Monday, October 8, 2012

Out with Sela again!


On Friday 4th October we went out to do some errands for the first time since Sela’s accident.  It was fun having her in the car fiddling with her purse contents and the mirror.  She finally saw a tiny bridge that was installed in our neighborhood near the pond at the Club House.  As leaves are beginning to turn, she admired the bits of color on the very top of the many trees we have around Charlotte, maples as usual are turning first.  We went to BJ’s to buy bread –some Portuguese buns that are very similar to our pan de agua.  We then had a bite to eat sitting in the car so that I wouldn’t need to take out the wheelchair again from the trunk, and then we went to the ATM for some deposits and cash to buy a lottery ticket. 

This was a good start to her first outing with me, I think.  She came out of the car by herself and used  her walker to the chair lift, while I brought stuff up to the kitchen.  

It is now October 8th.  Yesterday my parents would have been married 68 years.  It was a nice day as Michael and Anna came for lunch bringing a rotisserie chicken.  We had it with a salad, for Michael is off carbohydrates, having lost 23 pounds after reaching 204 pounds in weigh.  He looks back to normal now, and his ‘belly’ has disappeared, thank God.  He installed something in my computer to make it go faster but it took longer than he expected.  So, they were here for a good three or four hours, and we had time to catch up and share.   This morning we finished up installing it while he told me what to do through the IM.  Technology is just amazing.

One thing I need to get off my chest is this.  Sela has had a hearing problem for some time now.  About 4 years ago we got a hearing aid for the right ear, with a promise to get the second one, should she get used to the first one.  Time has passed, and her hearing has deteriorated, and we have no money to buy the second one at $14 hundred dollars –Medicare does not cover this.  It is nothing major but very aggravating for both.  For her, because she often smiles and looks away because she can hear or understand the words without looking directly at one’s mouth; and for me because I have to repeat things 3 or 4 times.  The second time I do, it comes out more or less at a pleasant tone, but on the third and fourth, I’m already screaming and upset.  

I know, I know, I have a short fuse, I should consider her impairment, be kind, compassionate and all that… but at the precise moment these controls are not in my panel, not at all.  And, I get so aggravated and impatient.  I saw a hearing aid at a reasonable price and got it, for her left ear.  One can re-charge it and it is quite small although not as small as the other one.  The thing is that it gathers all noises and it bothers her a lot.  Noises like Otto’s barking, the garbage disposal, etc…  But, I make her wear it at the lowest possible volume setting, so that we can carry on a conversation without aggravations.  I feel really bad, and I see the same happens with the kids and with Roberto and Vikki. 

The lottery ticket did not win this Saturday –the hope of the poor.  Oh well… one never knows.  Tomorrow we go to Sela’s doctor because she still has pain on her arms and buttocks from her fall.  I’ve given her the strong Ibuprofen hoping that it will calm it a bit.  She came up with the idea of taking it at 3 or 4 in the morning, so that it would be easier for her to get up.  So, I gave her some little fruit in syrup to take with it so her stomach would not suffer, and heard the spoon hitting the little glass bowl, around 3:30am.  At breakfast she said it was better and, why where we going to the doctor?  The day is grey the temperature at 58o degrees.  Lots of leaves on the ground, and now part of the bare yard is covered with a small fuzz of light green after the seeds were spread last week.  Thank God for the storm Sunday morning and today there’s a promise of rain again.  So, drink up little blades of grass and grow!!!!

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