Diversions, Food, and Health

Gina got Mary a little stuffed doggy for Valentine’s Day that sings, “Ah, Sugar, ah, honey, honey, you are my candy, girl, and you got me lovin’ you.” She can’t quite figure out how to press it to make it play, and she can’t understand what it’s singing (she doesn’t recognize the song), but she thinks it’s so adorable. She keeps talking to it, telling it how cute it is.

The other morning one of our neighbors had some men putting in a garage floor behind his house. Mary sat in our kitchen doorway and watched—it provided hours of entertainment for her! I couldn’t believe she didn’t get cold or bored. Go figure.

She seems to be eating less and less, even though her emotional state has gotten back to normal. Every meal she tells me that I’ve given her too much, which drives me crazy because she then proceeds to eat everything (perhaps leaving her famous one bite) on her plate. Not that she’s thin, she’s probably a good weight, if not maybe even overweight for her height, but I’d prefer to see her eat more. It makes it rather difficult to cook. I’ll make two servings and eat one and she’ll eat half of one. Then she’ll have the other half the next day for lunch. Then I never get to give her any “lunch” foods that I know she’d enjoy—Limburger Cheese or bologna or grilled cheese, for instance. Plus, I like to give her cake, pies and cookies, because I know she enjoys these things (as do I), and I love to make them, but she eats such a miniscule amount… Can you imagine anyone really, really being satisfied with ½ a slice of pie? But, then, it’s fun(ny) to see what she will eat more of. Cottage Cheese pie seems to always get her. And we made up some more of those seasoned oyster crackers and she munches on them quite frequently—but only about 3 of them. I got some pistachios and she’s really digging them, but unfortunately she can’t shell them herself, as I was hoping she would (help keep her busy, give her something to do). There again, she’ll eat about 5 of them. I always tell her that if I just ate exactly what she does, I wouldn’t have to follow any other diet! I’d be skinny as a rail.
Her left ankle seems to be better and she can get around like she was before (with a small amount of pain). The sores on her right toes don’t seem to be getting any better. But I really don’t know much about that sort of thing. The nurse told me not to peel away any dry skin, but I couldn’t help it—it practically flakes off, but just stays there till it’s pulled away. Well, I thought, if it just needs to be taken off, then the skin underneath can get some air and heal up, so I removed quite a bit. Even around the scabs there was a ring of dry skin, which I removed. I’m sure the nurse will ask me if I removed it and I’ll have to say yes, even though she told me not to! Well, sometimes you’ve just got to go with your instincts. I’ll be so glad when Mary’s feet are better and I can take her out again. I’m going to call one of the ladies who used to help take care of her and arrange to have her come once week. I hope she can/will do it or knows someone who can. I’m tired of dealing with the stress of having to find a way to get to the grocery, the post office or where ever I need to go to run an errand.