March 15, 2015

I miss you, Daddy.

December 1, 2014

I encountered a dementia moment in my husband today. Hubby usually feeds and walks the dogs at 5 PM. At 5 PM he put on his coat and hat, put the leases on the dogs and put Benji’s coat on.  I waited to see if he would think about feeding them, but he went to get poop bags. So finally I said “Maybe you should feed them first. He said “Uh, yes that would be a good idea.” As usual, the memory lapse didn’t seem to bother him, but I had one of those punch in the gut moments. I guess I never really thought he would get worse. And now he’s getting worse. For him to forget a habit like this, feeding the dogs before walking them, is not a good sign.

It was hard to deal with. I felt depressed. I made a note to attend the next meeting of the Alzheimer’s support group here in town. Then I thought a little more and decided this is the lot that’s been dealt to me and I need to make the best of it. This is my priority, to care for my husband who has been my friend and love for 46 years.

I was able to put that attitude to work when he asked me a question about where an item in the laundry basket belonged. It was a very thin white square of muslin with hemmed edges. I told him it was a dishtowel. He replied that the drawer that contained our dishtowels in the kitchen was full. I said “Okay, let’s go do some decluttering.” We both went into the kitchen and on the spur of the moment I was able to make a game of it. You’ve heard of Deal or no Deal? We played Kitchen or no Kitchen. I emptied the drawer on the kitchen floor, and one by one, held up the items that were there. One was the towel in pretty good shape – Kitchen. The next one was actually a diaper that I used for dusting. No Kitchen. A few more towels were either new or good for wiping the floor or countertops – Kitchen. One of my brown socks-- No Kitchen. We were able to sort out what belonged in the kitchen towel drawer and what we could put downstairs in the cleaning rag drawer. It was actually kind of fun for both of us and made me feel a little better.

September 30, 2014

Well, I’m working again. I finally got my substitute teacher’s license so I have been working as a teacher’s aide in the Champaign schools. I decided not to teach until I got more familiar with procedures, classroom management, lesson plans, SmartBoard, Class Dojo, etc. etc. etc.

I also got a part-time seasonal sales associate job at Bergner’s at the mall. I worked twice at Bergner’s this past week and four times as a teacher’s aide in the last two weeks. I made $307. I get $11.70 for being a teacher’s aide per hour, and $8.50 for each hour at Bergner’s. In my last job I made $33 an hour.

Quite a difference. In my job at the software company I sat in a chair most of the day, helping people with problems on the phone, online, and through email. I was able to get coffee have a snack, walk around a bit when I needed to.

The new jobs are very physically demanding, at least for me. I herniated a disc about 15 years ago and had back surgery. My discs are degenerated, so being on my feet a lot bending, lifting, etc. cause compression and pain and numbness in my legs and feet. Working with students involves a lot of getting down to their level and also being on my feet.

A teacher’s aide works in the classroom to focus on children with various types of emotional, mental, and physical challenges. I enjoyed working with the students, particularly in one on one relationships. I praised them and tried to give them a lot of encouragement. It was very satisfying to see them accomplish a task and to create rapport with them. I liked them, and most of them liked me.  I asked one autistic boy how I was doing.  He said “You’re kind of boring, but I love you.” Sweet.

 But sometimes the job involved a physical aspect, like holding the hand of student suddenly tries to pull and try to run away. I didn't want to let go, but didn't have the strength to pull against them.  In some special education classes, teachers and aides had to change diapers, which meant lifting the children up to a changing station or lifting them out of wheelchairs, into standing frames, etc. My lifting limit is 10 pounds, so I could not do that at all, and had to leave it to the other staff.

Being a retail sales associate is all about being on your feet, and having to bend down to organize merchandise. The good part is you are really not supposed to just stand there, so there’s a lot of opportunity to walk around and straighten out displays, size merchandise, and just get acquainted with the store layout.  But walking around for 4 – 6 hour shifts may be a bit much.

So we shall see if I can last. I've had to do a lot of my techniques for reversing spinal compression, like McKenzie maneuvers, laying on a slant board, and hanging on a flotation device in the swimming pool in a local hotel that has a fitness club.

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