This is our weekly Chatterday! open thread. Use this open thread to talk amongst yourselves: feel free to share a link, have a vent, or spread some joy.
What have you been reading or watching lately (remembering spoiler warnings)? What are you proud of this week? What’s made your teeth itch? What’s going on in your part of the world? Got any questions for your fellow FWD commenters?
Today’s chatterday backcloth, a wee baby possum amongst the flowers, comes via The Daily Squee.
I’ve got some bad news: an uncle of me died last week. We weren’t close, but his daughter (my cousin) is all upset & her sister (his other daughter) is not making this any easier.
It gets worse. Within 12 hours of his death my grandma had to be hospitalized and she is still in there. She’s in her 90s. She is still at the hospital & we still don’t know exactly what’s casing her most acute problems. She’s got several problems at the same time, some chronic, some new that sprang out of nowhere in the last week. So that ain’t good…
Can I just say that since the beginning of 2010 I’ve had to go to 3 viewings for family or family friends who passed this year aready.
And that’s what’s been on my mind all week.
.-= K´s last blog ..Let’s Read Books – Sex is not a Natural Act, conclusion and final thoughts =-.
I had an odd conversation with my mother. I told her that I was having trouble walking, even with my crutches, because I’d gone grocery shopping a few days ago and the walking was too much. My mom told me that I should get groceries delivered, and I said that I sometimes do that, but this week, I really needed a bunch of stuff that I can only get at Whole Foods, which doesn’t deliver. I said that next time, I might use one of those motorized scooter grocery carts. My mother seemed to really not like this idea, and she suggested that I see if they have a service where I give someone at Whole Foods a list, and that person does the actual walking up and down the aisles. I thought that the motorized cart seemed like a better idea — I could find exactly the products I wanted, I would be able to revise and get things for a different recipe if they didn’t have an essential ingredient, and I would be independent — with a bit of adaptive equipment, I could do the shopping myself instead of having to get someone else to help. But my mother was really against this, and I couldn’t figure out why.
Today, when I was thinking about it, I realized that this is actually consistent with other things she’s done — she also has some physical difficulties, and she will pretty much always choose having someone do something for her over doing it herself with a visible adaptation. I’ve never seen her use crutches or a wheelchair for a second longer than the doctor says is absolutely necessary, even when it means that she missed out on things that she could have gone to if she’d used the aids. Even with small things, like her reading glasses — she hates taking them out to read the menu at a restaurant. She will do pretty much anything to avoid what she regards as the embarrassment of putting them on. This “anything” includes asking her dining companions, or the waiter or waitress, or even complete strangers at the next table, to read menu items to her. Somehow, it’s not the disability that embarrasses her, but the aid.
I’m trying to figure this out. Is it a generational thing? Is it just differences in personalities? (I know that, in general, I tend to value independence more and feel good when I can do something for myself, and she tends to value relationships more and feels comforted when someone takes care of her.) I don’t know.
I have moved house. And I swear, I am leaving my husband and marrying my new jacuzzi tub. Seriously. I went from bad hip down to my feet pain, took a bath, and now the pain is localized enough that I can deal with it.
Course, I can’t find the pain killers, but at least I can deal with it. Now to finish unpacking and wait for my Lush order to arrive.
My therapist has me trying a combination of my current anti-depressant and one I was on about a year ago, and I had some leftover pills at my mom’s house (I’m a bit of a packrat and they were expensive!), so I asked her to grab them for me. . .and she gave me a long impassioned speech about how I should be on adderall. My brother is on it for ADHD, and she’s on it for some reason, but I don’t want to be bullied into a medication none of my three doctors (and one RN who prescribes meds for the university) has mentioned.
Also, I’ve never been so happy that I’m not (hetero)sexually active. Finals has me stressed so badly my period is all out of wack, and I’d be in even worse shape if there was any chance of pregnancy.
K, I am so sorry.
I lost my mom and both her parents real close together, basically 3/4 of the people who raised me, and it sucked so hard. So, major sympathy. I don’t know you, but . . . I am wishing for strength for you. Because that is mostly what I needed when things went all to hell on me.
*hugs*
I used a wheelchair for the first time in my life recently, in Heathrow airport & in transit during stopovers as I was flying back from London to Brisbane. The difference it made to my pain levels and fatigue was considerable. Although it didn’t render the experience of flying entirely painfree, it made the whole process less of an ordeal. (Could have done without being wheeled into a wall, mind you.)
Now I’m wondering if I would be more inclined to get out and do things if I had a wheelchair of my own. Sometimes just getting to my destination is too painful or tiring, and then there’s getting home afterwards to think about as well. I do have a cane, but it doesn’t always cut the mustard.