Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The gift of a broken arm, caregiver's perspective...

Most of you know that Joanne broke her arm 3 hours after I returned from 5+ weeks in Asia. The break is in the upper part of her left arm and has to be immobilized for 6 weeks. This means that she cannot dress herself nor tie her shoes. For her perspective on a broken arm you can check my blog written a couple of weeks ago shortly after it happened. Now, I speak only for myself.
Joanne and I are quite independent people, at least I am. Often I'm mistaken for a professor because of my appearance but the similarity goes further. Much of the time I'm on my own trip, like the professor who was stopped by a student as he walked across campus. When the conversation was over the prof. asked the student, "Which way was I going when you stopped me?" The student replied and the prof. said, "Oh good, that means I've had lunch" and he headed toward his office. Tending to Joanne's needs means that, at least twice a day, I have to get out out of my fog and really focus on her. That's a gift. Of course I could do it even if she didn't have a broken arm, but......

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