I fail at being a caregiver to old people. For example, my mother has been very ill this past week. (Don’t forget, I have old parents.) It was decided last night that this morning I was to take my mother to the walk-in clinic and get her checked out by a doctor (we’ve been trying to get her to agree to this for about 4 days). This morning I wake up and get ready and go try to get her up. Literally. She couldn’t stand. Her foot was so bad that she couldn’t walk today. After my brother and I very carefully work some skillful magic to get her into the car I decide that when I am at the clinic I am going to get them to stick her in a wheelchair until they look at her.
And by them, that turned out to be just little me. I’m so bad with mechanical things some days it’s amazingly perplexing that I’m an engineer. When I finally got her into the chair (note to self: brakes are wonderful inventions), I go wheel her inside the clinic. The lovely nurse had propped open the doors for me, but unfortunately, she did not prop the people back. It was so crowded in there that I didn’t know where to go. I finally found an empty corner in the waiting room so I started to head towards that spot.
Note to all sick persons: that waiting room is not handicap friendly. The chair barely fit through the aisle but not with people in it. I announced to the room as they were watching me (because they had nothing better to watch apparently) and my mother was bossing that ‘I’m not very good at this whole chair game’ yet they still didn’t get it… until I promptly ran over 4 different people’s feet right in a row. That was embarrassing.
As I was apologizing to the first lady, I heard an “OUCH!” from her husband. You would think that he would’ve learned since I had just run over his wife’s foot that his feet were in danger too. But alas, men can be naïve and therefore, he got a large woman and her chair’s weight on his little piggy toes. And it didn’t stop there. I ran into two other people as well.
Que oso! Especially since after waiting when they called my mother’s name, everyone got up and cowered against the wall as I went to wheel her to the back room but then a nurse was sent from around the corner to do it for me. Oh man. How am I supposed to be the caregiver when she actually does start to have serious feet issues? Maybe I’ll get my brother to do it…
Oh right- After she saw the doctor and everything was happy, the doctor wheeled her to the front door so that I could push her out the door and to the car. And I promptly started to push her INTO not just one door, but TWO doors. In front of everyone. At least my mother found it semi-amusing and was too weak to scold me.
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