dinner he felt inspired and made this cauliflower, ham and cheese casserole. It was good! Very homey.

It was good to use up groceries! Shopping been weird because we were expecting to grill and then my dad’s sudden illness meant I didn’t go shopping. But we did have a small ham and some random veggies.

Today we were supposed to get the missing parts for the grill but they sent us random screws instead?? I’m so tired of this. The grill was supposed to be a treat and we can’t even use it. It’s too big and heavy to return on our own.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1506: Enfrijoladas

RachelLeave a comment

The day started with my dad calling saying his feet were suddenly swelling and I had him call 911. We didn’t find out anything until pretty late and still haven’t gotten a good grasp on what is going on exactly—the doctors weren’t available and they hadn’t finished the tests when we went last night. His hearing aid stopped working so that’s been rough. He can’t really hear over the hospital noise and of course we were masking. A lot of people were masking at the hospital but they made us pull it down at security at the emergency room which was wild.

It really comes down to what life is going to look like going forward. I was having trouble finding dog walkers that service his rural area and that could keep his dog away from other dogs but that’s an option.

We just had soup for lunch and then picked up takeout after letting the dog out, seeing my dad and before Matt went over for the night.

I don’t know what we are going to do tomorrow. Between this and my father-in-law being in hospice, we are exhausted.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1505: Leftovers

RachelLeave a comment

Today was supposed to be chill but was exhausting as I am continuing to be gaslit over a prescription refill. This has been dragging on for weeks now and is absurd. I know what I was told and even took notes and now they are telling me I have to make another appointment my insurance has said they won’t pay for. It is so stressful and bizarre especially now that the pill is available OTC and I was only taking it for cramps.

Anyway, we finished off the leftover Italian meats and Chinese food today. Maybe not the lowest in sodium day but it was good to finish the leftovers.

Now our part for the grill is being sent out, fingers crossed it actually arrives and works!

I’m also annoyed that I bought an expensive bag of big limes to bake with less than a week ago but then Matt didn’t feel well so I didn’t use them yet and now they look gross. That seems like a short shelf life for citrus! We have much older oranges that look fine.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better?? I am tired of things like my refills, my class and the grill that should be simple or even fun being a horrible ordeal because other people are incompetent.

I especially hate it when people apologize for “my” confusion. I’m not confused, you are either lying or unable or unwilling to do your job. My mistake was in trusting what I was told, now I feel like I can’t trust this office for anything and I’m being punished for trying to be proactive about routine health care. My mistake was believing Home Depot when they said they would schedule a grill delivery and not ship it FedEx. But I’m not confused.

I don’t know how people with fewer resources, confidence and time deal with things like this, because I am super organized, note taking and have a lot of time and it is exhausting.

daily recap · repurposing leftovers · what we ate

Day 1504: Cabbage

RachelLeave a comment

I was able to get lingonberry jam at IKEA this morning so crisis averted. I also stopped at Giant because they had Cabot on sale and got like four pounds of it plus a pineapple, some pasta, creamer, hominy and they had a half gallon of whole buttermilk which was interesting. Normally I only see low fat quarts. I want to make some muffins when Matt is feeling better so I picked that up.

For lunch I had a meatloaf sandwich and Matt had some soup.

For dinner he made pork chops with sautéed cabbage and carrots. We’ve started making just two pork chops and freezing the rest because no one really likes leftover pork chops. They were super thick and I bet would have been really good grilled.

Speaking of grills, I was able to find a number for Weber and they are sending us some replacement parts so hopefully we can get the grill up and running soon. What an ordeal.P

Oh! I heard a World Market is opening up near the IKEA which is very exciting! Why is this the first one anywhere near Baltimore??

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1503: Cornbread

RachelLeave a comment

Turkey sandwich again! Now out of lingonberry jam and it’s not on the ikea site?? And the other jams say “last chance to buy”. What is going on here?

For dinner we couldn’t grill because the brand new grill is missing parts. Matt didn’t feel great anyway so he had some rice and eggs and I ended up getting some chicken and cornbread. I didn’t want to break up the rest of the groceries.

I had my guild meeting today and it was interesting—all about little looms! I’m pushing for us to do a button project next.