Dad looks at the card he and mom received yesterday, par avion, from the Isle of Man from Graham Skinner and family. I sent this photo as an attachment to his e-mail address with the proviso that he not be alarmed by dad's appearance ... did not comb his hair but that he was not in pain and doing OK.
The words inside the card were short but powerful:
Thought for The Day.
Friends are hard to find.
Difficult to leave.
And impossible to forget.
To Rudi & Jean,
Thinking of you both.
From Graham & Family. XX.
I joined another online language service, speaklanguages.com, and they provide, free of charge, vocabulary lists, some of which have audio. Dutch does not, but I began to learn, fitfully but steadily, the days of the week. They are: Maandag (Monday), Dinsdag (Tuesday), Woensdag (Wednesday), Donderdag (Thursday), Vrijdag (Friday), Zaterdag (Saturday), and Zondag (Sunday).
Earlier, made a trip to Rite Aid at 8 a.m., where an officer had two stray pit bulls that had wandered into the store (I reached down and one lifted up and licked my hand ... very friendly), and bought a gallon of milk and the pill box distributor with two rows, one for AM and one for PM, perfect for dad.
Just set up the bubble humidifier for the oxygen concentrator on the Invacare 5L Platinum XL. Amazingly, I forgot that the tech from GlobalMedical had brought out all the necessary supplies to install one and I'd forgotten that I'd stored the materials in the closet. As a result, Delaware Hospice had to make a special trip to bring out a bubble humidifier. I need to check before I assume. It is infuriating that I don't have the materials necessary to extend his breathing line. Need to ask more questions, make sure I have the right stuff.
Dad is confused and uncomfortable with the set-up. He asked me how to get it back to the former state and I just unhooked it. If he's not OK with it, it's not worth it, and I just read for slow flows of 4L per minute of oxygen flow, the humidification is unnecessary.
Dad is confused and uncomfortable with the set-up. He asked me how to get it back to the former state and I just unhooked it. If he's not OK with it, it's not worth it, and I just read for slow flows of 4L per minute of oxygen flow, the humidification is unnecessary.
Lost my temper with dad this late afternoon because he can get particular and I can't seem to understand what he needs. It was over his evening meds and we couldn't figure out what he needed. Finally, I mentioned the metoprolol, which he takes twice a day, was required to take and he calmed and I calmed. As for mom, my voice rises and she is so sensitive. She can get like a broken record with her questions about how dad is doing and is he sleeping or eating or feeling any pain. I never know because if he's asleep, I don't want to bother him. Right now, at this time, 5:24 p.m., his eyes are firmly shut as the oxygen concentrator whirs.
Nelson Mandela has died in South Africa at the age of 95.
- Born: July 18, 1918 (age 95), Mvezo, South Africa
Loyd Dillon just shared and posted the same photograph above, only cropped, on his Facebook page as a memorial to the man.
Five Things I Am Thankful For Today:
- The chance to be there in the mid-morning hours for dad when he needs me.
- To have the opportunity to learn and yes, be frustrated, by figuring out how to humidify the air supply from an oxygen concentrator (to be patient and realize that you may be at fault and take presumptuous action and assume others are -- I had forgotten that supplies had been left by the GlobalMedical worker, a young and earnest man, when he dropped off the unit, an Invacare 5L Platinum XL oxygenator.) -- *Period goes inside the parentheses when the statement enclosed within is a complete sentence. It goes outside if the statement is a sentence fragment.
- To think first and not act spontaneously when I am discomfitted by ill thoughts, like my daughter's ingratitude at my letter/check for her recent trip to visit her grands this past weekend. (I did send an e-mail but it was tempered and prompted a nice response back from my Lindsay.) The same feeling occurs with my mom on a regular basis and it is inappropriate. She is an extremely bright and aware person and yes, her constant pain and inability to move and her unwillingness to attempt change is unsettling to me and I react. Last night, in a rather Patrician act on my part, I snooted at her persistent watching of ION and those crime dramas she loves. She got mad and basically said get lost. Within minutes, I was back in her room, making amends and I parted telling her I loved her and kissing her on the forehead (little did I know how I would hug her, almost knocking her down when she called to me in distress about "your father" at 4:10 a.m.).
- The opportunity to view the superb, as always, work of the NewsHour as they documented and displayed for 3/4s of their hourlong program, the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. Charlayne Hunter-Gault gave a marvelous segment, obviously pre-recorded, on his life and the many times she got to interview the country founder, Nobel laureate and great humanitarian.
- Ability to phone and have a great conversation with Gail Emerson and lie, yes I lied, about how wonderful her soup was and how the parents and I enjoyed (which I will, starting today) it so much, but more to the point, she is a good person as she talked in her bed with her Bengal tiger cat and her newest iteration of Trixie beside her on either side. (She did ask that I keep and give back to her, the photo display of Trixie and friends, including mom & dad, that was in my room for years and which I have moved safely into Doug's old room. I promised her that I would.)
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