I Am Beginning

I went to see Al today, but sadly spent so much time in the office, arguing over his monthly bill,  so I didn’t see that much of him before he retired for his nap. I am going to go and pick him up tomorrow and take him to lunch. He also wants to go to K-Mart, because he saw a commercial stating half-price on hot wheel cars. I have a coupon for bogos, one at Arby’s and the other at Dairy Queen for blizzards, so am hoping for a nice afternoon.

I started buying  my collection of  items needed for Christmas dinner, and got some other things I needed for the make it part of our Christmas. It was a peaceful day. I find these days very nice. I am slowly starting to heal inside. I can see Al and leave now with out crying.

I am beginning to enjoy some time away from the house now. I plan on running errands after seeing Al, and then hibernate inside the house on the days I don’t see him. Time heals, everyone says, and I guess I am living proof of it.

Al is still very quiet. I notice more confusion though. It is sporadic. It never stabilizes so that I can see a routine. I had bought him a Christmas T-shirt. In fact, I bought him two. I marked his name on them, and hung them up in his closet two days ago. I was wearing a duplicate of one I bought him, and he stated, ” I really like that shirt sis.” I said ” Well why don’t you wear yours? I hung it up in your closet.” He replied, ” I haven’t seen it.”

I went to his closet and went through it twice, no shirt. I went to the laundry area and asked the aid if she had it down there. I pointed to my own I was wearing, and said, ” It looks just like this.” She said, ” What does it look like”? I probably had my duh look on then and then she laughed and went to look for it, but came back empty-handed.

I don’t know what to do . Brand new shirt M.I.A. It upsets me because not only did it cost, but he loved the shirt.

When I got home, I could hear this loud chatter like someone was very upset. I got my bags inside and took my camera back out. This is where the chatter was coming from.

The Sticky Situation

Chocolate-Cake-2006-Jan-04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have not written for a few days about Al, because I did not want to jinx my good luck, and I know from experiences in my own life, that good things do not last forever. I am thankful for the few days we had, but in a blink of an eye, it was all over, so now I can once again blog my amazement over illness.

Al had been a funny guy. He half-way resorted to his past, with funny remarks, and I once even a heard a crack about someone on the television, that made me snicker to myself. I had taken  him out to eat once each day over the weekend, with Saturday even being spent for about a half hour at the goodwill store. We took his scooter and he made his way through the store, and I am pretty sure his eyes were like bullets, ready to aim in on any coca cola items, but he did not see any.

This ended our trip to the store, because of his mentality, or his child like behavior, when he did not see anything for him, then he assumes the trip is over, and I can just forget anything I may be looking at.

We then stopped at K-Mart after the goodwill store, and I purchased a new WaterPik for myself as mine was shot, and we got Al some non-prescription medicine called Miralax.

One of the side effects from Parkinson’s is having a difficult time when using the bathroom. It is not only difficult to get the brain to acknowledge the fact that he is sitting there ready to aim, but you also suffer from, how should I say it delicately, take a dump, leave a bomber. LOL

Thanks to a good friend, here at blogging world, I was told about this Miralax drug that made things, umm, easier to eject. So we purchased the smaller box to see how effective it would be for Al, and he also reminded me that he had no ice-cream at home. This is one of Al’s latest hook-ups. He has to have ice-cream every night for his snack that he takes his bedtime medications with. Along with that he adds a small box of raisins or some prunes. Yuck, I hate prunes!

So, we make our purchases, and I see that he is almost out of energy, so we pay and go home. He had done really well, no cussing anyone in the stores, and no tears, a great day. Even the next day, when we went out for lunch it was still running the same way. We also used the new medication with positive results. He was happy and so was I , as I didn’t have to sweat over the stool with a plunger! LOL

Today, was good also. Wow! Almost three days, but then it ended, like I said before, in a blink of an eye. He had his medication this morning, and by supper it had not worked, and that was all it took for smiles to turn into anger and tears.

I explained to him that maybe he no longer needed to use the facilities daily, and he argued the point, saying the pirlax, his pronunciation,  was out to get him, that it was fooling him by not working. It was like other things you buy in the stores, works one or two days then quits. He wanted me to take the product back to the store and he wanted to tell them what he thought of it. I said no, we have already opened it. He cried, and I went back to finishing supper.

Our supper consisted of broiled pork chops, spaghetti squash, baked potato, and sugar-free chocolate cake with sugar-free icing. While I was finishing up his dinner plate, cutting all of his foods, I asked him if he would like to go outdoors and get the newspaper. While still swearing up a storm, he did go get it.

Dinner bell was served, lol, and I sat his drink with thicket in it, and his plate with all foods cut up in small bites in front of him, and I went to my own little quiet table in the living room, and I said a prayer of thanks for my food, and we began our feast.

I was gazing through Facebook and eating and pretty soon I hear the sounds of tap-tap tap. I look over and Al’s tremors are playing a song with his fork hitting the plate. He saw me look at him, and I hurried and looked away, as I knew he would be ashamed that I saw what his hands were doing. Nothing was said, but I did hear the music continue. I finished my supper and got up to take the dirty plate and glass over to be rinsed off, and I stopped in my tracks.

