Laughter

We went to see the movie, Get Smart, yesterday. We had so many laughs, even some great laugh out loud moments. Everyone needs to laugh, and Dennis and I look for ways to create laughter each day.

For his 60th birthday, I gave Dennis this great card that plays the Bossa Nova, while the characters on the front of the card do some dancing. They shake their booties and one guy, with a lampshade on his head, rattles his head back and forth. The card cracks both of us up each time we play it and do our own version of the Bossa Nova while we listen.

We are learning how to find a laugh in many aspects of his disease/syndrome. We have come to call his leg bag, Urina. We figure if we ever actually get the cat that Dennis wants, Urina would be the perfect name for her. Some mornings, when he is laying on his back in bed and trying to get up, we play "turtle boy," rocking him back and forth on his back.

I imagine that some of you would find this type of humor disrespectful to Dennis, but to the two of us, it's a way that we have found to deal positively with at least some parts of this illness. When we laugh, we can find some day to day joy and isn't joy what makes life worth living?

Until tommorow,

Ann and Dennis