RADIATION APPOINTMENT

Early morning, about 6am.  I wake up feeling rather refreshed.  The room was cool with the ceiling fan on medium above the bed.  The pillows were perfect and the mattress was so soft and comfy.

The sun was shining outside.  Birds singing to the morning breeze that light keeping the temperatures down to a tolerable degree.

I go out of the room to the kitchen and see Dad sitting in his familiar place early in the morning.  Every time I've come to visit and spend nights there, Dad was always up before the crack of dawn checking on his EBay accounts or just playing a game of Solitaire on the computer. 

Lately, these early mornings seem to be his only peace and quiet away from taking care of Mom day and night.

"Morning, Dad,"  I say as I walked up to him.

"Morning," he stands up and gives me kiss and hug.

"How did Mom sleep last night?"

"Oh," Dad sighs a little, "She was in so much pain.  She gets up every 2 hours to go potty.  It wakes me up and I have a hard time going back to sleep."  Dad continues on his game of Solitaire.  He missed a move that he could have made before flipping the next three cards.

"We have a radiation appointment today at 3pm," he says.  "Do you want to go with us?"

"I'd love to, thank you for asking me."  I was excited to be able to go and see what it is that Mom has to go through.

I made some breakfast for all of us.  Mom asked Dad to help her get up.  He did and it was once again met with Mom crying out in pain that once again brought tears to my eyes.

 "I must quit this," I told myself.  "I can't keep breaking down like this every time  hear Mom crying out.  I must stay strong for her....that's what she asked me to do for her."

After several minutes and me keeping busy cleaning the kitchen to take my mind off of things, Mom and Dad came out of the room.  Mom looked ravishing with her hair pulled back in a pony tail and she was wearing a beautiful pale green blouse and matching pants with a light suit jacket in a complimenting green. 

I smiled and reached down to give her a kiss.  She took my hand and said, "I'm so glad that you're here, sweetie."  She looked up at me and smiled as I kissed her on her head.

The day went well and it was time to get ready to leave for the afternoon radiation treatment.

"Are you going with us?" Mom asked excitedly.

"Yes, is that okay?"

"Definitely," she returned with a smile.  "It takes only about 10 minutes, but you can see what he place looks like anyway."

We all got ready and Dad was getting ready to wheel her through the door in to the garage to the mini-van.  He had 3 small planks at the door that seemed like a primitive makeshift of a ramp to get Mom down a 4-inch drop through he door.

"Hang on, Mom," Dad says loudly as Mom panics for a second as Dad does a slight wheelie to drop her through the door.  That's when my wheels started turning  They need a ramp...not just for Mom, but also for Dad since he has arthritis so bad in his wrists.  I wanted to build the ramp, but how and with what?

I quickly looked around the garage and found a tape measure.  I zip the measure out and take 3 dimensions.  The depth of the step, 4 inches, the width of 32 inches and the length of about another 32 inches.  Great, easy numbers to stick in my head.  Now just how to build it and with what materials. 

Dad gets Mom to the van.  He puts down the big clunky wooden step that he had made for Mom to get from her wheel chair to the bed in the bedroom.  Mom uses it to also get in to the van since the seat was too high for her to just slip in to.  Her right hip was causing her so much pain that the process for her to get from the chair to the van took about 5 minutes each and every time.  Dad turns to me and says, "Every time, it's a struggle." He smiles slightly at me.

My wheels were turning again, but my thoughts were hard on how to make a ramp in the garage for now.  I knew that it would be a simple job, but just how to keep it simple was my stumbling block for now.  I'll just have to think about it for now, quietly.

We made it to radiation....another slow trip out of the van, in to the therapy room.  There was a small bed in the middle of the room with what looked like a huge rotating thing that you'd see in a planetarium or something.  A digital screen was displaying parameters for the azimuth and tilt.

The young assistant leaned over towards Mom and helped her out of the wheelchair slowly and up on to the bed.  Dad and I left the room to return to the waiting area. We stopped briefly in the doctors office to ask about a remedy for Mom's chapped lips and burning tongue, most likely from the radiation and chemo.  We were given a paper that had a simple recipe that included baking soda, salt and water.

Mom was returned back to the front room within what seemed like only a few minutes.

"You done already?" I asked.

"Yes, just like that," Mom said, beaming with a huge smile on her face.  "This is my daily routine for the next 15 days minus weekends."

We returned home for a quiet evening together, watching TV and just visiting.

At bedtime, I was still thinking about the ramp in the garage and went to sleep dreaming of how to build it.