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MD,

I am 67. Yeah, I spent a lot of years caring for my mother.

They are consulting other doctors to figure out how to remove my brother’s gallbladder.

I agree with you on listening to what the therapist says. Why bother going if we aren’t interested in exploring all options?

The reason that I am so comfortable with my therapist is because he is a no nonsense kind of guy. He is a licensed professional.

I could never see myself going to a woo woo, new age life coach kind of person. So many of those don’t have experience in important areas, they simply don’t have the proper qualifications to truly help.

Some life coaches remind me of the pastors of churches who make it up as they go along. They have never been inside of an actual seminary or accredited university. They don’t have a theology degree or a psychology degree.

Some life coaches participate in these brief programs that are a few months long and jump right in with no experience. No thanks! I’ll pass on that type of therapy.

I feel the same way about going to a pastor for counseling. I wouldn’t do it. Unless they have an additional degree in psychology, they aren’t trained for helping with emotional needs. They are trained for spiritual needs.
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@Need,
Hope brother gets better IN rehab . I’m glad you are listening to your therapist .

Take care of yourself. Pop more bubble wrap if you need to😀.

I agree about going to the right person for therapy . I never understood people going to a Catholic priest for marriage counseling. What do they know about marriage ? They aren’t married .
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Need - prayers for your bro for solutions to his surgery. Gall bladder pain is nasty. I a si gad you drew the boundary about him coming to your home for after care. You and your hub don't need that - you need the peace of your home to yourselves. depending on what all they find out bro may need something like AL.

Good for you helping to your dd to pack. I know you will miss her. I'd take the mail back to the post office or what we do here is write "Not at this address" on the envelope and stick it into a mail box.
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Thanks for prayers, Golden

Well, they are going to transport my brother on the 11th to a different hospital to see if they can help him there. Hopefully his situation will be resolved soon.

A neighbor is going to feed his fish. He brought my brother the charger for his phone. I am glad about that because the hospital that he is being transferred to is across town from where he is now.

I am not going to drive there daily to check on him. I will call him to see how he is doing though.

Way,

He hasn’t made it that far yet, although I am thinking that he will probably have to go to rehab afterwards. They are having issues with the removal of his gallbladder. Two surgeons have tried unsuccessfully to do the surgery. Don’t know the lab results about the tumor that they removed. They also have to look at something with his heart. A lot to deal with at 65 years old.

Golden,

You’re absolutely correct! I cannot allow myself to become a caregiver for him when he is released from the hospital. I have done enough caregiving in my life.

Honestly, I don’t know how this will pan out. He doesn’t have any resources for assisted living but I am not going to allow his circumstances to become our problem. I deserve to be alone with my husband.

My daughter is thoroughly enjoying her new apartment. It’s small but it’s just her and the dog. Less rent so she can save up to return to Denver like she wants to do. She has a short term lease, six months and if she isn’t ready to return yet, the landlord will rent to her on a month to month basis.

So, my closet is temporarily filled with her stuff, until she moves it out! Oh well…it’s okay for a short while.

Way,

It’s kind of fun to pop those bubbles on bubble wrap! Someone needs to redesign the packing tape dispenser. That thing drives me crazy! I was constantly looking for the end of the tape. The problem is that the tape doesn’t stay where it should. It pops out of the slot too easily.
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Need: Prayers sent. Definitely you shouldn't become your brother's caregiver. Hugs to you. 💙
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Hahaha, I keep getting random text messages from a guy named, Jack, asking me to play golf.

My husband took me golfing one time. I’m a lousy golfer. He never asked me again to accompany him! LOL 😆

All of these serious minded golfers were standing behind me and giving me dirty looks, like “Lady, can you hurry up so we can play our game!”
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I find myself craving hearing good news instead of tensing up when answering my phone.

It seems like when we hit a certain age we get more and more phone calls from friends who tell us about illnesses in their families.

It’s nice to be told good news about things that make us smile or laugh.
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Need, we always let the serious golfers play through. Stops the ugly vibes:-)
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ITRR,

Oh yeah, we let the serious golfers play before us too! I’m horrible at golf! LOL 😆

I enjoyed playing putt putt with the kids when they were young though. That was fine. My nephews loved playing putt putt.
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Geaux Tigers! 🐯LSU baseball team is going to the college World Series. Yay!

