Medical, medications, and other updates

We had the surgeon consultation yesterday afternoon. He explained to dh the procedure, agreed it very well is his cause of the pancreatitis, went over the risks of the surgery and wanted a new labs drawn. Then sent us to his scheduler's office. She was a hoot (as well as his nurse was, too). She said dh has to self quarantine for 7 days before the surgery and also have another covid test. Since he's already self quarantined the past 2 weeks (other than going to their office yesterday) he is now scheduled for the gallbladder removal next Thursday and will have his Covid test done on Tuesday. We are both glad to get this done so quickly and hope this resolves his ongoing problem and he starts to feel better. Not only will it be laparoscopic, but the robotic instrument was also available for that time slot, so he will use that. After that was done and scheduled we went downstairs for his blood draw and I walked down the hall to the day surgery office and picked up his shower kit to use pre-surgery.

I've been playing around with this Hero medication dispensing system. Understanding how it works and trying out different "scenarios" we might encounter if she forgets.

It was super easy to set up for me. All the programming of what medication, dosage and time to dispense is done via the app on my phone. Of course I have to physically be there to load the pills, but I can preload it with 90 pills/days worth. I can also change her times from the app, if say, we knew she was going to be busy with a special activity or something and not in her apartment.

For now, I am going to try her morning pills at 9am. If she goes downstairs for breakfast, she is back by then and her first activity she usually does (wii bowling LOL) isn't until 9:30. Her evening pill I set up for 6:30. There are rarely any activities going on in the evenings (at least none that she does) and she should be back from dinner and in her apartment. It seems if she does go to her guy friends apartment to watch tv it is usually 7 or 7:30.

I put in some "dummy" times so I could test it here (and not wait until 6:30 pm last night to see if/how it works). When it's almost time to take, the screen lights up and shows a message that it's almost time for the dose. She can choose to push the big center button right then to dispense. If she doesn't see that (which she likely will not) then  at the time set, it has a nice loudish chime sound, as well as on the screen it say it's time to take. "Dispense" or "Skip" is on the screen, but it's highlighted on dispense. She has to push this big center button to make it dispense into the cup underneath. I decided to write, in red sharpie, "PUSH" and stick it on this big center button. I think that will help her in the beginning, until she gets used to using it.

I also did a test, where she did not push the button to dispense. It chimes at her with a reminder every 5 minutes. At 15 minutes it sends me a notification on my phone that she has not dispensed her medication. (nice!). Then I dispensed to see what happens. I got a notification right away she dispensed it. Then, just to keep trying out scenarios, I did not remove the cup from the machine. Every 20 or 30 seconds it beeped a bit, with a reminder on her screen to remove the cup and take her meds. Then I got a message on my phone that she did that. Well, it says she has taken the pills...let's hope she actually swallows them, haha.

My next test was having her forget to put the cup back (so it's ready for the next time). The bottom light under the dispenser is flashing and the screen says to return the cup. It's been about a half hour with leaving it out, but so far just the message on the screen. I got online with their chat support and she says it will also audio alert her, but after an hour that never happened. She said they are also working on adding a caregiver app alert for this, as well. DD had a good idea to also put a note on the machine "Return Cup Below", so I put some tape just above where the cup goes in red sharpie ink, too.

Other than that I think this system is going to be amazing and so helpful. Especially with no more of her having to fill up her pill box when I'm not there to do it, as well as just lots of reminders to take it. There is also an option I can add where it calls her cell phone with a recorded message that it's time to take her medication. I'm not going to use that, unless I have to.

I was going to try it out here for a week, but honestly I think it's very easy to use and I've tried all the issues (other than her just unplugging it LOL) I can think of.  So, now I'll figure out when I want to

DH thinks he probably did the last of the lawn mowing for the season now. The weather has gotten cold. Freezing or near freezing overnight and 50's during the day.

While I noticed the for sale signs still on the 2 lots next to us, as we were driving past yesterday, I see this morning that they are no longer on Zillow or on the realtors website, so that must mean that couple is purchasing them. That is good. When we chatted with them they mentioned they come over to their house here every 2 weeks, so wonder if they will be coming back to the property this weekend.

Kitty is doing well. I call him the tiny terror, LOL. He terrorizes me for the first 2 hours every morning, while I'm trying to work. He makes typing on my keyboard, using my mouse and seeing my monitors, as well as trying to drink my coffee, a challenge. Then he will take a nap, on my desk. Tries to lay right on or as close to my keyboard as possible, so I have to move him over a bit.