Stall in the plan

[susandennis]

I woke up in the middle of the night with what I would call discomfort in the top of my stomach. It was a weird feeling that finally disappeared. Then this morning, I was getting ready to put on my swimsuit when I was hit with a bout of kind of diarrhea - no pain, no cramps and not even very severe. But, enough to know that swimming was probably not a good option. This happened a couple of weeks ago, the same way.

This time I took some Imodium immediately.

My current supply of Imodium came free from the OTC allowance that my insurance provides with their online pharmacy. It's a box with the tiny pills encased in bubble packs. That, turns out, are impenetrable. I tried following their way too tiny arrows on the back, fingernails, scissors and finally exacto knife. And managed to free those suckers. But, really, seriously how do people without tools or without dexterity fix their dysentery?????

Last night, I did some massive research (Reddit) and found experts (Redditors) who were also tired of spending a fortune feeding their cats this special food. One, a vet (or so claiming to be), said he (or she) had switched his cats to the kibble version but added lots of water to it so that it was more like mush. That way his cats got plenty of water and the kibble is way cheaper.

So, what the heck. Last night I poured water over a bunch of kibble and this morning spooned it into their bowls. They LOVED it! A six pound bag of that is $50 which is way cheaper than the cans. So maybe that's an alternative. But I'm still going to try the OTC stuff. I ordered up a case from Chewey when what I should have done is pop down to one of the 4 or 5 very close pet food stores and picked up a few cans. DOH. Oh well. Chewey's delivery won't be here until Monday so I'll go get some cans this morning.

In other news... I got a note yesterday from the realtor renting my condo. He says the contractor says that they will be done December 1. Sounds like the reality is that it's likely they'll be done by Christmas. Their insurance allows rent 'to January 18, 2025' which sounds to me like I have 4 more rent checks coming and the condo will go back on the market in January. The good news is that tax year 2024 won't be complicated. The bad news is that tax year 2025 will - hopefully. My personal plan is to list it for whatever he wants to sell it for and cross my fingers but if it's still on the market after a month, start dropping the price until I get rid of it. My goal is to have it off my hands completely before the next real estate tax bill comes due at the end of April.

Timber Ridge is owned and operated by LCS which has a biscillion senior places around the country. None in Asheville, NC which I think is interesting but, not surprisingly, a boat load in Florida. Yesterday they added hurricane updates to our Timber Ridge app (which houses all inmate info). It's interesting to read how they are handling stuff. Only a few places had to be evacuated and it looks like Independent Living people (like me) all went to hotels. I'm cool with that.

Ok, time to get dressed and go pet food hunting.

The doll and cat left on the shelf last night, were still there this morning. That hasn't happened in a while.

Comments

[arlie]

I'm amazed at how many things are packaged to make them inaccessible, or at least inaccessible to seniors and people with disabilities. The latest dis-improvement is to my hearing aid batteries - now packaged to require scissors to access. Once I open the pack, I have 6 batteries, loose. But the millions of children who live with people with hearing loss (mostly senior citizens) are apparently much more likely to eat the battery if it's in its package but easy to get at, rather than rolling around loose. Or so the (US?) government has decreed, mandating the new packaging. And there's one brand of ibuprofen I will never buy again - I needed help to get the package open, and it hasn't had its lid on since. Those imaginary hordes of children in my house now have easy access.

Cartoon I wish I could draw:

- child in a diaper and little else
- old lady in rocking chair.
- child is holding something out to the old lady, saying "here granny, I got your hearing aid batteries open for you".

[hopefulspirit]

I hope you're feeling better tomorrow and can swim.

Packaging is such a pain. I won't buy certain brands of things if I can't get into them very easily. That works fine until they change it on me.

[rsc]

I've had that same issue with imodium packages. Some blister packs aren't that bad – you push on the blister side and the back breaks properly – but the last time I had to take imodium (a while back, resulting in my being slightly careless in Quito) I found it a real pain. You'd think these people would realize that if you're taking the stuff in the first place, you're probably anxious if not desperate.

[kyrielle]

Just now catching up to this, but the trick to those horrible Imodium blister packs is to ignore their directions. Look at where the pill is, flip it to the paper side, and stab a fingernail through the paper and foil on one side or the other from the pill. Once it breaks through, lift and pull it aside.

Or start with a pair of scissors at the spot they mark for tearing. Don't even try to tear it there with hands, because in the rare event that you succeed, the plastic will proceed to scrape your skin as you try to get it fully open.

But really, just pierce it next to the pill and peel back.