Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Two weeks left of the most difficult two months

For some reason, I thought I would be blogging more while being out here helping with my dad. Maybe it has to do with being tired and busy, I don't know. I have two weeks left and I'm ready. That probably sounds shitty, well, I've felt shitty.

I know Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." God, I wish I had her steadfastness. I'm still here feeling terrible because of the words and actions of another at a time when I really am trying to muster all the strength I have. I've been dealing with what might be considered Imposter Syndrome. I feel like I've done nothing near to what some think. I've not earned the kind words of others. Shawn says I have, so I should try harder to believe him.

But, what this entry is really about is hepatic encephalopathy again. 

While talking with Shawn during one of our nightly phone calls, I told him one of the things I have come to realize. When all is said and done, whether I stay here longer than 2 months or stick to the plan, my last memories of my father will not be the way I would choose. The hepatic encephalopthy distances me from the Dad I have always known. It has changed him in ways I do not like to see. Many visitors get to see him when he is rather lucid and don't really experience what my mom and I do in what I refer to as the witching hour. No matter how much I try to remind myself that he is not himself, the "this is the disease talking" mantra works very little. I lose my patience, there is no reason to lie about that. This mean, crabby, demanding, and angry man is not my dad; it is high ammonia levels and end stage liver failure. I need to try to recognize that. 

I should try to hold on to this and this

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