“Good Morning David “ Chapter 78

“Good morning, David, how did you sleep?” I hear this every morning at 10am when one of my nurses comes in to start my day.

For the past year I have needed two people to be here to help me. There is no way I could do this without caregivers and no way it could be Laura alone. I’ve said it before, but I am very blessed because the Veterans Administration (VA) covers all of my medical needs. Because of this, I have someone here to help from 9am to 4pm, Monday-Friday.

We started out with Certified Nurses Assistants (CNA) and as my needs grew, I graduated to Registered Nurses (RN). As with any job, you clock in and clock out and hopefully leave the job behind you when you go home. While, I'm sure it might be easy for the nurse to be professional - and not personal - when helping us, I continue to be blessed. With the exception of a temp CNA who was young and immature, not one of my CNA/RNs have ever just clocked in and out of their role.

Each day starts with a greeting and my milkshake (because it’s supposed to bring all the girls to the yard, or something like that). What used to take 30 minutes from bed to out the door now takes two hours. After my meal, it’s time for teeth, body wash, exercise, and getting dressed. This could be very robotic if was just a job for my caregivers.

I currently have two nurses who have become family. Donna is like a sister who is kind and makes sure her brother is protected. Donna was an OR nurse making sure the doctors followed her orders and kept to the schedule. She was then a school nurse, making sure she wiped the tears of each kid who needed a little care. One day, when sitting at home reading the Want Ads in the newspaper, she saw an ad for a job taking care of an old Veteran in need.

“Help wanted to take care of a crusty, somewhat of a smartass Veteran. Nurse needed make sure he is fed to keep the junk in his trunk, exercised to grease his creeky bones, kept quiet when he’s talking too much and adjusted 100 times a day while sitting in his wheelchair. Salary far below what you deserve, but food and drinks are on the house.”

Before the ink dried on the newspaper, Donna was knocking at my door so hard it scared me right out of my wheelchair.

Emilia joined our family about six months ago. She is like another daughter to Laura and I. She used to work in Pediatrics, so everything she does is with a kind and gentle hand. I know she cares because she always has a smile on her face and laughs at all my jokes, even the bad ones.

After getting out of bed I am rolled into the living room where I spend the rest of my day, unless it’s nice enough to go outside. This is where I know both Donna and Emilia truly care for me and it’s not just a job.

ALS kills the nerves of my muscles, but not the nerves for me to feel. I would even say I am almost hypersensitive now. I feel everything and my Spidey senses are fully active. So when I am sitting in the chair all day, I constantly need to be adjusted. Darius - the voice I use for my eye gaze speaker (chapter 73) - works overtime asking my nurses to reposition a body part or the chair to relieve the pain I’m feeling at the time. They wipe my eyes and give me eye drops. Cover me up when I feel cold and uncover me when hot. I feel like it is every 10 minutes that Darius is speaking up and I never hear them complain or say no.

On top of all the adjustments, I have scheduled feeding and medication. To make sure everything stays on track, we use Google home with alarms throughout the day. The problem is that when you say “Google stop alarm,” it never works. We had a CNA a year ago when we first set it up who was from Ghana with a strong accent and deep voice. He would say “Google Stop” and it worked. So now if all the ladies don’t use a deep voice with a Ghanaian accent, it ignores them. I laugh every time I hear them.

If the constant adjustments, meals and meds weren't enough I get exercised, and massaged daily. If this was just a job for them, they would have left the role a long ago. They would not be so caring, kind and patient while making sure I am taken care of. To me, Donna and Emilia are not just my nurses, they truly are family.

When they leave for the day, Laura and my daughters provide the love and care I need and tuck me back into bed at the end of the day. Laura and I tell each other, “Good night, my love. I will see you in the morning" every night before we close our eyes. Each night, I pray to wake up the next morning to the kind voice of my nurse saying, “Good morning David, how did you sleep?”

Love and Blessings

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