Hi everyone,
dad isn’t travelling that well at the minute for a few reasons , he now has three diabetic ulcers on his feet.
Probably around eight months ago he had one that ate deep into his toe down to the bone and it turned a nasty black colour, which was a gangrenous infection.
Mum and the district nurses looked after him and changed the dressing regularly, but unfortunately at his age with type 2 diabetes and poor blood circulation, the toe had to be removed.
So now he has three more and he is really struggling with walking as his feet are quite sore and painful.
Also his mind is starting to to loose effective function and he is now extremely forgetful at times and a little confused.
He is still intelligent but you have to wonder just how much as he still gets mum to take him down the block to work in the garden as often as possible.
There the stubborn old bugger works himself to the point of exhaustion and then some more .
He comes home and collapses on the recliner for hours.
What does one do?
Mum and I speak about it often and we realise that he won’t change anything now as he has been like this all of his life.
So when we sit at the table for a coffee or a beer I tell him a few jokes to lighten the mood a bit and see if I can tickle his funny bone.
The last one was , are you ready to go down the block dad?
He started getting up and I then say actually I have a surprise for him and I’m going to take him down the street for a special massage , that may make him smile on the way .
He cracked up laughing,
but because he is a good Catholic boy , we just went to the block instead.
I have said to him that getting old sucks and of course he agrees . But we can’t stop time ticking.
But old man Curls he is one of a kind , he refuses to lay down and now I see that he is slowly and steadily winding down
I’m not sure what to say but I see him lots of days ,and I watch the inevitable him , slowly sliding away and it definitely still rattles me a bit .
But now a days we have a special friendship that for all of my life we never had ,
And I’m so bloody proud to call him Dad ,
Cheers