Giving is sometimes all one can do to help someone else.

Last night at work I gave a friend some money. Her mother is dieing of metastatic cancer and Jennifer has been trying to take care of her all by herself. She finally got a relative from out of state to come and help her. Jennifer has been missing a lot of work because of her mother's illness and she looked so tired. I gave her $100. Not much I know but it may help when she takes a couple of days to rest away from home, maybe in a hotel where she doesn't have to do housework. It really felt right to do that. It felt better giving money directly to a person rather than a group with a purpose.
A nursing story:
A 93 year old male with dementia was brought in by his son. The son stated that his father was fine this morning until an hour ago when he shouted and became irritable. He wouldn't sit still, kept rubbing at his lower back. The son was sure his father's chronic lumbar pain was getting out of hand. He gave him a pain pill which didn't seem to help.
We put the little old man in a room, took off his shirt, examined his back, sent him off to xray, but was not able to find anything wrong. No amount of palpating his back or spine would create any response of pain yet he didn't want to lay down or sit for very long.
The Dr. ordered Demerol 50mg with Phenergan 12.5 IM. I lowered his pants, gave him the injection, and as I pulled the needle out I saw a reddness to his skin lower down his bottom. I pulled his pants down further and discovered that he was having an allergic reaction to his diaper. His lower back, both butt cheeks, and around his groin and lower abdomen was a solid hive.
Even after showing this to the Dr. and the son, we still sent the patient home with a diagnosis of low back pain. The Dr. and son refused to admit they had missed something as simple as this. It would do my heart good to hear a Dr. say "Oops".
This was expensive and dangerous treatment for diaper rash. I just hope he slept through some of the bad itching.