I am rapidly learning that I don’t have the patience to deal with my folks as I used to and they’re failing fast, right before my eyes. It’s SO hard to deal with.

I was asked to take them to their accountant today to file their taxes. There is one handicapped parking place at this huge building and it’s always taken, and there is a lot of walking, so I agreed, no problem. Picked them up, put dad’s walker on wheels in the car, and off we went.

First he told me to turn here — why? — because the next street is one way.

It hasn’t been one way for 15 years *sigh*

They told me they had to go in the back door yet had me drop them off at the front door, said they’d be gone 20 minutes or so, so I went to go buy mom a birthday gift and was back in 20 minutes. One hour later they came out. They had been calling me for 10 minutes on my cell phone but mom said it wouldn’t go through because my phone wasn’t “on” … but it was in my pocket and turned on. I had her call me and sure enough, it rang. She can’t remember how to use the cell phone and it’s a real bone of contention between us. This week they went to a doctor appt and got lost, could not remember where the office was, mom panicked, had to stop in at a business to ask for a phone to call the doctor and find out where it was. I reminded her that’s why I got her a cell phone. But, she rarely takes it when they go out, which is the purpose of it. So, tomorrow I”m going to type up some cliff notes so she can refer to it and know how to make a call.

Ok, now they want to go to the store, and between shlepping his walker, his portable oxygen tank, etc … mom bitching every second about something, dad barely able to breathe .. I realized I need to spend even more time with them, doing more and more for them, and it’s really beginning to drain on me, and this is just the beginning, it won’t get better and can only get worse.

Maybe it was just overload today. But I have to face the reality that I have 2 parents who need my help, one who is very very sick, and I’m the only one they can depend on. When I’ve been sick my mother has been there my entire life to take care of me, so I guess it’s time for me to return the favor.

Didn’t help that I stopped for gas and paid $2.41 per gallon. 2 weeks ago it was $2.06. Why the hell did gas prices jump 15%????

That’s a subject for tomorrow. Now I’ll go try to catch up on all the work I didn’t get to do today and try to relax and unwind. Too bad I don’t drink and Xanas isn’t called for lol.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Life In General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.