But then again....

After all my bragging, I have discovered that I am not the best of caregivers. Yesterday, mid morning (10:45)Papa wanted me to put him in his bed to "take care of a few matters" and afterwards he decided he's stay there and take a nap. I told him that I would let him do that until noon (his next meds were due then, in one hour)since I needed to water my plants and hanging baskets. Time go away from me and when my alarm on my phone went off at noon, so I hurried in the cottage to get his meds and wake him up. Well, guess what? The scoundrel had somehow gotten himself out of the bed, into his pants, into his wheelchair and managed to "walk" his way to Carolina Room and put himself in his chair. I read him the riot act and told him that obviously I could not trust him anymore. He said he wouldn't do it again; it was too hard and he tired himself out. The rest of the day progressed normally until 2:30 this morning. He decided that rather than "do his business" in his brief, he wanted to get out of the bed. I caught him as he was trying to escape at the foot of the bed. His brief was dry as a bone and he wanted the urinal. Well, at 2:30 AM I am not the most congenial person, I regret to say, and was in no mood to get into the argument we have everyday during the daylight hours. I flatly told him I was not taking off a clean brief and waiting around for him to pee! He asked me what I was going to do. "Back to bed. It's 2:45 in the morning." Well, how was he supposed to know? Maybe the lack of any lights on in the house? Anyway, 10 minutes later, he calls out, "Ginny? What am I supposed to do?" I got up and went into him and said, "Papa, please, would you just relieve yourself in your brief and let me go back to sleep?" "Oh, all right." Ten minutes late, "Ginny?" "Yes, Papa?"
"What are you doing?" "Trying to go back to sleep." "Oh!" This went on till nearly 3:30. I should have just thrown in the towel and gotten the urinal, but, oh, no. I had to continue this power struggle with this 90 year old gentleman who is really accepting his limitation with a lot of grace, but this aspect of his caregiving is the most difficult for him to accept. However, at 3:30 in the morning my empathy is severly lacking. I might add that he went back to sleep and at 4:00 AM I finally just get up and go into the living room and eat a piece of pound cake, drink a glass of water and read for an hour till I got sleepy again. I relate all of this to say that obviously I am just as childish as he is on occasion. Last night was a good example of that.

This morning he is good as new. Tammy was here to bathe him and he had a great breakfast and now he is looking at a 1930 film, FAST TIMES. He's having a great time. Me? Well, let's just say I am tired and, in addition, a bit ashamed of myself.

Today is warm and cloudy. Hopefully, we will get some rain and I will not have to sneak outside to water my plants. In addition, we have a friend from Tennessee, Terry Kennedy and her daughter Susan coming in to stay at the Inlet for a couple of nights. Terry's husband Ron died a couple of years ago and we did not make the trip to see him that we wanted to. She is coming so that she can see Kenny and us, of course. She and Ron used to come down and spend a weekend with us a couple of times a year and they became very fond of Papa. He has been so fortunate. He has made so many friends of all ages and they are so great about dropping by for a minute or two just to check on him and to say "hey." That's what we say in the South instead of "Hi!"