Latest posts
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Every Day is Father’s Day
I don’t know how quickly the new drugs are meant to work or if they will do the trick for Vernon’s mood swings, but yesterday, he already seemed more relaxed (though his eyes and conversation were alert.) He wasn’t twisting as much as usual, for one thing, and he didn’t dip into anger while I…
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Excercise
Tuesday night, I got a call from Mesa Verde, informing me that the doctor had prescribed nuedexta to treat Vernon’s recent mood swings. He hasn’t just been lashing out at me, it seems. There has to be some real problems going on for the doctor to prescribe something without my asking for it. Other complaints must…
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The Whale
Over a week ago, a dead grey whale washed ashore at Trestles, one of the main surf beaches in town. The problem was how to get rid of a creature with a literal dead weight of 60,000 pounds. The tide wasn’t strong or high enough to move it back into the ocean, and of course,…
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May Day
In some ways, Vernon was the best I’d seen him in a couple of weeks. He seemed more keen to chat, his eyes more even and his voice clearer. My friend Sandy had sat with him yesterday and reported that they’d had a very bight and pleasant time together…for one hour. Then, for some reason, his…
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Visitation/Rights
Lucky for me, one of my oldest, dearest friends is in town to celebrate her parent’s 50th anniversary this weekend. I’ve known Helen since second grade. We got a couple of nice beach walks in this week, and it turns out our youngest children hit it off like gangbusters. Lucky for Vernon, she and her…
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Spring Creative Event
I’m so thankful to be a part of a wonderful church that looks after my family. I truly can’t imagine what these last two years would have looked like if the people of that community hadn’t shown such generosity and care, practically as well as spiritually. This weekend, Heritage is hosting another creative event to bring…
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Fairytales and Legalese
Last week, we started reading one of my favorite books, The Princess Bride. I skip over the italicized ‘author’s notes’ to keep the story flowing. He really likes it. Why wouldn’t he? It’s SUCH a great story and it moves quickly (better for reading out-loud.) So that helped us through dialysis this morning. He was pretty…
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Little Book of Fun
Look what we found today! Davita Dialysis made an informative activity book for its patients (at least the Spanish-speaking ones) using one of Vernon’s popular fonts: Amatic. Ok, these fonts show up everywhere, I know, but in a book for dialysis patients that would fall into Vernon’s hands while his own blood is being dialyzed…well,…
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Bookends
I realized this morning as I looked over at the bedside table that I’m currently reading two books that, for lack of a better word, bookend my perspective at the moment. For one, I’ve been reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, which addresses end of life care. It’s one of those books that comes along right…
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Oslo
One of Vernon’s old college friends from Norway saw that his Facebook page has been active from time to time and wrote him a nice letter on there. He had contacted me last year, though we’ve never met personally, and showed interest in coming to visit Vernon, when time and funds allowed. I was touched that…