Guests are Gone :o(

15Aug

We are only two again...our guests made their get away (see photo) on Monday night and headed back to Ottawa. We managed to squeeze in dinner for Dad’s birthday with Dj, Matt, Jen, Max and I before the Capital 3 headed home though. 

I really enjoyed my morning walks with Teddy, and we came to an understanding about his sudden lunges whenever pigeons & squirrels came in view...don’t do that! It didn’t stop him from trembling with excitement, wagging his tail and sometimes even whimpering, alas, not one of them was interested in playing with him! Unsocial ingrates!

Dj coached Dad at Physio on Monday and for his birthday she was just as diligent with his program as any other day...she could have been tougher on him, but its all about the proper form and not about cracking the whip (although that is sometimes necessary). The bad news came at his weigh-in...he has lost another 5 lbs since the end of May. This is a side effect of the disease - a combination of no appetite and low oxygenation of the digestive system (so it doesn’t work as well). We had achieved a 4.5 lb gain between our trip to TGH in March for assessment and the end of May, so we’re actually below where we started. We’ve added more high calorie Ensure (2-3 per day), snacks between meals, and his portions are a good size but most of the time he just doesn’t feel like eating..Mom - send pie!  :o}

Dj chose to be lovingly tough in other ways, and made him get up from his chair, take the 6 steps to the kitchen and refill his own coffee cup (our PT would be proud of him)! There was no danger of tripping on the tubing, but it’s a miracle he made it there and back without tripping over that lower lip!

As a treat, she told him on Sunday morning that we were going to see the Bourne Legacy that night...no asking, just lots of notice so he could mentally prepare himself for the challenge. We haven’t been to a movie in many months! We all enjoyed the film, but agreed we preferred the series with Matt Damon...maybe there will be more and he and Jeremy Renner can team up against the nasty government agencies and their secret ops! That would be great!

The process of getting our seats was a bit of an adventure. Dj tried using the kiosk machine to purchase tickets, but it wouldn’t allow her to select handicap seating, so we went to the ticket counter. After explaining that Dad uses a walker and can’t climb stairs, the clerk gave us two seats on either side of an aisle on the main level. Matt headed over to the elevator and promptly returned to tell us it was out of order. Fortunately the Rollator was just narrow enough to squeeze on the escalator, but we nearly had a case of tumbling human dominoes at the top when the wheels didn’t roll smoothly off but the stairs that Dj and Matt were each standing on kept moving! I quickly lifted the front and pulled Dad clear as Dj said “note to self for next time, keep back a few steps!”

We got our popcorn (Twizzlers for Dad) and headed in, only to find that what the clerk had given us was two seats on one side of the aisle, and a companion seat and empty spot on the other side (obviously for a wheelchair). I left the three of them seated together and headed out to Guest Services to fix the problem. Of course, by now there were hardly any seats left for that showing, so we ended up with 3 seats in one row and 1 in another. One young lady graciously switched seats so Dad, Dj & Matt could sit together and I took the single seat at the far end of the row behind them. My view was just as good and once the movie started we weren’t chatting to each other, so it really made no difference, we’ll just know to be very, very specific (a walker is not a wheel chair) on our next attempt.

Today Carman received a lovely card in the mail from a woman he went to public school with and hasn’t been in contact with since! He grew up in small town Ontario - Gorrie pop 300 and his was a two room public school - grades 1-4 downstairs and 5-8 upstairs. The building is gone now but one of his teachers is still around and celebrating 60 years of marriage this year! Shouting out a big thanks to Judy for her thoughtful note!

Dad, a crane for you but even better is this freaky looking building...looks like something from a Hollywood set that might be ‘just a front”, but it’s triangular shape prevents you seeing the other sides from this perspective, taken by Women’s College hospital.