CAREGIVING: Kathy is sleeping after breakfast. I made pancakes with some butternut squash leftover from Christmas dinner. When she was swallowing the last bite she sneezed and that made her inhale a particle of food. She had a short choking episode but she coughed it up.
Later, while I was in the basement “doing laundry” I ran out to the postoffice to get some stamps. (I know, I left her alone.) I ran into one of my neighbors who lives down the street. She asked me “how we were doing?” I never know what to say. I think I said something like “we are getting by” or “doing ok” or something. She asked about ….”your wife?” So I told her that Kathy has a thing called Huntington’s Disease, a motion disorder with elements of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and mental diseases. She seemed like she knew what it was already. She said that her husband has dementia that came on stronger all of a sudden. She said she is starting a caregiver’s support group in Hampden next month. It will meet at the public library. I told her I’d love to go “..if I can find someone to watch Kathy.” (If Kathy lets anyone watch her, he thought to himself.) When I got home I figured out that the neighbor I was speaking to is a nurse, so that explains why she knew what she knew.
I finished the laundry and vacuumed. Kathy said “I’m trying to think of a reason to skip…” There was a long, long pause followed by silence. I asked “…a reason to skip?” What would you like to skip?” I never got an answer. I guess as part of her dementia sometimes she can’t complete her thoughts. It didn’t seem to bother her so I’ll never know.
It was sunny out so we went to the dump to get rid of the recycling. Once again I came back with as much crap as I was leaving off. I found a metal desktop file divider. One of those beige things with slots. I already have one that is a total unorganized mess. Now I have one to go with it. We stopped at the Village Store again and I picked up some bananas (Kathy’s favorite fruit) and some other produce. I won’t be able to afford to do a big shopping until next week.
After Kathy was in bed I got back to work on some music stuff upstairs. It was good to get back to some of my old friends that need some attention. Marty came up at 10:30 and told me to go to bed.
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