adult sippy cups

Entwining their arms they share a toast ... somewhere, just not in this story.

Instead I reach over to help Patti hold her adult sippy cup so she can enjoy her hot chocolate. Taking a sip of my own mocha I realize hey I’m drinking from an adult sippy cup too. Maybe this whole disposable coffee cup thing is really just about preparing us all for the adult sippy cup era ahead.

Curiosity got me Googling - paper cups have been around since the beginning of the 20^th Century but let’s face it lids were the quantum leap forward when in 1967 Alan Frank of Philadelphia filed a patent for the first tearable vented plastic lid for coffee.

So with recent temperatures nearer 40˚F (4.4˚C) we stopped by Sheetz “Specialty Coffeez Expresso Bar” for Patti’s favorite ‘dark chocolate hot chocolate’. Not only can we get affordable specialty coffee and hot chocolate but Sheetz may be the most convenient stop on the planet. Convenience trumps when you are a caregiver and their accessible parking, even van accessible parking, is welcoming not an afterthought. 

Depending on whether we’re heading home for an outing or how Patti’s MS fatigue is doing I may transfer her hot chocolate to a travel mug that has become perfect for her for both hot and cold beverages. As a designer travel mug it’s a perfect disguise for an adult sippy cup and there are times the handle grip is most helpful for her.

Straws once were a cornerstone but MS progression with decline of eye hand coordination, increasing visual impairment and simply problems associated with the muscle control involved in sipping through a straw has made them increasingly obsolete. Summers ago I wrote an entry, immunity to ‘brain freeze’?, of Patti inhaling frozen drinks. This past summer she struggled to use a straw much less hold a drink.

Sure somewhere a couple entwines arms and toasts and somewhere else one person reaches over and helps hold another’s cup. The end result is the same, a smile.

by Patrick Leer

BLOGS:

Caregivingly Yours, MS Caregiver @ http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/

My Lung Cancer Odyssey @ http://lung-cancer-survivor.blogspot.com/