"If he lets you do it"

This morning I woke up later, a little bit of a headache, took some aspirin half asleep and went back to bed at 6 AM, kind of day.  I woke up a couple hours later with a residual headache and less tired than usual. 

I am always tired, it's just a matter of degree.  Fatigue, I'm sure, is one of the big reasons people don't like to take lithium.  Or whatever drug is causing the fatigue, I suspect all of them.  I try to ration my energy for whatever is important, and that changes. 

So I got up and took my shower, and started on my God Time.  As you know, last night Ron refused to take a bath prior to going to the hospital today.  They will be doing blood work and such. 

I asked Ron if he would like to take a bath.  Instead of telling him "You need to take a bath".  He said OK.  I was shocked, but hid it. 

I helped him get that done.  However, he balked at washing his hair.  It is greasy.  It looks terrible. 

I was feeling like a terrible caregiver and very frustrated.  Then God, I think, put a thought in my head "You can only help him if he lets you do it". 

BAM!

How true!  I can't help him at all - unless he lets me do it.  If he doesn't want to wash his hair, then it won't get washed.  I can't force him to do it.  That's the pathway to elder abuse and me ending up in prison. 

Ron is not worth going to prison. 

So I will "let" him go with greasy hair and if anyone asks (they won't), I'll say "He didn't want to wash his hair today".  I did tell him he would have to wash his hair next week before the surgery.  He didn't argue, which I guess is agreement. 

I went back and finished my God Time, checked the mail, etc. 

Now I'm waiting for my aunt to show up and take us to the hospital.  Hopefully we won't have to redo everything we did last month. 

At least they have a cafeteria.