Passing
Patti’s nurses’ station they greeted me and said they had seen Patti go by
earlier to the dining room. Entering the assisted dining room, the staff
greeted me with “Isn’t Patti with you?”
Having
the overview of timetable and Patti’s abilities I know
she has not left the building so I dust off my french accent and my impression
of Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hecule Peroit and begin my detective work.
Retracing
my investigation to her room, courtyard, social and meeting rooms along the way
interrogating all the usual suspects I locate Patti in the
lobby.
Patti
just happily sitting there in 'her now' is startled by my, “Aha! Mon ami – What are you doing here?”
She not
only wants to know why am I talking like Pepe Le Pew but throws her parents
under the bus, claiming they were just playing Trivial Pursuit with her and
left her there.
I continue,
“Excuse me! My accent is clearly Hecule Peroit and not Pepe Le Pew and your
parents have not been here today. Therefore mon ami you are guilty of zee Multiple Sclerosis - your memory sucks!!!”
Now
Patti is laughing too hard to talk, so I push her to the dining room.
Settling
her in, getting her tray and sitting down next to her while waving off offers
to help from staff I can appreciate the impossibility
of trying to extend self-feeding for any one resident in a facility setting
where you have to prepare meals for many.
I fed her
spoonful by spoonful a dinner of minced steak, mashed potatoes, and succotash
with carrot cake for dessert along with ginger ale, apple/grape juice, and
decaf coffee for beverages. Sampling each for myself it was quite good, or “bangin’”
as Patti chose to describe dinner.
Yep, our
current version of TGIF.
Patrick Leer
BLOGS:
Caregivingly Yours, MS Caregiver @ http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/
My Lung Cancer Odyssey @ http://lung-cancer-survivor.blogspot.com/
Technorati Tags: multiple, sclerosis,, care, facility
When we go to feed my mother, she always says how good everything tastes. Unlike you, Hercule, I merely take her word for it!
ReplyDeletePeace,
Muff
Hastings would be proud of your deductive reasoning! (At least, I think that's the name of the guy who assisted Hercule in a number of stories.)
ReplyDelete