Multi-taskin mama

Every mother has to multi-task. In fact, I’ll bet the term was invented after watching a mom handle kids, her boss and the dog while getting dinner on the table for a dinner party. It’s exhausting to be going in so many different directions at the same time. In that respect, my life is very much like that of every other mother. It’s just that the tasks themselves are different. I can hold a feeding tube, answer the phone, suction the trach and clean out the dishwasher all at the same time. What can I say? It’s an art form.

Yesterday after Maggie’s test, I was waiting for the van to come up from the garage. UCSF has valet parking for no charge. It is a wonderful service because the design of that parking structure does not consider the amount of room one needs to unload a wheelchair. There is just enough room to get the lift down, but apparently the designers forgot that the chair actually has to come off the lift and turn. That’s difficult to do with a large vehicle parked next to you. Needless to say, I take advantage of the valet service whenever I can.
For the first time ever, they forgot us. I gave them my ticket and we were left standing there for over 20 minutes. When I asked one of the valet’s “uhhh,what’s the story with my car” he just said, “OMG, are you still here?” There is so much activity there that they just didn’t notice. I was talking to various people I recognized and wasn’t bugging them either. Maggie looks pretty helpless out there and the wind was whipping. Once they realized their mistake they felt terrible. (Maggie was fine). He sent one of the guy running to get it.

Just as the van finally pulled up I heard, “Hello Ms. McDonald, Hello Maggie” I turned to see Dr. G, her neurosurgeon, approaching us. I ran into him the other day in pre-op as well and he wanted to know how Maggie had done in the procedure. He’s a very nice guy and takes a great interest in Maggie, who he has operated on countless times. As I started filling him in the valet came around and started talking in my other ear. “I left the car running for you.” I paused from talking to the neurosurgeon and said to the valet, “No, I need the key so I can get her in the van.”

Dr. G continued speaking. I pressed the button on the key and the lift started to unfold. I explained the problems Maggie had encountered in the hospital last week. Of course my lift needs repair. It gets stuck halfway down if you don’t catch it and guide it down. This is something I do automatically. Without a break in my story, I quickly turned Maggie’s chair around, caught the lift with my foot and guided it down. The neurosurgeon just stopped and looked at me saying “wow, you’ve got a lot going on.”

I wanted to say, “Hey, it ain’t brain surgery.” It was my golden chance to say that to a brain surgeon, but I didn’t do it. The van was blocking others, and there was a cab honking. I had to load her up while I shot the cabbie a dirty look. So I just grinned at him and said “gotta go, hope we don’t see you too soon!”

So much to do, so little time.