CAREGIVING: Trying to do grocery shopping on Sunday was hopeless. Kathy was a zombie for some reason. Some days are like that. (Hell, I’m like that some days.) It could have been the new meds which I was hoping would help with the shaking in her hands. (No improvement, so far.) But basically she woke up Sunday morning. I helped her with go to the bathroom and got her dressed and she fell asleep for a few hours. So we had breakfast for lunch. It really throws things off.
Monday she was doing a little better. So once I finished a newspaper ad I was working on, we made the journey to Aldi to shop. The going isn’t bad. The return home sucks. But we were out of a lot of stuff and I had a $10 off coupon that was in the paper. They had most of what I wanted to get. I forgot to buy fish, though. They have frozen wild salmon that is a good deal but I forgot that and mushrooms. With the coupon it still came to $120.
The arrival at home is stressful. Marty is howling and whining — upset that he didn’t go with us or something. Kathy is immobile. I get her to the front door and plop her in the broken wheelchair we keep in the basement. I used to unload the food before bringing her up the stairs. But she has had one or two accidents and rather than risk embarrassing her I just leave the car running and flashing in the street. I rush her to the stair lift and get her to the bathroom pronto. Today she wanted to wear an extra sweater. It was so tight under her coat that I really had to peel it off of her. While she took a nap I unloaded the food and used the stairlift to bring the heavier bags up the stairs. I find I can hang two bags on one of the arm rests and put a bag or two on the seat. Then I put most of it away. Some of it goes into different canisters and containers.
By then it was almost 2pm. I sat down to rest in the living room with the remains of a cup of cold coffee I had not finished that morning. “Would you want to have lunch?” Kathy asks. And I did have to give her lunch or there would be meds that will be missed. After lunch and cleaning her teeth, we both nodded off for a while. I mean the three of us… including Marty.