Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Saturday, December 15th - catching up

Saturday was a full and busy day. It was around 2:30am when I got to bed, so a challenge for me to get up at 8:30am. I had planned to be out of here by 10am, but talking to Dave on the phone found out that he was not able to get a hold of the guy with the wheelchair van, so had to wait until he did. It was nearly 11am when I left here. I drove to Rutland to trade my truck for the People In Motion wheelchair van for the day. It hadn't been started for about a week, so had to be boosted ad was running when I got there. Not a good sign, lol. The guy, Gene, showed me how to use the power lift and such, and off I went into Kelowna to pick up Dave.

When I arrived at the care facility where Dave lives, he was feeling sick. He gets 'episodes' where he has sever chest and neck pains, but the Dr. hasn't figured out what causes this, so he takes pain killers with codeine in them and it will settle down eventually. It took about 45 minutes before he felt well enough to go. Then he had a cart with several Christmas presents on it, and his manual wheelchair filled with a 13" TV, a 14" monitor, and some more presents and such. I had to push this all the way down the halls and outside to the van, then load it. After loading the wheelchair and strapping it in, I took all the boxes off the cart and put them into the van. While trying to load Dave in his electric wheelchair we ran into problems. This van supposedly takes 2 wheelchairs, but we couldn't fit them both in, so start to unload Dave and the switch that raises and lowers the lift quit working properly. We ended up with Dave's back wheels off the lift and under it.... major F up. Took some time to get it all to work well enough to get him off there safely. Then I remembered there is another switch inside the van, haha.

I unloaded the boxes and heavy stuff from the wheelchair and undid all the straps, took it down on the lift and returned the wheelchair and cart way down the halls again, then back out and loaded Dave again and got his electric chair all strapped in with the safety belts... then off we went. Every time we hit any rough or uneven pavement, even a tiny bit, he went into spasms that are very painful and he can't breath during them. He's on megga meds for this, but they don't work. He really suffered for that 2 hour drive to Enderby. We had planned to stop at his storage unit along the way and unload the TV and monitor into there, but as we were preparing to leave his son phoned Dave's cell and was bitching that it was taking us so long to get there, and how if he'd known it was going to take so long he could have gone fishing, yada, yada, yada. So Dave was all "I'm sorry son" and decided we had to go straight up there and not take the time for the storage place, we'd do that on the way back.

When we got near Enderby Dave phoned his son and said for them (son, his wife, their baby) to be ready as we were nearly there. We got to their apartment building and called them again.... then sat and waited. When they finally came down we went to the restaurant and had a nice meal. What was supposed to be lunch was closer to supper, it was well after 3pm. After I ate I left them to visit and off I went to Mom's to quickly finish decorating her tree. She'd bought a 3rd strand of lights since I'd done the decorating of it on Thursday, so I put them on and rearranged a few of the decorations I'd put up the other day. I then put up lights on the railing along the wheelchair ramp going into her home. None of this took very long at all, but by the time I'd done the tree, Dave was phoning that they were ready to go and how much longer was I going to be. I wasn't impressed.

I picked them up and drove them back to the apartment building, but not until I'd finished what I went to Mom's to do for her. Then, they sat in the van talking for more than a half hour. After calling to rush me, they sat there visiting... grrrrrrrr. Then finally we got underway again and he wanted to go to a friend's house for a few minutes. It didn't take too long, and she gave him a big box with a comforter in it that he'd bought for his bed, as well as a small bag of stuff. It was 6pm when we left Enderby, and way too late to go to the storage place. By the time we drove back to Kelowna and filled the gas tank, it was about 8:30pm when we got back to where he lives. I had to go back down the halls and get his manual wheelchair again, then take it out to the van and load up the TV, monitor and box with the comforter and back down the halls to where I parked the chair outside the room he shares with 3 other men. The TV and monitor stay on the chair. He decided the comforter is too warm for in there, so it too will be going into storage. It was after 9pm by the time I got out of there.

I drove the van back to Rutland, parked it and got into my van. Then I drove over to Wilson & Mar's having talked to him on the phone. They live really close to where the van was. He made me some business cards and such and I got another box of product from him. He's my long time friend and now my 'up line' in the business. He and his wife, Mar, and their son have really experienced some great benefits from the product so are very happy with it. You should see the huge TV they bought themselves for Christmas!!! Wow! Bet they could use a nice plasma stand for it.

After that I made the hour drive back home, stopping at the grocery store on the way to get milk, eggs, and chocolate chips. It was around midnight when I finally got home, and had told Dave up front that I had to be home by 5pm that day.... so 7 hours late.

Shortly after I got in the door, Don came up from the travel trailer to visit and drink coffee. I was not in the best of moods as I was very tired by then, but still he stayed. I cut up bread for my bread pudding and added the chocolate chips and bread chunks into the greased pan. I measured and mixed together all the other ingredients. All was ready for me to pour the liquid over the bread. I told Don to go home and off to bed I went. The hour in the oven could wait 'til morning. It was around 1:30 or 2am by the time I got to bed... not sure now as that was a few days ago.

I was feeling that I'd been treated by both Dave and Don with a lack of respect, taken for granted. Then I remembered what I've learned in the classes I've taken, what I've learned in books I've read. What I've learned in life!!! It's always about ME! So, what this means is that I must look within and find where I treat me with a lack of respect, where I take me for granted. As I treat me with value and respect, so will others in my life treat me with value and respect, or they will choose to leave my life.

And now I must choose to leave you for a few moments. I'm off to get a cup of tea!

1 comment:

Travis Cody said...

What a day? But it's good that you didn't let it get you down.