This week has been diabolical. Insomnia has been one of the leading features, and two long days with sports after school until 8pm. I am definitely at the sleep deprivation end of the scale but I needed to visit my parents this weekend, so I am currently in Hometown, at the best AirBnB I've been to in...possibly ever...but I'm alone because when I texted Gabe that I was looking forward to seeing him this evening he realised he'd forgot to tell me that his flight plans had had to change and he was currently at the airport en route to Mexico after a last minute change of flights to go via Chile and Peru (reading between the lines, he screwed up his ESTA and couldn't transit through the US). When I told Adam he was a little miffed Gabe hadn't thought to let me know earlier, but I get it, I'm not mad since I couldn't have cancelled the AirBnb for a refund even with a couple of days warning. So I'm here, in peace, looking forward to a beautifully quiet, uninterrupted night's sleep. Wish me luck lol.
Puck isn't home yet, sigh. But thinks he might just get in tomorrow morning my time. I honestly don't think he'll make in time (or with enough spoons left) for us to even have a quick call before I have to check out of here, but we'll reconnect in due course. When he visits here, I'll never stop him from talking to his other partners. I'm going to end up pointing out that he shouldn't feel like that with anyone and for him to allow Iris to hold his communication hostage for a week...it's just shabby.
As for my parents, Dad is still getting better but I've intervened and asked them to start doing some deliberate work on his aphasia. Mum keeps saying they haven't been offered any therapy even though the doctors have identified it as an issue, and the message they keep getting is to let it improve on its own. This seems so backward compared to EVERYTHING online that recommends deliberate rehabilitation in the first three months especially since that's when the most gains will be made. There is also likely to be some benefit in physiotherapy since his shoulders have become lopsided. He's being quite diligent about trying to manage it himself, but I noticed it myself last month. If I lived in Hometown I could have been more forceful with the doctors, with getting the services. I can see why Mum feels she would have been a better parent if she would have had a second child. First time through anything and you don't know what you don't know. I bet all the people they are dealing with expect that they would also be searching for answers online, but they aren't. Mum is the tail end of the Silent Generation and Dad is a Boomer, and although he was always more computer savvy, he's the one with the stroke and can't advocate fully for himself right now. He's also always been very trusting of absolutely any information at all, so when a doc says, "you're doing great, see me in a month," he doesn't question it even though he's perfectly aware that some things aren't right. This is also the the man that made us shower under little more than a dribble for about a year because a lazy plumber told him that they couldn't get the water pressure back up to normal.
So I've read up on aphasia and ways to improve it and downloaded a completely unrelated app and made suggestions on how to use it to help. His type of aphasia isn't severe, but if you ask him a pin number he'll tell you it's 1 2 3 4 whilst pushing the correct numbers 4 9 7 1 (for example). He also can't describe things very well, although he can play along with The Chase (Brits, Aussies and NZers will know what I'm talking about). He can do single words from pictures so the aphasia apps are too childish for him (he can tell me it's both a train and a locomotive), so I've actually downloaded an app that has nigh on 100 different partial tarot decks and told him to choose the card of the day and describe all the different pictures with as much detail as possible. It's the same app publisher as does my favourite deck, and we looked at it today. I'll do a proper session with him and Mum tomorrow. Mum is a lapsed Anglican so has some pre-programmed issues with tarot cards, but she admits that she doesn't even know why. So this will be good for her, too lol. Dad admitted that he has some previous experience with Tarot, but I couldn't find a Rider Waite (which will surely be what he knows from his teens/twenties before he met Mum) app quickly, so I might yet get him a deck when I can afford it hehe.
Among all of this I've learned more about what kind of gift my parents would want, what they have been buying themselves as treats (there's a couple of glossy magazines that Mum likes) so that's going to make me better at buying them things in the future.
My battery is nearly dead, both the laptop and me, so I will take the hint and sign off for the evening.