Fun with Dad

This morning Dad had an appointment with the podiatrist at 10:30. Brother and Sister assured me that this doctor was so efficient we'd be out of there in no time. Wrong. When we left there, we stopped at an optician to get Mom's glasses fixed, and then went out to eat.

The the real fun began. I took Dad to Trader Joe's. He loves that store, and they have quite a few low sodium foods available, including soups. Sister had gone for him, but she couldn't find everything and it didn't allow him to touch the items and read labels, which is very important. Dad uses a walker. No usually when he goes into a store, he'll just use a shopping cart. But today he decided he wanted to use his walker. He also had a lot of empty bottles that needed to be returned, and I had insisted on bringing them back. We loaded them into a cart, Daughter grabbed another cart, and we started into the store.

Daughter has spatial issues. She's not aware of being in the way, or blocking the aisle. The aisles in Trader Joe's are narrow. So here are the three of us plus a walker and two carts trying to make our way through a crowded store. Dad has vision issues. So he picks up something interesting and then has to ask me if it has too much sodium in it, because he can't read the label. Last time I took him, we found some low sodium sausage. So our first stop was at the sausage. They didn't have any low sodium sausage today, I know, because I read the label on every variety (and there were lots of varieties) at least twice. I felt sorry for the others trying to shop in there today. At one point, Daughter asked for the keys so she could go wait in the car. I told her she was stuck just like I was.

I didn't have my cell phone with me, but Brother and Sister finally realized that they could reach me on Daughter's cell phone. So in addition to pushing a cart, reading labels, and trying to stay out of the way, I was often on the phone with one of them. At one point Daughter announced she was going to go wait in the car. I informed her she would stay in the store to help. Brother asked me to get a gift card for Dad while I was there, so I went to a different check out line while Daughter tried to help Dad. I checked out, put my stuff in the car, and came back to find Dad trying to enter his PIN to pay with his debit card. He couldn't get it entered right. By the time I entered it for him, he was locked out because of too many attempts.

We bought all sorts of wonderful goodies, including lots of sweet snacks for Mom. Dad always buys lots of treats for Mom. I think it's how he deals with his guilt over having her in the nursing home. When we got home, the challenge became to find space for the $260 worth of food he bought. He was stocking up because he doesn't get there very often. We were all exhausted. Dad and Daughter both took naps, and I refused to wake Dad up for our evening plans. I let him sleep until he woke up on his own.

This evening we finally had our family Christmas celebration. With some arm twisting, Sister brought Mom and Dad home so I could stay and play cards and Daughter could watch DVDs. It was an enjoyable evening. It's been a long time since I've been able to play cards, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Brother has invited Daughter to spend the night at his house tomorrow. She's very excited. She needs the break, and so do I. As much as she loves her grandparents, staying in Dad's one bedroom apartment and dealing with all their various needs is exhausting for her. It's exhausting for me.