Wet and Windy Walk Day

Today was the ALS walk. This after walk picture sums up the day. About the best I can say is that there were several thousand people crazy enough to walk during an extreme weather event. Heavy rain and wind usually keep sane people inside. Looking around I noticed how many people had rain pants and water resistant jackets. Of course there were the expected Duck and Beaver rain gear. Even with the nasty weather I am glad I went. There is always so much energy that raises hope that some day there will be a treatment and even a cure for this ##### disease.

Confusion

How can that be? After listening to the news tonight I am confused. While I look out the front window at green leaves the weather report is talking about snow. Leaves have not even begun to change color around here. I don't know how the leaves are above the 5000 to 6000 foot levels where snow is expected.

ALS Walk

I am having trouble getting excited about this years walk. It was walk day last year when Dave's body started to shut down. Kari ended up staying with him and he mostly slept...

I thought that if I started early it would be easier but every time I went to the website I had trouble writing anything inspiring. Forget inspiring just coherent. I do miss my favorite editor, maybe that will be my excuse for poor writing.

So here it is a week before the walk and I am barely doing anything. Fortunately I have some wonderful people that sponsor me every year. Two even sponsored me before I asked.

I did do something new this year. A friend is a graphic artist and I imposed on him to make a sign to hang on the back of my computer about sponsoring me. Of course with Keith's skill it is way better than I even dreamed about. Thanks much. The purpose of the sign was to get participation from some of the people in the neighborhood that all know Quincy. The first time out we did not see a soul. Rethink the time of day. Again probably should have started in the summer. Did give information to two people at a function we went to. It starts the conversation so that is helpful. I will try it again next year with an earlier start.

Life and living

Now that I have a short break from training I want to share some blog entries I started. Morning of August 22nd started like any other training day. Then Todd called to say that Daves 95 year-old father had fallen and broken his hip. The plan was to do surgery at one. Immediately my mind jumped to the worst. Todd went on to say that Daves sister, Margie, had asked the doctor about the risks involved in the surgery. The answer was that not having surgery would confine him to bed. Definitely not what he wanted. Todd was able to talk to Papa and had a great conversation.. Kari also talked with him. She said Papa what are you doing in the hospital? He replied I heard you can get a good sleep here. His humor was intact so all was good. At 1:00:00 I think the entire Greene clan were all there in spirit. Daves other sister, Mary sent a picture afterwards that helped us all relax. Papa was sitting up eating with his usual smile. Fortunately the community where Papa lives has a skilled nursing center so getting him settled was relatively easy. Margie and Mary are becoming pros at it. The best news was last week. Mary took some dominoes to him and he had no problem playing. I am talking about not just matching dots, but where you add points on the end of each arm. The best part was that he tried to cheat. What do I mean by that? All the grandkids learned early that he would cheat and then play innocent. In gin he might put a spade in with clubs and then say oh, did I mess up. His innocent act was bad but the kids learned that you did not have to get mad. So if he is trying to cheat that means the spark is still there.

it goes on

We have friends that named their boat Never Ending Story. That is what I think about the struggle to keep caregiver coverage. I had started to write about doing new caregiver training the last two weeks when a new problem came up. Let's see where to begin. Last spring I was feeling great with a complete caregiver team. It was a good balance of personality and dedication. So why did I have to say something and jinx the entire thing? First Melissa hurt her back. It was the end of the school year so Kelsey-Ann could cover most shifts and still do her regular nights. After finding out that Melissa had 2 slipped disks we knew it would be a long road back. Then Sherry found out her recurring eye problem was much worse than anyone had realized. She was diagnosed with uvites, an inflammation of the color portion of the eye that leads to blindness. She has an appointment with a specialist mid September to see if anything can slow it down. Already she can not see to drive or read. The agency already had someone in mind to take Melissa spot. However when they were trying to make arrangements for her training she told them see had another Monday through Friday job. She was still interested in Saturday and doing some Sunday nights. So Cindy did the day training and Sherry the night. It all looks easy on paper, just a few transfers and tube feeding. The ventilator is a little more complicated. All of this requires lots of my energy so, many things, like writing this blog, get put on hold. Anyway after all that she tells the office that her new job requires her to do some training on the next two Saturdays. Back to square one. Okay, interview the next one. This time Cindy and I developed a hands on interview and skills assessment. She looked good but this time I insisted she have vent training prior to working with me. This helped but it was still an exhausting 3 day training. We all took a breath because it looked like we had a full team. Then Sherry started saying that her vision was getting blurry again after her cateract surgery. That is when Sherry got her devastating news. So next week we start interviews for a night person. I have no idea what we would have done if school had started for Kelsey-Ann. She almost moved in as she did 6 nights a week. That will help with her books. I sure hope things settle down soon.