Pivot

Yikes! Where have I been? Right here, trying to adjust to life without Sister St. Aloysius, who is off at her think tank as of last Monday. It already seems as though she has been gone for decades. Our replacement helper has not yet arrived and so the parish ladies that also work at the Catholic Charities are pitching in. Just after I finish adjusting to them, I will have to re adjust to whoever shows up to help next.

Sister St. Aloysius and I, although she is very....tightly wound....are a well oiled machine, particularly when it comes to the care and feeding of Sister Mary Fiacre. Her problem solving abilities have come in very handy. For example, she came up with the bread bag pivoter, in use several times each day.

Here's how it works! To get Sister Mary Fiacre, say, out of bed, we haul her to her feet. We have strategically placed the wheelchair at a slight angle by the bed and then we have to swing her around to land, PLOP! on her pile of pillows there in the chair. The problem was that while at some point she was able to shuffle her feet around for a step or two to turn around to sit in the chair, her feet now remain glued to the floor. So when we pivot her, she could snap an ankle.

What a mess that would be!

I had no idea what to do. We can't hold her in place while one of us picks her feet up for her. We can't simply leave her in one spot all day and night.

Sister St. Aloysius came up with the plan to put a bread bag (sans bread) under one foot and pivot her around on that. It works like a charm! The bread bag goes everywhere with us. Any plastic bag will do.

Paper or plastic? Plastic, please.

Try explaining this oddity to the new folks. "Bread bag!?!"

"Yes, it's right there by her shoes."

"Put it where?"

"Under her pivot foot. Let's see, we're going to swing her to the left, so put it on the left side."

"How?"

"You'll have to actually pick her foot up like you're shoeing a horse and put the bag down and put her foot back down on top of it."

"Oookaaayy...."

Everyone has been impressed with the results.

All of this has been compounded by the kitten.

I didn't mention this way back when because I didn't want to ruin everyone's Christmas, but our wonderful old cat, Teddy, expired in the middle of December. He suddenly got really thin and moved outside. We moved him back in, but he just wasted away. Poor old thing. We really missed him.

So back in April a neighbor found a little abandoned kitten. He was so little his ears were still round. He wasn't weaned. We had to give him a little bottle every two hours or so and set him on on a heating pad.

As a result, he is the dog of cats. With us every second, very involved and curious about every single thing we do. So now everything we do involves one extra step. Move the kitten out of the way. Ready to put Sister Mary Fiacre in the wheel chair? Move the kitten who is standing in there playing with the tassles on the pillow. Putting the laundry in the dryer? Remove the kitten several times while loading and double check before you shut the door. Trying to write a blog? Find someone to play with the kitten for an hour or so because it is not lost on him that you are playing with a mouse.

Of course, the kitten loves the bread bag. Happily, Sister Mary Fiacre is very amused by his attention to her feet. I guess she doesn't have much feeling there anymore.

At any rate, I haven't had a moment to visit with you. And I have a pile of questions to answer. I'll try to get to as many as I can before I have to readjust to the new new help.