On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:57:33 -0800 (PST), the infamous
" scrawled the
following:

On Jan 17, 12:37 pm, Larry Jaques
wrote:

Robert, isn't there a way you could take him home (to your shop) for a
day, or part of one? Figure out a small project he could do from a
wheelchair and make it happen! He'd love it.

He doesn't have the dexterity to do much of anything anymore. For
example, he told me that the women folk in our family had taken his
pocket knives from him, and now wouldn't let him have one for fear he
would cut himself. He raised me as he was raised, and that is with a
pocket knife in my possession at 6. (Yes, I cut and stabbed myself a
couple or three times, but he figured everyone he knew learned how to
use a knife from that experience... I did!). So he took me aside when
I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and told me he wanted a nice
pocket knife.
So I got him one. It was an easy pulling Stockman with no blade
locks, and he couldn't get the knife blade open. Try as he could, he
was humiliated that he couldn't get his fingernail into the nail nick,
hold the knife, and get it open. Once he got his nail in the nick and
got it partially open, he tore his nail off.

OUCH!


I know that hurt like hell, but nowhere near as much as the pain of
that embarrassment.

Additionally, his incontinence requires additional nursing staff for
cleaning after the the fact. He never knows when he will have a full
load, or when his Foley bag will need emptying. Although I have
cleaned him up more than once, he is uncomfortable being far away from
his nurses and their care.

Suckage.


Perhaps ask your sister to do the same (shopping trip?) for your mom
that same day, so they each had new stories to share when they got
"home" that evening.

Just a thought.

My Mom is still a delight, but if you have my Mom, you have to have my
Dad. My sister can take her out for dinner or shopping, but if I do
he won't talk to me for a month. Mom and me had some nice evenings
when he was in the hospital as I could pick her up and take her out to
eat (the more out of the way place the better), or bring over dinner
and a DVD, and we could talk about old movies and stuff she and I both
like. She is a very small rural town, and for her the simple
pleasures are the best.

Very cool.


Unlike basilisk's people who are to be admired, mine have been rusting
out for years. At this point, although I am in the middle of managing
things they should have taken care of themselves years ago and have
come to the conclusion they will just continue to rust out until they
are finished.

I hope for an instant burnout someday vs. rotting in hell for years.
My body and I have an agreement. I won't let them resuscitate me and
it won't fight for a lost cause. I want to stay healthy, and if I
can't have that, trade my body in for a new one, perhaps one with
fewer karma points.


Those were good thoughts, though.

I try! Well, just go love 'em!

--
The greatest fine art of the future will be the making
of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.
--Abraham Lincoln