Taking care of Lucille
became a full time job. She was afraid to be alone, and someone had to be with
her 24/7. Alex was starting to lose his mind and the stress was compounded by
the guilt he always felt after losing his temper.
She would scream "Help!" at the top
of her lungs to get his attention when he was downstairs. Alex would panic and
come running up the stairs expecting to see her lying on the floor with a
broken hip, only to find she wanted someone to lower the volume on the TV.
Alex would patiently try
to explain to her that she needs to make a distinction between the yells she
makes for us to turn down the TV volume and screams when someone is cutting her
head off with a chainsaw, because there didn't seem to be any difference.
…..
Alex had never seen his
mom naked, nor had he ever seen an 86-year old naked woman’s body, and the
combination of the two was quite disturbing for him at first. Luckily she was
able to shower by herself, but she needed help with the order of putting on her
clothes. Many times he would catch her putting her underwear over her pajama
bottoms. This reminded Alex of the movie Bananas, where Woody Allen became a
Cuban dictator, and gave a speech saying “We will now wear our underpants on
the outside!”
…..
Alex made more visits to
the doctors with mom in two months than he made for himself in twenty years. It
seemed like every day she had a new complaint. Her legs were too hot or they
were too cold. She had trouble sleeping through the night. Everything tasted
salty.
He was also becoming
friendly with the local pharmacist. Lucille was on about a dozen prescription
medications, and keeping track of the morning, afternoon, and nighttime doses
became a headache for Alex, as well as keeping them filled. And of course every
different doctor she saw would tweak her medication cocktail, adding more
confusion to the daily routine.
Alex needed some help to
cope. Luckily there was recreational relief.
Later,
Steve
Steve
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