Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2006. It was Memorial Day weekend and we took Mattie to Pennsylvania to experience Sesame Place! A theme park for toddlers and young children. I had no idea that the park had all of these water themed attractions. Needless to say, Mattie had a swimsuit with us but we bought Peter one at the Park. Together they had a ball and I was happy being the family photographer.
Quote of the day: Pain is always accompanied by emotion and meaning so that each pain is unique to the individual. The word pain is used to group together a class of combined sensory-emotional events. The class contains many different types of pain, each of which is a personal, unique experience for the person who suffers. ~ Patrick Wall
For over a week, I have been dealing with intense back and side pain. The back pain I have had before and I know it comes and goes, but the side pain gets me down. It can hit me all of a sudden and it feels like a butter knife is going through my rib cage. I assume it is muscular and in time it will dissipate. But dealing with physical pain on top of my already intense work load is a bit much!
I am worried about Sunny as well. He isn't acting like himself and is on a hunger strike. He can do that on occasion, especially while on chemotherapy. But it is his other behavior that troubles me, as he isn't interested in going outside and this afternoon when I came home, I couldn't find him in the house. He managed his way down to the basement. Sunny does go to the basement but only when we have storms. There were no storms today.
It was my usual day of chaos. I got my dad up, washed, dressed, and downstairs for breakfast. I then took him to his memory care center. I then ran to the post office to mail off raffle items to our Foundation winners. Then came home, did more chores and got my mom in the car for her physical therapy appointment.
When I picked my dad up this afternoon from his memory care center, I took him home first before going out to eat. Despite telling his memory care center to toilet him before they hand him over to me, they never do! Sure enough as soon as he walked in the door, he had to run to the bathroom and we made it just in time. Which is why I have learned that I can't just pick my dad up from the center and drive to a destination. That would be a big mistake.
My dad was excited to go out to eat today. He was hungry and we were hopeful that he would actually eat. However, no such luck. We brought home most of his food. My mom is concerned about my dad and wants me to chat with the doctor about this on Thursday. I will, but I also do not want my dad to undergo testing. Mainly because I feel his lack of appetite is part of his dementia decline. We meet my parent's new primary care doctor on Thursday and my hope is he has more experience working with dementia patients than their last doctor, who I accurately referred to as DOPEY! It would be very helpful to have a doctor who will be supportive and work with us rather than one who comes up with ridiculous suggestions.
The last time we saw DOPEY he suggested my dad do kegel exercises (Basically tighten the sphincter muscles as if you are stopping a bowel movement. While squeezing tightly, hold for a count of ten and then relax for a count of ten). These exercises are supposed to help with bowel control. All great and wonderful, if my dad was mentally intact. But between his dementia and his irritable bowel syndrome, the suggestion is more comical than helpful. I got a lot of this kind of inane advice!
Needless to say, coping with all of my parents symptoms and emotional feelings isn't for the meek. My mom gets upset at my dad because he is checked out, zoned out, and doesn't eat. My dad gets upset because my mom is picking on him, and here I am stuck in the middle managing it all.
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