You know how when you haven't had a shower for a long time, a shower sounds sooo good? Maybe you've been sick for a few days and finally you get in the shower and wash your hair and you feel so much better knowing you're on the mend. Or maybe you've been camping -- pioneer trek, say -- and it's been four days since showering and nothing feels so good as washing all the dirt, sweat, grime and just hard work and responsibility off of you. Or maybe you've been out in the freezing rain on a bike ride or planting your spring flowers (both true examples) and finally warming up in a long hot, hot shower feels like heaven.
Or maybe you broke your femur and you've finally been cleared for a shower after 5 days (but now it's been 6) and your family remembers how a shower makes them feel so good and it will probably make you feel good too. Except that the shower with a seat is in the basement. And you haven't trekked that far in a week. On crutches. And it's next to impossible to get your shorts off by yourself but you don't love the idea of your mom or dad doing it for you. And your dad has to sit outside the shower so if need help -- which you might -- someone is there. And there is a very slippery curb to get up and over to get into the shower and you're worried your crutches might slip and you might fall and who knows how bad that will hurt. And sitting hurts really, really bad. And having your leg down hurts really, really bad. And when your dad tries to prop your leg on a plastic bin in the shower with water spraying everywhere, the bin is too high and too far out so too much weight is on your knew and that hurts really, really bad. And everything just hurts.
And when you finally get showered you have to awkwardly towel off sitting down. And ask your dad for help and get help getting your shorts back on. And then crutch yourself back up two flights of stairs. So you're stressed and exhausted and mad at everyone who thought taking a shower sounded like a good idea.
So maybe that plan didn't go as well as hoped.
And it seemed Dan zipped off to work a little more quickly than usual -- probably happy to be getting out of the house and away from here. Not in a mean way. Just in the way that sometimes in real life, we are happy to get out of there. Probably how Chris is feeling every. single. minute.
Well, we survived anyway. Like it or not.
Yesterday was mostly a good day; but today we tried something hard and found out... yep, it's hard.
(An aside: Can I keep congratulating myself for being patient? Because I don't think I'm naturally that way. I'm somewhat patient and relatively accommodating. But often I can be patient... patient... patient... And then I Snap. Or sometimes I just am bugged from the get-go and am annoyed from the start. But in this instance I am doing really, really good. The other day I remembered when Courtney slammed the door on Marty's finger and cut his finger off. She was 3. I really wanted to get mad at her. But I didn't. I shut up and didn't say a thing except called 9-1-1 and tended to Marty. And cuddled them both while we sat on the couch and waited for the paramedics to arrive. And as we sat there cuddling, I was so, so, so glad I hadn't snapped at her! Because she was 3. And didn't mean to. And felt so bad. And she felt so bad, I'm so glad her mom didn't make her feel worse. And that's what I keep remembering with Chris. He feels bad and I don't want to make him feel worse. So I am being patient. Knock on wood. Dang! Did I just jinx it?)
I helped get Chris back in bed and then I rubbed his feet like he likes and cracked his toes like he likes. And he went to sleep.
And after his nap he felt much better. The effort it takes to do such small things is Herculean -- both physically and mentally. Sigh. It will get better, right? And I did have another inspiration that we had forgotten to put ice on his leg the last couple of days. So we got the ice and he said it helped a lot. And we've been much better about it now.
He has been getting homework from his teachers but even though he was feeling better when he woke up, he decided today he didn't want to do homework. He said, "One more day, mom. Let me not worry about it and have a break for one more day. Tomorrow I'll work on it." (As if he's been on a vacation and I'm allowing him one more awesome summer day before he gets back to work! See how sweet he is when he's not too exhausted and overwhelmed?!) I thought his plan sounded like a good one so we will see if it happens.
When I went to the school this afternoon to pick up homework, I chatted with his counselor for a few minutes. The most hilarious thing is he has a 9th grade daughter at Brighton. When he came home from school on Tuesday and told his family one of his students had broken his femur skiing, his daughter said, "Oh yeah! I saw that on Twitter!" And she showed him the videos! What a world this is with social media! #prayforchris @nbagley09
Dan flies out tonight to Arizona. I am beginning to feel very tired. Getting up at 4:00 a.m. and then rubbing Chris' feet to help him get back to sleep is actually enjoyable for me. But I'm not the best at falling back to sleep and it's starting to catch up with me! And every day I think I'll take a nap, but when Chris naps, it's actually a good time to go to the school to pick up his work or run to the new house to check on something. It's a bit like having a baby. You've got one hour so how are you going to use it wisely? A nap would be awesome, but you've got to get other stuff done too!
And every night I think I'll go to bed early, but it always ends up being after midnight! My dang adrenaline kicks in the second I get Chris to bed and suddenly I want to "get a few things done." Sigh. I've always been like this! Not sure if I should laugh or cry!
Marty drove Nick to swimming today which was a big help and then he went to renew his Driver's License at the same time. Perfect. I took Nick to saxophone and we were literally at his lesson for only 10 minutes because we were so late! Oh well. Not going to worry about it! He actually passed off his songs and had only practiced 1 day over the break! That's the good part of playing both saxophone and clarinet -- he has double the time to practice his songs before his lesson.
We had family dinner at the table because Chris was sleeping at dinnertime. It's fun to have Marty home and eating with us at mealtime. Dan left for his flight and the evening was pretty mellow. Nick got his homework done quickly and then we talked Chris into coming down to my room and all getting in my bed to watch Modern Family and Blackish like "the old days" (before Christmas break). Blackish was hysterical and we all laughed out loud. So nice to be normal.
When Chris goes to bed for the night, he takes his Oxycodone and asks me to rub his feet and then the whole day seems to come pouring out. Today he didn't cry much. He just said, "I'm going to really miss Marty when he's gone." He was teary a bit -- well, we both were -- but then was able to wipe his tears and go to sleep.
So much at once!!
Side note: Dan sat on the runway for 4 hours in a blizzard before the plane needed to go back and refuel. He got off and came home. It was after midnight before going to bed again. But perfect ending to the day.
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