happy birthday dad...

Much to all our surprise, the day before my dad's 79th birthday we received an email stating that he SOLD one of his paintings on etsy!!!

A nice lady in New Hampshire purchased "Cabin up North" for her husband. She said that they have a tiny cabin in the mountains of Vermont and she thought her husband would really appreciate the painting.

Little does she know (yet), that she's getting two paintings for the price of one. My dad, nearly always paints something on both sides of the canvas. I guess she can switch it out if she gets bored.

Anyway, you wouldn't believe how the sale of one of his paintings made my dad feel. He was really happy with himself. Which is a nice change of late because of all the drama that's been going on at my parents house lately.

As you may know, my dad has MS and has had it for as long as I am old. He is confined to a scooter now (he doesn't want to ever use a wheelchair - pride) and has aides come throughout the day to clean him, get him out of bed, transfer him from scooter to toilet and then back in bed.

Well, around 3 weeks ago, my mother noticed a small bedsore on his leg and called in the wound doctor. The doctor told them that dad would need to change his habits and only be in a seated position for 2 hours at a time. This meant my mother had to find (and pay) more aides to come throughout the day to get him out and put him back into bed.

The paying part wasn't the worst of it. My dad, who is usually very pleasant and doesn't complain at all (at least to us kids), was now really angry and saying some dramatic things. I mean, if you're feeling fine and you are made to be in bed for the majority of your waking hours - just imagine how depressing that can be. He never had enough time to work on his paintings before he would have to go back in bed.

He is also starting to lose track of time and so sometimes thinks that when he is being taken out of bed in the evening, that it is actually morning and he goes into the bathroom to do his morning rituals.

The wound doctor came yesterday and said that the bedsore is 80% healed and reminded him that he will need to stay off his butt as much as possible. My mom is starting to think about his quality of life and has said to my older sister that she is going to allow dad to make the decision about staying out of bed. If I know my dad, he'd rather stay out of bed and deal with the consequences when they come...just like he did when he was young. :)