Dear Fellow Bloggers: Started off the week Sunday morning which was promising to be a good day. It made those promises and those promises turned out to be a lie By Monday morning, I was a complete mess, trembling and slobbering all over the place. It was so bad I had to have help eating. It still continues today. I got a new trach - larger trach they tell me. But at least it's not falling out all the time so that is good news. But I have trouble with words coming out and problems with the shaking and trembling. So keeping it short and sweet this week, just wanted to update you on things.

See you next week. Till then, take care.

Love always, Darci and the ever lovable Skippy

Dear Fellow Bloggers and other assorted readers:

Greetings from underworld - otherwise known as the nursing home. Good to be back for another week; had a bad day yesterday. Not sure why; just very sleepy and in a lot of pain, but not today. Didn't eat yesterday either; ate pretty good so far today. They always gripe if I don't eat... "you have to eat something." It smelled good but it didn't taste good. Blech!!!
It seems like we have had ham for three days in a row. Must have been a sale! Today it was just ham, no weird sauce or anything on it, just ham. So I ate it.

As promised I had said last week I would tell you about the National Nursing Home Week that we just celebrated. Each day was celebrated by celebrating different countries for five days. The first day was China. We had coolie hats, fans and chopsticks and ordered Chinese food.
They also had a karate demonstration. The second day was Italy. We had pretend champagne and cheese and crackers. And we had Italian pasta. We were able to keep the little plastic champagne glasses. The third day was Africa. They had singers and dancers come and we also conducted a safari, and were given hats and sunglasses. The fourth day was Ireland. We had entertainment, which was Irish dancers. We also had plastic shamrocks hats that we wore while we were being serenaded. The last day was Mexico. We had a marachi trio, a pinata break, tortilla making, and beans. We also had some somberos. That was so much fun!!! I had a great time! I didn't make it for all the events, but I made sure I got up for Ireland and Mexico.

For Memorial Day we are going to have a ceremony presenting ribbons in honor of our past & present soldiers and families; and we will have a military movie and popcorn. Our facility is great about putting things together to celebrate national holidays, state holidays, and religious holidays. There is something for everyone! The Activities Department does a wonderful job!

That's all for this week. Hope you had a good time hearing about the happenings in my neighborhood. See you in seven!

Love always, Darci and Skippy

Welcome back everybody! It's good to finally be back after having so many weeks without posting. Had rough weeks but am getting better now. No more seizures, no more pneumonia, no more bronchitis, and no more high blood sugar. (Which may have been the cause for the seizures.) I am having problems with water weight in my upper body which the doctor gave some long medical term to that I have forgotten. The main thing is it just means I have swelling in my chest, my arms and my face. It makes it hard to move and breathe. I may have to undergo a test but not sure yet.

In other news, my boyfriend and I have fixed a date for our committment ceremony..... September 17th here in the lounge from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Our colors as of right now are turquoise and rose. I found a turquoise dress in a magazine that would look pretty for the ceremony, and asked Steve to be on the prowl for a turquoise polo shirt. Nothing fancy for us. Still waiting to hear from the minister.

To Mom, Paul and Peg in Hawaii: Lucky suckers!!! Hope you are having a great vacation! We will see you in another week when you get back. As always, bring souvenirs!!

That's all for now - I will keep it short this week. Maybe next week I will be more in depth, there is something I am thinking about for next week. I may tell you about International Week next week.

Love always, Darci and of course, the ever-lovable Skippy.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Glad to be back. Hope you missed me!!! I am feeling better and getting ready to party for Cinco de Mayo, so Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. Have a margarita for me!! See you back here next week. Take care!!

Love Always, Darci and Skippy (even though he isn't phyically here.... he is on vacation at the spa!!)

Am finally starting to feel better; getting over pneumonia and bronchitis. I have developed congestive heart failure. I still have that. I still don't know when I will have surgery on my hernia yet, but in a couple of weeks we will find out when it will be, I hope. It has been painful and really been bothering me. I had the last of my antibiotics on Tuesday, so that's a good sign. That's the end of my short update for this week; we will know more next week. I am all decorated for Easter; I have bunnies and chicks and frogs everywhere. The frogs were from activity projects that we made. Love always, Darci and the ever faithful, Skippy

March 9, 2011

The Little Boy with the Special Heart



I was in grade school when I went to my first funeral. By the time I was in high school I had attended a variety of memorials for departed elderly family friends or relatives. But the hardest death for me to accept happened when I was 14 years old, and a freshman in high school.



