Tuesday, June 23, 2015
5:46 am
Valentino: Bark! Bark! Bark, bark, bark! (transl: It’s Duke. It’s Duke. Hi Duke. Hi Duke!)
5:59 am
Mom: Miss! Oh Miss!
6:07 am
Valentino: Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! (transl: Harpo! Hey Harpo! It’s me, Valentino! Hi Harpo!)
6:20 am
Mom: Nurse! Oh Nurse!
6:47 am
Valentino: Bark! Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark! (transl: Mom, someone is walking past our house! Look, look, look! There she goes!) Bark, bark, bark, bark! (And there go Steve and Nittany! Oh this is so much fun!) BARK! BARK! BARK! (AND MY BEST FRIEND BUDDY!!!!!!!!!)
Mom: Shut up! Who’s making that noise!
7:00 am
[The phone rings, as it does every morning. It’s Betty calling to tell me she’s on her way for our morning walk. Valentino is already at the door.]
The wake-up calls come at around the same time every day from Valentino and Betty. Mom’s calls are sporadic and she calls whoever comes to mind. Some days are better than others. But you don’t often get to sleep in. Not in this house.
Mom calls for tissues, for something to drink, to have someone cover her, to have someone take her to the bathroom (although sometimes she goes on her own), for more tissues, to ask if you will sleep with her, to ask about the man in the tree or the cat on the fan, to ask why the lights are on or why the fan is on—Do you need that light? Why is that fan running?—and to tell me that her mouth is dry and can I do something about it.
Excuse me, mom is calling me now. She has finished her supper and wants me to take her plate away. Mom will call until I appear. She’s far more relentless than Valentino. If I but appear in the living room where he stands on the two-dog windowseat to observe passers-by, he will sit and stare silently at me. Mom never shuts up!
thecaregiversdiary 
5:46 in the morning!…the roosters are just getting up and Mom,Val, Harpo, Buddy and the gang are there to greet the day. Oh, my, Sandy. I want to pull the covers over my head just reading the start of your day!
Have you ever tried soothing low music in Mom’s room to help her not concentrate on her needs from minute to minute? Perhaps the music would take up room in her brain that there would be no room for her constant needs. Music does soothe the savage beast in all of us!
When you are ready and have your bags packed, we can run away to join the circus. My bags are already packed! I have already thought about it and think I will apply to be the clown on the mini bike.
Some mornings it’s earlier than that. Some nights, mom is up every 2 hours. I think I will drive the clown car! That’s my speed. As for music, won’t work. Mom is very hard of hearing and she only likes specific kinds of music. I would have to blast something and it would not wind up being soothing for anyone. But it’s a nice thought.
You know, maybe we can do an act together on the mini bikes!
Being a caregiver is truly a noble but exhausting experience. No one can know how difficult it is unless he/she has been through it as well. A saying that has helped me is “let go, let God”. Not always easy to do.
XO
Marje
Exhausting is right! We hid mom’s cane today and told her it is broken. She is now having to use the walker and is not a happy camper! Now I will have to roll up the hallway carpet to prevent her tripping with the walker. Oh well. We keep two houses: hers and ours. We each have our own toilet paper and towels and soap in the bathroom. It’s not easy living like this.