I knew it would happen!  It was not a disaster, just inconvenient timing.  In the middle of the prayers in the Evening Service at church tonight, Mary Ann whispered, “I need to go to the bathroom.”  That she did not wait for a more opportune moment to say something made clear to me immediately that we were not talking about a minor matter.

I have seen the dark cloud gathering the last three days as there was virtually no intestinal activity.  I know, are we never happy?  In some recent posts I have mentioned the bit of something close to diarrhea that came after the hospital stay.  That stopped and Mary Ann started eating better.  It was not rocket science to figure out that at some point, three days of eating well and producing little would at some point produce a lot.

At certain points in the prayers tonight, when information on the next petition request was being gathered, I moved to the lobby area, got the wheel chair and returned to the pew.  As soon as the prayers were done, a seemingly interminable length of time, I got Mary Ann into the chair, and we burned rubber taking off to get to the women’s rest room.  Mary (who schedules the Volunteers from church for Mary Ann) was available and willing to guard the door to the restroom.

While we were in the the women’s room together, Mary Ann can’t deal with that particular matter by herself, a number of ladies needed to be turned away.  Gratefully there are rest rooms on the lower level also.  One person was in such need that she headed into the men’s room while Mary watched the door for her.

Actually, I had anticipated this problem earlier in the day. As the dark cloud loomed, I expected two or three days of work getting the job done.  I thought it might begin soon, so I added a package of flushable wipes to the contents of Mary Ann’s purse when we left for church this evening.

The time at church began with a Thanksgiving dinner provided by our Junior Youth program.  The food was great.  The two youth at our table, Trina and Makynna, did a great job of serving. They also participated in the table conversation, noting afterward that the two men at the table seemed to do all the talking.  Eddie and I just have lots of things that we are convinced need to be said!

The meal was followed by the worship service.  I thought that being out for such a long time this afternoon/evening would increase the likelihood of her intestines becoming active.  As inconvenient as was the timing and how long it took, the activity seems to point to a return to more normal and regular production. That is a good thing.

Those of you who are Caregivers can appreciate the observation that intestines rule.  One of the main reasons we make virtually no commitments that can’t pretty easily be cancelled at the last minute is the unknown of when intestinal activity will happen.  One of the earliest posts I wrote last winter described one of the areas of responsibility in a Caregiver’s portfolio as waste management.

I guess the counsel for Caregivers is that we learn to take in stride the duties that  come with the the role of Waste Manager.   We may as well concede that the colon has been crowned king.  Otherwise we will squander precious time being frustrated, grumpy and feeling sorry for ourselves. I suspect we have already spent enough of the few days we have on such self-defeating pursuits.

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