And Tomorrow Is Another Day

With today's official temp locally peaking at 101 degrees (heat index for that is 110 if you're interested), working was not the most fun I've had in awhile. Even at 9 this morning, my first clients home was hot. She is one of those with anemia who is always cold so she doesn't feel it. I, on the other hand, was melting. I stayed hydrated and didn't do any more than the minimum of work necessary. As long as she was clean and comfortable, I was content. The last 20 minutes of my shift there, clients family came over from their side of the house to see to it that I was not making myself sick.

I can't say enough good about these people. In a world full of the selfish and self involved, this family renews my faith in the human race. This man and his wife aren't nearly healthy enough to be taking on the burden of caregiving for another person, yet they are there for their Aunt no matter what she needs. I have clients whose daughters and sons won't pay attention and yet these people are caring for an Aunt. They are keeping this little lady out of a nursing home since she is not capable of doing much at all for herself. What they are doing isn't easy, and it's made doubly hard by their own serious health issues.

This morning the house was so hot that it was necessary to put my client back to bed after shower and breakfast since that's the only air conditioned room on her side of the house. She won't drink enough water so she needs to be in a cooler environment than the living room was. She'd prefer the living room which was all ready in the upper 80's by 10:30 this morning. With her health issues, she couldn't be allowed that choice.

I had just finished cleaning the bathroom and was in the process of grabbing trash bags for the bathroom waste basket when my client's niece came over and grabbed them out of my hands and ordered me to sit down and rest. I didn't argue and was going to sit at the kitchen table, but that wasn't good enough. I was coerced into entering their side of the house where there is air conditioning. Oh, and my favorite Minpins, Pudgy and Diva.

I was sitting in the recliner when Pudgy tried to get up into my lap. He slipped and scratched my leg on the side of the calf. I have a high tolerance for pain. Too high sometimes as it prevents me from attending to any injuries in a timely manner. After Pudgy (also known as Fat Boy) slipped, his second attempt landed him where he wanted to be so I sat there petting him and not paying attention to the scratch.

I didn't notice it really until I got up to go and look at the flower on the Hibiscus plant that is out on their deck.  I've seen pictures, but never the real thing. We aren't exactly tropical in climate here, except this week. When I got up I saw the blood and somehow it smeared onto my other leg. In order to clean it up I drew it to the attention of my clients family thinking that I'd just use the bathroom to wash the blood off.

After an application of peroxide to clean the wound, the nephew sprayed that new spray bandage on me, and I was fine. Pudgy, however, had made himself scarce. He was hiding under the lap blanket draped on the arm of the chair. Pressed up against the side of the chair, peeking out from under the corner of the blanket with a very woebegon expression on his face. It was a moment that made me feel guilty for having a scratch on my leg that needed attention.  As soon as I spoke to him he brightened up and his little tail nub started wiggling his back end. The crisis was over, Pudgy's world had returned to normal.

I was sitting there thinking about stress and wishing that my world would return to normal just that easily. I was stressing myself out over the heat. This isn't something that I'm used to dealing with and I was griping, in my head, about how uncomfortable I was. I was having this negative conversation with myself, creating emotional stress over something that is physically stressful to start out with. I'm sitting there with a very happy dog and suddenly it occurs to me that this heat is temporary. Temporary discomfort isn't something to get all stressed out over. In a few days, it will be over with and my world will return to what passes for normal. I can wait.