I'm thinking that if I keep on going with many more senior clients I ought to take some very basic home health aid training or something. I'm definately going to get my CPR training updated...I should just do that on general principle.

What makes me think so is what happened the last time I took Mr. C.B. to the doctor. He's on oxygen now, and it's quite a process to get him, his walker, and his oxygen into the car without him sitting on the tubing. While taking things slowly and thinking about what we're going to do before we do it has resulted in everything going okay so far, I'm sure I could benefit from someone elses experience.

This time, Mr. C.B.'s portable oxygen ran out, so I had to change the canister. Mrs C.B. had notes on how to do it, but she can't see a thing, so it was up to me...

I studied the notes and looked at the set up of the oxygen canister and the tubing and then followed the directons, which should have resulted in a smooth flow of oxygen out of the "canula" : the part that Mr. C.B. sticks under his nose. Instead, when I turned the toggle on the top of the oxygen canister, it resulted in a hell of a sudden, extremely loud noise as if all of the oxygen in it was coming out at top speed. I ignored my flopping heart and concentrated on turning it off.

After studying the situation again, I saw that I had part of the apparatus on backwards and was able to correct the situation. After a championship wrestling match with the tubing, I managed to get the canula on the face of the ever patient long suffering Mr. C.B. "Thank you" he said, like he does when you do anything for him.

We made it out to the car. I got Mrs. C.B. buckled in and she asked, "Weren't you scared when that thing made that noise?"

"Yes, I was. I was glad I was able to figure it out."

"Do you know what you said when it did that?" Mrs. C.B. asked.

Oh, God, what had I said?! This is why I have tried to eliminate nasty language from my vocabulary as much as possible: so it doesn't accidentally slip out on me. But, even though I hadn't so much as startled ( because I didn't want to upset the C.B.'s and when I'm there, I declare that Sasquatch could leap out of their closet and I wouldn't ACT alarmed) the noise and stress had set my heart to racing and flopping like a fish. Had I taken the Lord's name in vain? Had I used the "F" word?

"What did I say?" I asked, appalled.

Mrs. C.B. started to laugh, "You said, 'Well,okay, this isn't working right' and you just turned it off! How CAN you be so calm? I would have screamed, I know I would."

"Well, I thought about screaming. But, you know, it's no good. That only makes you more upset." I replied in a friendly way.

"You're the calmest person I've ever met. I'm so glad to have you." Mrs. C.B. said.

I'm glad for the vote of confidence. The Cool Cat mask was firmly in place that time. What a faker I am!