is there a risk that your father will make the sort of decisions that he is talking about

Not really, no. He might go look at a place, but he needs our help to move.

He was tested for dementia last year, and the determination was that he doesn't have it, but he's slipping cognitively because of age & stress. Our idea was that removing the burden of being Mom's full-time caregiver would reduce that stress. Which I think it has, mostly, except he doesn't like being in a place where they do everything.

Tonight it was so cute, he brought out a package of letters and report cards from my brothers over the years, including a note my brother (the doctor) left when he ran away at 7. SO CUTE, with killer spelling errors, and a threat that he is useless everywhere in the WOLD.

It's sweet that your dad saved stuff like that. I'm amazed!

JZ, a cheap spacer chamber idea that Noah's former pulmonogist suggested was a rigging a toilet paper roll with duct tape on both ends and a hole large enough for the inhaler. We have a spare, but I'm hesitant to send because Grace snotted in it and I can't clean it well enough to my liking. ALso, it's technically for a trache, though it would work for a non-neck breather.

I sewed Grace her own hospital gown this afternoon. It has owls. I'm making another one out of rocket fabric.

I listed two purses! Thank you, msbelle!

Thanks, Kat, but in a stroke of crazy good luck it turns out that my dad has a spacer he's never used, and Matilda and I were going over there tomorrow anyway. I would've had to wait until noon on Monday for the pharmacy's order to come in, so this is super happymaking. Starting a whole day early!

Owl gown sounds lovely.

And thanks for all the well-wishes and suggestions. I'm jotting down all the med names and emailing them to my doctor. It's comforting just to hear all the gruesome stories of everyone else's apparently endless coughs from hell and how they were eventually vanquished. As long as there are options and a possible end in sight, I'm hugely cheered.

Go Cass! I cannot fully express how happy I am when I have packages to leave the house.

It felt really good. Someone got a long discontinued, nearly full bottle of perfume they wanted and I got rid of something that I hadn't used in a long time and got some money.

There are a couple of other things I should get listed now.

I just cleaned and found the boxes for 7 of mac's Justice League 10" Action Figures. I hope we can get $15 - 20 each for them.

Yay for stuff with owls on them! I'm sure Grace will like having her own gowns.

I've got a bunch of stuff I entered into SecondSpin, it'll get me just over $20. ::shrugs:: Every little bit helps, and then I don't have to move them.

I'm worried about Devi. Her URI came back, and there's blood in her snot. I'll take her in first chance this week, but...she's almost 16 and I don't like this. At least she's eating the stupid-kidney food and not barfing anymore? But I'm half hypochondriac convinced that it's cancer or something. Because I am insane. And she's my babygirllcat, the first (and only!) that I deliberately got, not even waiting for the first paycheck. I got Devi before I got a fucking BED.

I'm not really ready to lose 2 cats in just over a year (and I know that is catastrophic thinking, but I approached the TG-Xmas interlude with dread this year and MK's nametag fell off his ashes box and JFC!REALLY?) and I just don't. It'd probably end up with poor decisions and another 2 cats or something ridic.

sara, panicking now won't help. Don't borrow worries until you hear something definitive.

Also, I would happily give you Pug. Just say the word.

meh, sara, that's no good.

And, JZ, the endless cough from hell is just so exhausting. I had one last year and am really hoping not to get one again this year. Everyone around here is sick!