Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Tuesday, July 19, 2022 -- Mattie died 668 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2003. This was our first family trip to the beach. Mattie was a year old. If you look closely at Mattie's face, he was NOT a happy camper. However, in time Mattie came to love and appreciate this beautiful barrier island. We do not have many photos of us together, which is why I appreciate this one.

Quote of the day: You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you'll win - no matter what the outcome. ~ Patch Adams

I got up at 6am today in order to get myself together, breakfast made, and my dad up, showered, dressed, and downstairs for breakfast. My dad had a 9:45am follow up appointment with his internist. In fact, we see this doctor every three months, because my dad has significant enough issues that he requires this kind of monitoring. 

At the appointment today, my dad was deemed more lucid! Of course the questions the doctor asked were.... What month is it? What day is it? What year are we in? Whose the president? 

Honestly these questions are old hat and in my book tell you LITTLE about how well you can function in your day to day life. He maybe oriented to time, place, and person (possibly), but if you ask him what he did a minute ago? He can't tell you! If you ask him did he had a bowel movement today? He has no idea! What did you eat today? NO clue! The list goes on, and without any working memory, life is very challenging from minute to minute. 

Any case, the doctor went on a tangent today regarding being incontinent. In fact I felt like he was practically giving my dad a warning, which I did not care for. The warning was.... that urine and bowel movements belong in the toilet. He told my dad that this is the only place he should be going! He also then mentioned that his mom is 90 years old and his sister has been her caregiver for 5 years. Now after 5 years, the sister has decided to put the mom in a nursing home because she is tired of cleaning up urine and poop. Clearly this conversation served NO purpose for my dad! Fortunately with my dad he won't remember it ever took place, which is a blessing! But I certainly do! The only one deciding whether my dad needs an institution is me. Given all that I balance on a given day, the least of my issues is that my dad goes to the bathroom in his depends. Can you see why I nickname this doctor, DOPEY! He continues to live up to his name. 

Because my mom has an MRI of her brain this evening, I decided to take my parents out to lunch. Unfortunately our usual servers were off today. So we trained in a new one. This poor guy had no idea what hit him. As everything we order has modifications! 

My dad likes a lot of balsamic dressing and the chef wanted to charge my dad 59cents extra for additional cup of vinegar. I told the waiter to alert the manager that we are regulars and I don't expect to be paying extra for vinegar. Thankfully the manager over-rode the chef! 

The highlight of my day was seeing packages arrive for my birthday. Friends have asked what I wanted for my birthday. Honestly other than a vacation, which isn't going to happen, the thing that interests me the most is our Foundation's snack carts! So I created a private wish list for friends to access, and voila..... packages are arriving. A BIG THANK YOU for friends who understand what I am balancing, who don't judge, but instead appreciate the effort caregiving is taking day in and out.