LSU women’s basketball made it to the White House to celebrate their victory!

LSU is on a roll!
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Congrats to the Denver Nuggets! So, so sad that there was a shooting in the streets afterwards.
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My brother just called. They were able to remove some of the gallstones. Yay!

The stones are positioned in spots that are making them difficult to remove.

They will keep trying. My brother has faith in the surgeons. So, hopefully it’s just a matter of time.

Then, they can address the issue with his heart.

He is remaining in good spirits which I feel helps tremendously.
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((((Need)))) I am so glad they were at least partially successful and that they are working on removing them all and getting to his heart issues. I hope this has given your bro some relief from the pain. It's such good news that he is in good spirits.

If you are bad at golf maybe you need to play a round (of golf) with him so he will stop texting you -jk 😄
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Golden,

LOL 😆 I don’t think anyone would have fun playing golf with me as a partner!
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Need: Good news about your brother.
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Thanks, Llama and Golden

I know that he is feeling a bit better since they are making progress.
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Need,
positive news ! And yes your brother’s optimism is helpful .
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Need: You're very welcome.
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Changed my avatar to a photo of a dime to send to Lea! I will change it back after she sees it. The photograph of my dime isn’t the best but I tried.
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I'm really feeling despondent about the state of the world this morning. It seems as though everything I use and interact with offers less and less while asking us to pay more and more, and then when they inevitably drive us away they use that as a reason to make even more cuts. They killed almost all local content on my radio station and have now shut the doors because nobody listens anymore - well duh. Same with my local newspaper, we get one or two local news stories per week plus a bunch of filler, is it any wonder nobody buys the paper anymore? Microsoft keeps disabling free apps and asking for money. Established companies going out of business because they've chased profits instead of offering solid products that people might actually want. There's more, I could fill a page.
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Cwillie,
History repeats itself.
Do you think there is any chance supply and demand economy will correct itself?
Let's all stick around to find out.

I don't really want to have to actually eat that slow growing lettuce outside in my garden.
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History repeating itself is partly why I feel so despondent Send. I'm pretty sure people in the early 20th century were also smug in their belief that the world was too modern and sophisticated to fall apart as spectacularly as it did then, all the signs seem to say we are in for a very bumpy ride.
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cwillie, I agree, I’ve been feeling the same way , despondent for quite some time . Things are out of control, and/or in the wrong hands .
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The nurse just called me to give me the results of my brother’s surgery.

It’s so crazy that what should have been a simple procedure turned into a complicated matter.

The location of my brother’s gallstones made them difficult to remove. So, let’s see, three different doctors tried and were not successful.

Then, they transferred him to another hospital and called in two specialists.

I am happy to say that they got the job done this afternoon. Yay!

So, they are still saying that they will most likely have to remove the gallbladder at some point in the future.

The nurse also mentioned something about his pancreas. Not sure exactly what that is about.

Next, they will look at his heart situation. He’s had heart surgeries in the past.
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So glad to hear that good news, Need. He should be much less pain now, One step, one problem at a time!
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NHWM,
I am happy for your brother.
Are you saying they removed gallstones but not gallbladder?
I had gallbladder problem and infection few months ago, they cannot remove gallstones. They are not willing to remove gallbladder either.
Maybe in USA there is some new procedure?
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Golden,

Yep! That’s what I am thinking.

I haven’t had gall stones or kidney stones. I have heard that they are both painful.
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Evamar, I’m sorry for your issues with your gallbladder.

He initially went to ER due to having pain. They found gallstones. They tried removing them and couldn’t because of the location of the gallstones. They haven’t removed the gallbladder but may in the future.

Why can’t your stones or gallbladder be removed? Is it because of the infection? Can they treat the infection with antibiotics and then remove the stones?
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Nhwm,
Yes, the infection was mild, had antibiotics and it did not show up on ultrasound after some weeks.
If there is surgery/removal of gallstones it is not done in Canada, but, I think in US it is done.
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Evamar,

Oh, I see. I hope you’re not in pain.
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