What a thing to have happen to you in the sunset years of life, when all you want is to dandle your grandchildren over your knee and take vacations around the world in your own good time at your own speed. Your leisure time, now that you have it aplenty, is earmarked for just that: Leisure. Instead, you awaken one day to blisters forming all over your body. At first you think it is some weird virus, and perhaps your Doctor thinks so as well. Sometimes the Medical Practitioners are convinced you are severely allergic to a medication or food you recently ingested. As the weeks roll into months, it may happen that you are diagnosed with something like this.
My client of the moment who is experiencing this horrid disorder, has developed a sensitivy to touch of any kind. Although he is struggling to immerse himself in the oatmealed waters that provide his only solace of the day, he insists on doing it himself in the most unsafe manner you can imagine. As my Nursing instructor told me long long ago, "People have the right to fall if they so choose."
Being of the Matrix religion, ("You have to choose, Neo") this is all good with me although I find it frustrating to not render the assistance I can. Where I come in handy is to cut off the bandages covering his lesions. Some days this goes like a charm. Some days his fear of being touched is magnified to such an extent that he shakes badly making the removals very difficult. Hours of this man's day are consumed with Health Care needs. One hour to remove bandages and to bathe. 2 to 2.5 hours to rebandage the lesions. Each time I leave that home I am struck by the quiet fortitude of this man's wife. She chooses to be gracious and helpful in a situation of high stress. She is a true heroine.
Can it be that some of us flower most magnificently in the rain?
========= *
“Those who are firm, enduring, simple and unpretentious are the nearest to virtue”. Confucius
