father update:

I recently spent a second fortnightly (on average) weekend on the homestead, for the sake of caring for my father, who was diagnosed with ALS back in February. The only way he can remain home is with someone to stay with him at all times, which my sister has been doing, for much of the past two months. I'm attempting to get down for a series of weekends to assist, so she doesn't end up overloaded.

He is doing well enough, and is happy to finally be home (where he insisted he be), but requires assistance to move in/out of electric wheelchair, hospital bed and commode, and assistance in getting dressed, and preparing meals, as well as with his breathing machines (he sleeps with a mask for his breathing).

He does have some health-care assistance as well, including nightly visits for an hour or two for the sake of bedtime preparation and the occasional shower, helping him upstairs to the walk-in shower they installed last year (the same time the ramp was put in outside). Also, he has, twice a week, a nighttime person from 11pm to 7am, and weekday mornings of 7am to 2pm or so. This is enormously helpful, but one of us still needs to be there to help him with his medications (which these folk won't touch).

This past weekend, I was there from Friday noonish to late Sunday, with this weekend assisting from Saturday noonish to some time on Monday, with the Victoria Day holiday providing an opportunity for Christine to not only watch the girls but come collect me (I am home full-time with our wee girls, remember).

[I've been wearing my glasses like this for a few weeks now; where might I have got that?]

The time on the farm is allowing me to get a certain amount of work done, which is nice, but is exhausting, sleeping in the master bedroom with a monitor, in case he rouses (and needs bathroom assistance or anything else), and he does tend to wake before 7am (whereas I, for the most part, do not).

His television focus seems to be documentaries on the Smithsonian Channel (most of which I enjoy, but an awful lot about Hitler, it would seem), episodes of Mythbusters (they do have an awful lot of fun on those, don't they?) or the news (1/3 of his television, I'd say). I'm taking in lots of information, eating more ice cream than I should (apparently they told him he could eat as much as he wants, given ALS patients tend to lose a lot of weight) and reading through mounds of books, most of which I have been able to review (I'm weeks ahead in some of my reviewing).

And yet, this is an awful lot of time away from wife and wee girls, both of whom are too small and energized to spend much time in the farmhouse, given his tendency for multiple naps throughout the day. It is very quiet, there. At least this an opportunity for them to see him, given how long he was in the ICU, where wee children are not allowed.