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Wednesday, May 14
School is out for the year, and I’m feeling a mixture of relief and wistfulness. I suppose I should be ‘mature’ (nice way to say ‘getting old.’) and wise, and talk about how much I learned about myself, but I don’t really think that is the case, except the ‘mature’ part, of course.
The last day for all classes was Wednesday. I brought my special oatmeal-peanut butter-chocolate chip-raisin cookies to each class, and had enough left over to wreak minor havoc on my latest WW weigh in. In C N A, we finished up our skills testing. Reminiscent of a cheesy game show, we turned over cards laid out on a table top, which determined which three actual skills each of us had to demonstrate. Actually, I had finished mine last week, having drawn ‘feeding a patient’, ‘making an occupied bed’, and ‘perineal care.” Classmate Erica volunteered to be my patient for the first 2 skills; ‘Sarah Johnson’, the dummy in bed #1 would do for the third.
Contrary to Johnny’s assertion, making an occupied bed involves no witchcraft, just finely honed skill and a lot of making the patient roll over from side to side of the bed. When I had finished, Erica gave me a gentle reminder that I had forgotten to lower her bed. “I hope I don’t fall out of bed. It’s going to really hurt from way up here.” Thanks, kiddo.
I dumped the dirty linens, rewashed my hands and returned with instant pudding and a glass of water. “Hi Erica, I’m Kathy. I’ll be your C N A today, and I’m going to feed you your snack,” I rattled off, practicing my ‘7 ins’ while pretending to draw the privacy curtain. I tied on the ‘clothing protector’ (Link would call it a ‘bib’) and got to work. “Mmm,” said my patient, “this is good. Did you make it yourself? I would like to get your recipe.” “I did,” I told her “but I’m afraid the recipe is a family secret.” I didn’t mean to lie, but I did so want to impress.
The unfortunate Sarah Johnson in Bed #1 was missing both arms, had a bed sore or two and was badly in need of a good hair combing. I said missing both arms, but one arm actually lay next to her in the bed. She did, however, have a thoroughly clean and dry perineum by the time I was finished with her.
On this Wednesday, the last day of class, I was the patient volunteer for Donna. Donna already works in this field and made my occupied bed in about half the time it had taken me. She then took my right arm and hand through a set of range of motion exercises; then headed over for Sarah Johnson. Out of 20 or so skills, Donna had drawn two out of three skills the same as the ones I tested on. I must admit, she was a tad more competent.
After Donna’s testing, we received our pins and certificates. Now all that was left was to schedule our state board testing, and cough up another $100 or so.
My last Tai Chi class was short; our instructor had to leave early to pick up his wife from the airport. I have the 9 forms routine down pretty well, but the Liang Gong and warm up exercises are pretty hit and miss. But I have enjoyed this class.
Usually I would run home in between classes to let my dogs out, but Pat was taking care of that for me this day. She took the day off work for a Dr. appointment and we met in town for lunch at Taco Bell. UltraDad does not enjoy Mexican food, so I try to enjoy it when not with him. And I really do like Taco Bell’s vegetarian burrito loaded with beans, rice, cheese and sour cream!
I spent the several hours before “Drugs” class sitting in my car going over the terms I would be defining for my final. We had also done this activity the first day of class, and our answers this time would, ostensibly, show improved understanding. ‘Addiction, co-dependency, co-addiction, 12 step programs, uppers, downers, alcohol dependency, alcohol addiction, recovery, relapse’ and so on. The teacher made a point of saying we need only write a few lines defining and giving an example of each term, but I seem to be incapable of that. I was the last one to leave, and had covered 3-4 hand written pages.
Directly after handing in my final, I drove over to the VFW hall to lead a Weight Watcher meeting, rounding out a very busy day.
In some ways, I’m looking forward to a slightly slower pace for summer, if the weather ever cooperates enough to head in that direction. There is gardening to do and, hopefully, some trips to take. Where I’m headed from here remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain. I will be back!

UltraMom