My Dad, who served in both the Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy during World War II is currently at the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre in Toronto. 96 years old, drove until he was 91, still walks around his place without assistance, still enjoys his wine… but in the last 6 months his short term memory has been disappearing. It’s like being in Groundhog Day, but at the 5 minute interval.
Today he had to have an eye procedure done that would entail a needle being injected into his right eye. The Doctor was soft spoken and my dad had a hard time hearing him so I was asked to relay what was about to be done while the Doctor prepped what he needed, so that he understood what was about to happen. It’s important to note that we often use humour to deal with difficult things in our lives.
Me – “I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is this Doctor is going to stick a needle in your eye and it’s going to hurt like Hell, but it really needs to be done. “
Dad – “What’s the good news?”
Me – “The good news is with your memory loss issues, you’ll have forgotten about how horrible this is in about 20 minutes”
Dad – “Okay. Let’s do it”
In goes the needle, the Doctor does it quickly and efficiently, and the needle comes out.
Dad – “Were you trying to take out my appendix through my eye?!?! That hurt”
< sigh > It’s nice to see we can still laugh about these things. It partially makes up for the horror of watching your parents grow old.