my wife's love

Surrounds me, supports me, makes my mainly one room life more than bearable, but possible, liveable. And I have barely touched upon it. See, I live in one room that could be a cell, second floor up a flight of stairs that exhausts me going up and threatens to kill me going down (I’ve always felt like this going downstairs, even when I was healthy). When I’m up in a brief healthy mode I can make the trip more often, go outside to walk, etc… but it’s never easy. Never natural. So up in my one room I stay (the other two rooms are devoted to the nekos). And if it weren’t for my wife I probably would’ve gone crazy here. Or broken my neck trying to go downstairs. 

The first thing was the piss bucket. The piss bucket consists of a plastic bag and an absorbent pad, maxi-pad kind of stuff. Each pad is usually good for two urination sessions. You then tie it off and lo and behold you have another bag and pad waiting (you know, if you prepared it). Okay, so this was the first thing, and that alone made life possible. But there’s more to life than pissing, believe it or not. And the list of things that surround me make up the increments of my daily life. Got my towels and wet tissues on the old fax machine on my left, a cup for my toothbrushes, dental floss and toothpaste by my computer along with Gum, a kind of medical mouthwash thing that cleans your teeth (I hope), little, um, fist sized barrels (the proper words escapes me now… or always?) of toothpicks and cotton swabs for my ears. Got a little mesh box with straws, chopsticks, a thermometer, pens, a soft cloth for cleaning my glasses, plastic spoons and gum, beside that spray alcohol, got a remote control caddy at the end of the table, a tissue box and a box of wet tissues. Damn. Got a lot of what I need right on my desk, the amenities, and I almost forgot a couple yellow pads and my Chekov stand behind the toothpicks and cotton swabs. No, what I really “almost” forgot were two items hanging on nails on the wall, and stashed atop our boxes of books by my right leg. My koro-koro, a lint roller I guess it’s called in English, my claw shaped massage gadget, and most importantly my massage cushion.
Underneath me I got my fan blowing. It’s there because on my left stands our little garbage bag, held up by a scissor frame plastic stand, and a roll of Saran wrap. Jyanakute, the garbage bag and Saran wrap are sitting on my mini-fridge. Another device which has really made things easier. We don’t have to worry about things spoiling anymore, can keep water upstairs without having to worry. Beyond that there’s a bag for medicine stuff and a box of medical gloves and smell proof bags. This is colostomy bag stuff, which I also empty out into a padded bag, again saving me perilous trips downstairs, and frankly it’s just easier dumping it into a bucket than hovering over the toilet. Hmm, so the last item of my wife’s love is colostomy bag related… jynakute. She just bought a little (you could cradle it in your arms) bicycle machine for the necessary necessary exercise I haven’t been getting. 

So what I’m pretty much saying is my wife equals awesome. She transforms that romantic cliche to a hard reality: I can’t live without here.

Now if I only knew what time to wake her up today…