The Equipment arrived as did confused phone call!

[Short girl]

My Nan got her equipment delivered today that the OT had recommended - bed stick and a bath lift (she agreed apparantly to give this a try + carers can help with this)
The technician rang me to say he was about to deliver - I rang Nan to tell her - involved shouting as she's deaf as post and doesn't bother with hearing aids. Couldn't be there as at work.
Got home today, husband said Nan rang, conversation difficult, said it's urgent - I thought, oh oh - here we go (although not as bad as when the riser recliner got delivered, which failed to work and the bloke turning up at gone 9pm to fix it!!)
Anyway rang Nan - deafened my husband and son by having to shout down the phone and repeat myself. The bathlift is there - she was worrying and fussing because it is electic and she thought that it was going to blow up!!!! I kept saying ok, it's not in your way, it's perfectly safe and it can wait until I come round at the weekend to see how it works - she keep going on about the electric and noises and that it could blow up and annoyed that I wasn't going round immediately - oh I am not going down that road and was quite firm with her that it can wait! Talk about totally exasberated when I came off the phone - my son told me off for the four letter word I used when I told my husband what nan was faffing about, but I said that in situations like that, swearing is perfectly acceptable - one feels so much better.
Anyway, my Nan is in desparate need of a dam good bath - hopefully she'll take to using it with help (will need to ask care provider to risk assess first), even if I have to road test it myself to prove it is safe!!
End of another exiting day
PS, my husband telling me that I should immediately e-mail my Uncle and Aunt so as they know exactly what I am doing for their mother, but then he thinks that when they moved away (donkeys years ago) they shirked away from what is THEIR responsibility!

 

[sue38]

Oh dear Shortgirl, what a day, although I can see some logic in your Nan's concerns about electricity and water!

I had a smile about your son telling you off for swearing. The other week I was sitting with my Dad while my Mum had a well earned rest, and had the 'luxury' of watching the Richard and Judy show. There was a comedian on who was relating a story of turning up at an airport on time for his flight, only to be told that the airline had overbooked the flight (a common practice I understand) and there was no seat for him. He launched into a 4 letter attack on the airport representative who said "Sir, there's no need to swear!" to which he replied "On the contrary, this is exactly the type of situation that swearing was invented for!!"

Perhaps you could tell your son that generally swearing is not good (I don't know how old your son is - he could be 43) but just sometimes it is justified. Today sounds like one of those times.

 

[Short girl]

Hi Sue

Glad to have made you chuckle there. My son is nearly 10 and generally we do tell him four letter words are not good and unacceptable in everyday language, however okay it some situations. I'll alway remember a maths teacher I had commenting on kids outside school talking where every other word begun with an 'f' - he just said it's a lack of education and shows poor level of vocabulary, but did say that in a situation where say you accidently bash your thumb, then it's perfectly ok to say a four letter word when it dam well hurts!
My Nan gets a bit obssessed with imaginery noises in the flat - took me ages to convince her that the hot water switch for the economy 7 needed to remain on so as it heated the hot water over night on the cheap - reckons it made lots of noises??? she's a deaf as post!! For ages she was washing in cold water or just boiling the kettle - loads of minging crockery and cutlerly - anyway put tape over switch with do not switch off and it's done the trick, she's made no reference to noises. The funny thing was I had a job to get her to part with a standard lamp with a dodgy switch - when we dismantled it with it's marble stand, the wire underneath was near perished and dangerous - the marble probably stopped it being a fire hazard - her ancient microwave which she is loathed to replace is probably more dangerous than the bathlift!!!
Gotta laugh, if not you'd cry - my father in law was telling me his mother was like that with the TV,didn't trust them at first and they had to be turned off after a certain amount of time because she thought it'd blow up!!
Oh, the other funny - the clock - she broke the adjuster knobs in October when she attempted to alter it last time, just managed to set correctly with long nosed pliers - got her a new clock which I put up end of March - threw old one in bin, she went on why could I not take it to oxfam?! I was like, nan, it may still tick and tell the time, but it's no good when you cannot adjust the hands is it? Anyway at 88, she's from a generation that just did not throw away - things got mended, now it's all so disposable - the real cause of global warming, another topic for another day!