[Magdalen] Rant

[Georgia DuBose]

Allan: "To be companionable in prayer..." What a wonderful way to put it.

I am sorry for the hard time you and Camille are having.

Georgia+,
another companion

On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 11:30 PM, Allan Carr <allanc25 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Camille attends an Alzheimer's day care center for six hours a day. She's
> driven there and back by our home care person, who we have for eight hours
> a day. Camille's still mostly a pleasant person, but her constant
> forgetfulness and repetition of the same question over and over again can
> be wearying. I hear myself getting exasperated (as I try to stay calm)
> while giving the same answer back, over and over again.  I'm thankful for
> that center - which she enjoys going to.
>
> I made the decision that we would stay here in our house as long as
> possible. We each have a long term insurance policy which we paid premiums
> on for many years. Camille is approved for 24 hour care and I'm approved
> for eight hours. At this time, I'm splitting the cost of eight hours of
> care between the two policies.
>
> Evenings can be tough, not because of her, so much, but because of my own
> forgetfulness. I'm forever losing my iPhone, getting exasperated,
> eventually using the Find My iPhone program from the computer to set off
> the iPhone's alarm, only to find it close to where it should be. Back when
> I was using canes, I would also forever lose them by the end of the day.
> Now, I use a walker because I think the canes stressed out my shoulder
> muscles too much and brought on that month of severe pain (thankfully
> suppressed by celebrex) which was, at first, misdiagnosed as a cervical
> pinch.
>
> I quit celebrex after an MRI said that that portion of my spine was ok and
> that particular pain is also gone. I still have lower back pain due to
> spinal stenosis and a peripheral neuropathy that is slowly crippling me,
> but pain is suppressed by a host of medications I take daily. My mind
> mostly came back after leaving the celebrex TBTG, although I'm still
> forgetful at night.
>
> Anyway, we're both capable of taking our clothes off and getting to bed, so
> I'm not getting an aide in the evenings just for my forgetfulness, although
> sometimes I feel almost desperate when I lose something. There's a limit on
> the total amount of spending in each policy and I want to stretch out each
> policy as long as possible.
>
> Life is kind of infuriating. I had saved our money to do much traveling in
> our old age, but our bodies or minds interrupted those plans. I plan to try
> later this year.
>
> When my hearing got so bad that I couldn't enjoy movies at theaters, I
> indulged in a huge 60 inch TV, more than ten years ago. I planned this year
> to replace it with a new 2015 4k Sony TV when they come out in the spring.
> I also planned to switch from my expensive TV bundle of programs to a much
> cheaper one and do a lot more streaming from Netfix, Amazon, HBO, and
> wherever.
>
> My big TV failed last week. I'm not going to fix it, There are a couple of
> old tube TVs still in the house, but I totally feel like going TV-less
> until I buy the new TV, whenever that is. But, it's another exasperation.
>
> I feel for you, Jim, and will try to remember to be companionable in prayer.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 9:56 PM, <sally.davies at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Amen.
>>
>
> --
> Allan Carr