A day in my life

Well, it's Monday night and I'm home watching the football game... nearly alone...
You see, something about my life I haven't shared with many people is...
I have a 79 year old Mother that lives with me. She had Alzheimer's  and is like a year old child.
I don't take care of her all myself, I have a sister that comes down to spend 10 days a month with her so that I can have a life. I also have a company that comes in to take care of her during the day so that I can work.
I used to work 5 days a week and i would travel or go away on the weekends.. Someday I'd like to do that again.. I love spending time with my children but as they get older, it's tougher and tougher to get them to hang out with dad. Friends are important.

I have a few good friends and I schedule my time so that I can spend time with them. I also have a VERY understanding girlfriend that helps when she can. She has a busy life too and I hate to ask her to help out when she has her own daughter to deal with... and she's a handful.

If you've never had to care for an elderly parent.... it's an experience that don't wish upon anyone. Bathing her, changing her undergarments, getting her ready for bed.... I have an electronic eye that keeps watch in her room so that I can sleep at night and it will go off if she tries to get out of bed. Lately that doesn't happen... luckily! for 6 months, I lived on 40 minutes of sleep, then up for a half hour, back to sleep for 40 minutes..... it almost killed me...

The reason I'm writing about this is... because, I've never written about it before....
People ask me how I do it and still have a life... well, my life bends around her needs. If I have something planned, I pay a company to come and watch her while I'm out. If I get enough notice, I can work it around my sisters visits...

SO many times I've wanted to just throw in the towel and put her in a home. Mostly when I'm having to deal with it and I'm tired... and then I think about it...

I've led a pretty exciting life, I've done a lot of things in my time, I've done some REALLY crazy things as well and I can't count how many times I've escaped death or worse, Many, many times.... and I think about all those times I've escaped being could have woken up in a hospital crippled from head to toe... and then I think about what my mother would have done if that had happened when she was able... and you know what? She would have done the same thing I'm doing for her....

I've worked on jobs that were in old peoples homes..... they make me sick the way they care for their patients.... dirty, uncaring... I know that my mother would have NEVER put me in one of those homes,,,,, and that's why I care for her.... she would have done it for me.

So, it's Christmas/Holiday time and I'm getting invited to a lot of parties... some Vanilla, some not... and I'm having to thank them and decline especially  if it's spur of the moment...

But I'm not complaining, I'm thankful for the times when she's walking down the hall and she looks up at me and all of a sudden her eyes come into focus and she says... " Oh hi KC..... it's so nice to see you." and then she fades away again.... but I know, in that small moment.... that her only son made an impressing on her and somewhere in that dying brain.... I have my own little spot that she can still go to even if it's few and far between....

Enjoy every moment of every day.... it can all come to an end in a blink of an eye....