Earlier today I wrote “GULP! I’m a Caregiver!”. I admitted how scary that was and how clueless I sometimes am about it all.
The Humor of It All
However, that leaves a lot of room for humorous incidents. Luckily, both my mom, husband, and I have pretty good senses of humor. Which is nice, because as my fellow bloggers Aimee and Beth have both written in previous articles, laughter is good medicine. (And not just my mom could stand a large dose of that at this point!)
Humor had a chapter all its own in Keeping Busy: A Handbook of Activities for People with Dementia. The author stressed the importance of finding humor in everyday situations, making inside jokes, or just being unafraid to be silly.
Silly comes naturally to me anyway, so I was in luck. But we’ve found other things to laugh at besides my bumbling ways too.
Fangs and Nose Hoses
In my house, everything gets a nickname. My husband (Willie), the pets (too numerous to name, but click here to read an article I wrote about that), my car (Nissy), Wayne’s truck (Taz), my mom’s sunglasses (Sunnies), even my mom (Mama Llama or Mamo).
Naming her cannula, the tube that connects to her oxygen and goes in her nose, was par for the course. But my mom actually came up with the first nickname for it: fangs. (The tubes she inserts into her nose truly do look like fangs.)
So now when I hook her up to her traveling tank I say, “Time to get your travel fangs on.” And when we come home it’s “Off with the travel fangs, on with the in-home fangs.”
Sometimes my mom forgets to put it back on (accidentally on purpose; she hates wearing it), and when I bust her I say, “Hey, you’re missing your nose hose. Where is it?” This doesn’t always get a chuckle, but it often gets a smile.
Humor is Catchy
My mom is a bit of a jokester herself. It catches people off guard because they see a frail-looking old lady on oxygen and assume she’s innocent.
Take the lady at the car rental place yesterday. (I got in an accident and yesterday was drop off day to get Nissy fixed.)
The lady asked if we planned on taking the car out of state. I shook my head no but my mom mumbled under her breath, “Depends on the car you give us. We might if we like it enough.”
“What’s that?” the car rental lady asked politely.
My mom chuckled as she repeated herself. That gave the car rental lady a good guffaw.
A Laugh a Day
That’s the goal in our house. We try to find at least one thing to laugh about each day. (Normally pet-inspired, such as when one of our cats worked with our dog to tag team lizards recently or when Murph chases bumbles in the garden as we plant flowers.) Luckily, most days we manage to surpass our quota.
Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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