I had not thought about it prior,but when I looked at Al, he had chocolate icing stuck to his lips, chin, fingers, and floor. I must be getting better at not being shocked, as I said nothing and even a sigh did not escape from my lungs. He was crying, and I think he would have been swearing, but the icing was holding his mouth together, preventing the foul words to come out. I continued on to the sink, and rinsed my plate, glass and utensils out, placing them in the dishwasher. I put the leftover foods into proper containers and refrigerated them. I wiped down the counter, and got me a cup of coffee ready for my after dinner drink.

I turned around and although his pride would not allow him to ask for help, I saw that his plate was finished, so I took them and rinsed them off. I then grabbed a wash cloth and wet it with warm water and proceeded to wash his hands and fingers off. Actually, I was thinking of me, I guess, the cleaning mess I was going to have if I didn’t clean him up right here, and how he would track it down the hall and into his bathroom and where ever his fingers would touch, so it was easier to clean here.

He started yelling at me. I am just a big baby, this Parkinson’s has turned me into a baby! I can’t even eat without making a mess! As he was yelling and crying, I kept cleaning, and then being sure he was chocolate free, I proceeded to clean chocolate and foods off of the floor, and then grabbed my coffee and headed to the living room, here in front of my computer, to find peace, and ponder on how I was going to deal with feeding him cake with icing from now on, without causing him extra stress and grief, but not taking away something he loves.

It Was A No Tear Day

Well in less than one hour the new caregiver will be here to give Al his shower. Don’t you hate having to train a new person all over again? The other caregiver did everything right, and I am hoping this one will also, but I hate the training. Al is napping right now, so I thought I would tell you about our day. We did leave here and I was going to take him to the clothing store and get him new shorts, but after thinking about it, I decided to take him to Goodwill instead. All of his shorts he has in his drawers are very nice ones, that he can no longer wear with all of his weight loss, so I don’t want to spend top dollar in case he would lose more. We have to be careful when we buy shorts or long pants, as he can not use the snaps, buttons, or zippers. I would do it for him, but I want him to keep his independence, so we buy all pull up, elastic waists, so he can do it himself. There was no scooter in the store, so I got out his wheel chair and we sat him in it. The only help I had to give him was to raise his one leg. The one leg seems to be weaker than the other from the Parkinson’s. We went through all of the isles, and he came across someone who works at his old work place. The gentleman recognized Al also. Al’s eyes lit up like Christmas tree lights, he was so excited that he saw someone he knew, plus someone he could play catch up about his old work. They spent about ten minutes talking to each other. I was so glad that God planted that person in Al’s walk way at the very precise moment. We looked down through the junk aisle also. I like to look their and see if there are any trinkets I can buy and add to the house for extra personality. I love antiques, so I try to make everything look old in my house. We did find four pairs of shorts for Al, and it was his lucky day, because if you were older than fifty-five, you got fifty percent off of your total. We ended up with four pairs of shorts at less than one price for a brand new pair  from a clothing store. I had tried to get Al to pick out more shorts since there was a big sale, but he just didn’t understand. All he knew is he needed four or five pairs, so that is what we got! After we left Goodwill, we went to the K-Mart store and picked out some very cute roller skates for my grandson’s birthday tomorrow. They will adjust for his shoe size up to three years. I think he is going to love these. He can play with them inside or outdoors. We picked up a new bird feeder for me and some birdseed, and some marshmallow sticks for the bonfires. I think people are getting tired of having to dig for a  new stick! Now there are permanent ones that I can wash. I bought Al a new Bible, that is very large print, and thicker pages. I had him try it out at the store and he didn’t have to take  his glasses off to read it. He has less than 20/20 vision from the damage of his heart attack, and I have been catching him taking his glasses off to read it. I took  him back to the eye doctor for a recheck, but the doctor said this is as good as it is ever going to be. I think he was pleased with his new bible, and I can bet that he will be reading it before bed time tonight. Next we went to Wendy’s restaurant, and he ate his first french fry with a grilled chicken sandwich since his surgery. While we were eating, I had to use the lady’s room. When I came back he had finished his own fries and was eating mine. I just sort of looked at him and he told me, well you got up, losers weeper, finders keepers! I laughed at that, an old-time phrase we have always used. If you walk away from something and leave something behind, you lose it! He knew he had gotten one over on me. Oh well, he had his fun and he laughed, and I didn’t need the fattening fries anyways.  Afterwards, we got groceries. That went pretty good, except his judgement is getting worse, and he ran into the shelves quite a bit, but over all, we had another nice day together. No tears, no arguing. I am so glad I had the minister come to see Alvin on Monday. God is truly working in his life and bringing him peace, plus all of the prayers that are being said for him from here are being answered. I wish it to last for ever and ever. When we got home, there was a box on the front steps. I was surprised! It was for me! My daughter had sent me a complete line of Sensual Black Current Vanilla from Bath and Body. It smells so good. It is a gift for Mother’s Day. She is so good to me. I wish we still lived near each other, but I am thankful I get to see her every other month. Well, this was my day so far. I was truly blessed with smiles and kindness today. Thank you Lord.

Oven baked fries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)