Tonight, or should I say early today at 3 a.m., Mike, who had been medicated an hour earlier, got up and went outside. I got up and found him gone, so I went outside to look for him. Then my daughter, who is chemo-sick, got up to make herself some mint tea. Her boyfriend got up to use the bathroom. The daughter who is on duty got up to prepare to give meds, and the third daughter, like me, used to getting up every two hours for the last three weeks, joined us in the kitchen.
So here we were at quarter to 4 in the morning, all 6 of us in the kitchen. I had been outside, and the night air reminded me of when, as a girl, I'd get up before dawn and travel east to go fishing with my father on the island.
I've been dreaming of my father a lot lately, and of relatives long gone. It began just before Stacey's diagnosis. At the time, it had disturbed me, and I mentioned it to a friend. Now I just accept it.
So there we were in the kitchen at quarter to four, all six of us, talking about how long to re-boil the mint tea that had been sitting in the pot since dinner. About the ridiculous electric toothbrush my daughter couldn't resist buying at the dollar store (!!), and gossiping about a friend who is being difficult at this time, We laughed at the responses on Facebook by my girlfriends to my old boyfriend's spicy insinuations.
I will have to send this response to my other computer so I can post it. The Board doesn't recognize my new laptop and I"ve forgotten my password. But it is now 5 a.m., and I've given up trying to get back to sleep, especially since I've been eating chocolate and drinking coke.
Today is a 3 p.m. appointment at UCLA for Mike. It's a pain to go down there, driving the dreaded 405, navigating the complex and the cavernous underground parking. It serves three medical buildings on the huge plaza above. Sometimes the parking is full. We have to park at the hospital and walk two blocks to the Medical offices amidst the students making their way to class. Hopefully, it will be less crowded due to the pandemic, but you never know. We'll be pushing a wheelchair. I have been doing this for a decade now, but it is getting harder for me with each passing year. And if I get real tired I won't be able to sleep. I'm on the night shift tonight.
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