For nearly two years I had stayed downstairs in our church basement every Sunday to look after baby Darrin, giving his parents the opportunity to enjoy an uninterrupted worship. I was crazy about little Darrin and loved to take care of him. His parents knew they could trust me to treat their only child with special care, as I had a lot of experience taking care of disabled children. Darrin had been born with an enlarged heart, and was a very tiny, frail little boy. He had twinkling blue eyes, a bright smile, and an infectious giggle that always got to me. He loved the one-on-one attention I gave to him, as we had the entire basement to ourselves. I would cuddle him in my arms and sing nursery rhymes to soothe him, or I'd prop him up in his ever-present car seat and act out scenes from his favorite stories. His all-time favorite was the story about the gingerbread man who ran away. He loved it so much that I would reenact it for him every week. Darrin didn't share my enthusiasm for "The Pokey Little Puppy," but I forgave him for that.

When Darrin was approaching his second birthday he suddenly became very ill. His heart began to fail and he needed open heart surgery immediately. It was necessary to transport him by helicopter to a children's hospital in a nearby state for open heart surgery. The surgery failed and Darrin passed away on the operating table, surrounded by teams of doctors and nurses.

I begged my parents to let me attend the memorial for Darrin. I wanted to say a proper goodbye to him -- I felt like I at least owed him that. I also wanted to talk to his parents, who were expecting their second child in a few months. I knew it would be difficult for them to bury one child while expecting another. My mom and dad finally relented, and told me I could go to the viewing at the church before the funeral service began. Since my parents weren't very close to Darrin they chose to remain in the car while I paid my respects to him, thinking there would be other mourners present to help me through the process. Had they know it was an open casket service, my parents would not have let me go in alone. I could only stay for a few moments, as my parents were on a tight schedule to return my brother to school after a weekend visit.

When I entered the church I could see some people in the basement, but there was no one upstairs in the sanctuary. I was there all alone with the tiny pine casket. It was open so I could see his face, and that he was dressed in his favorite blue church suit and red-striped bow tie. His blond hair was neatly combed and his eyes were closed. I moved up closer to the casket, rested my hands on each side of the small coffin, and looked down on his paper-white face. That's when I was startled to notice that he didn't have a nose. Someone had attached a small piece of plastic there and powdered it. I found out later that his nose had been so badly burned by the medications they had to use during surgery, that he only had one small lump of skin where his nose used to be. I couldn't understand why his parents chose to have the casket open -- I still can't. I quietly said my final farewell to Darrin, then quickly went down the stairs and bolted from the church. I was so unnerved I completely forgot that I had planned to speak to his parents. I cried during most of the long drive to my brother's school, and it was then that I decided I want to be cremated after my death. I want people to remember my life, not how I looked in the casket. I have never regretted attending the viewing, although I disagree with his parents' decision to have an open casket. I always try to remember Darrin as a very warm, loving, and happy baby.

Hope you enjoyed reading about sweet little Darrin, as he was very special to me. See you back here in seven!

Love always, Darci and Skippy

Life and Times

When she first got sick did she wait to see a doctor because she didn't have health insurance? How long was she sick before she had to see a doctor, even though she couldn't afford it? Was it sudden? Was she in a lot of pain? Did she make dozens of calls to various charitable agencies - humbled by her need of help? Was the diagnosis quick, or did she endure endless tests, needles, trips to the lab to see "Dracula"? Did she pay the mounting medical bills by selling possession after possession - little pieces of her soul like pebbles on the beach? When she found out did she ask "why me?" only to have that low smooth voice inside her head reply "why not you?" Did she think that God had overestimated her ability to cope with adversity? Did she cry alone in the shower because the water felt like shards of glass shattering her skin, instead of liquid droplets?

Does she walk with a cane, weaving like a sorority girl returning home from a frat party? Do people not look her in the eye - but look through her or past her right shoulder? Do the elderly now open doors for her - smiling that tender smile? Does she hide her hands when they tremble too much? Does she wake up in the night with her limbs twitching and forget where she is? Does she have a best friend she can talk to?? Does she count out her medication carefully so she isn't tempted by those three a.m. siren calls - like mermaids to the fisherman? Does she still hate to ask for help - especially from family? Does she have a cat who will stay with her on those days she's too sick to get up - trying to purr away the pain and hurt? Does she always have a Plan A and B? Does she worry about the future?

Does she laugh and smile because life goes on, and holds promise each day she opens her eyes? I do.

Love Always, Darci