Saturday, July 6, 2019

Things keep breaking .and. Not enough horses in the barn

I own four vehicles. One of them is working.

The starter is inop on the old Silverado. That is first on my list to fix.

The Malibu died on the freeway in Grand Rapids of some, unknown malady. Bella is stressed because she works full shifts the next six days. If I can get the Silverado fixed we will take it to Grand Rapids so Belladonna can keep her job.

The last vehicle that is not working is an old S-10 that Pelé was driving. His vehicle died in an electrical fire and he did not have a way to get to work. A family member offered a deal on the old S-10 and I jumped on it. The S-10 needed new brakes and Pelé had a friend who said he had done a thousand of them. Something happened with the calipers and the "friend" disappeared.


Oh, did I mention the AC stopped working? The good news is that nights will be cool and we can pull cold air through the house and button up during the day.

Running out of horses
Mom and dad are in a condition that requires 20 hours of care a day. We are running out of warm bodies to throw at the problem.

Mom is on a prednisone burst and the effect is miraculous. Sadly, she will slide back after the burst finishes.

Burn-out is a major issue when your mom can't sleep and is whimpering like a whipped puppy. Adjust this. Adjust that. Heat. Cold. Nothing really helps. The caregiver gets little sleep and that impacts work or trying to keep vehicles running.

My sisters are looking into cortisone injections for her shoulder.

Regardless, the roller-coaster has a general, long term, downward trend and things like prednisone bursts and cortisone shots buy time. We will be back into the high burn-out zone soon enough.

The brother-and-sister who are driving the bus realize that things go in the ditch quickly when we lose "horses" to burn-out. That overloads the remaining horses and they/we burn out in quick succession. Then we have a crisis.

My brother and sister are looking for people who can sleep over-night with mom and dad and do the tasks that must be done.

3 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear that. Reach out to the man upstairs for strength to do the things that need to be done!

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  2. Hugs and prayers for y'all. I remember all too well the stress of keeping the home fires burning and the helplessness of watching loved ones deteriorate.

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  3. Sorry to hear about your parents. We will be dealing with that at some point, sooner rather than later. My in-laws are 88 and 85. Dad is slowing down. Still mobile, but Mom won't be able to care for him forever.

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