Here’s a summary I wrote for family and friends on 19 March 2017.
Today Patrick and I agreed to drive out to Carol’s place for lunch at the big estate she’s house-sitting. The trip started off badly with a dead car battery that delayed us at least an hour, which carved into Patrick’s “limited back time.” Eventually RACC (similar to AAA) gave us a jump start and we were on our way.
While I was with the tow truck driver, Patrick’s walker escaped him and rolled down the steps. Fortunately there was a couple nearby that rescued it for him.
When we finally reached Pollenca, we enjoyed our time together even though his back was already in agony. The lunch was superb (Carol used to have a gourmet shop) although the large number of large dogs was a bit problematic as they kept trying to get us to play with them. He also fell when sitting on the walker from the wrong side and had it tip over.
The drive home was okay but Patrick’s back was in quite a bit of pain. He was able to lie down for a few minutes before Ivonne and 11-year-old-daughter Aina came over to visit. Ivonne helped me drop off the car at a repair shop for a new battery tomorrow, while Patrick and Aina entertained one another. After we got back, Aina insisted on playing chess with me. I’ve not played in years, but it was fun and I got to learn the names of the pieces in Spanish.
After they left, Barry came over to drink wine and catch up with Patrick and me. Barry is about my age, an exceptional violinist, and is a very good friend of Patrick’s. Although the pain made it hard to hold focus, my dad and Barry spent a fair amount of time talking together, which was nice to watch. Finally Barry took his leave, but we plan to see him again on Wednesday with his son Yoji in tow.
Ivonne had left us some ‘German hamburgers’ for dinner, so I offered to heat one up for Patrick. He suggested a bit more complicated approach so, even though I don’t cook at all, I agreed to follow his guidance and make them even more appealing. I started out with olive oil and butter in a frying pan (I couldn’t find cream), then saute’d some mushrooms, then cooked the patties. Meanwhile we also toasted some bread, put it on top of a small bed of lettuce, then placed the burger, mushrooms, and some sliced cherry tomatoes on top of the mix. It actually came out quite tasty. Of course, like I said, I don’t cook, but he had the expertise and the materials in the kitchen and I was just a remote control food wrangler and it all came out okay.
Tomorrow’s day will be slightly less complicated, with two trips to the nearby hospital (one for ‘rehabilitation’ and the other for a ‘traumatoligist’) and whatever food we decide to conjure up. Tuesday will be less active, and on Wednesday we should have lunch with Barry and Yoji.
The biggest challenge is the pain. Yes, his spine is out of alignment and has four cracked vertebrae and weak muscles, but before you can get all that healing complete, they need to somehow manage the pain. It’s so distracting that it’s hard to function, to think, to eat, to walk, to do anything except want to curl up and croak. We don’t want that to happen, but we understand how that can feel. Hopefully the traumatologist can figure out something tomorrow.
I’ll write about Saturday’s adventure (a bit of walking and a restaurant mix-up) another time.
I’m the son of Patrick of Meadows.