I am a live in carer for an 87 year old chap and have been for nearly a year.
I was his wifes carer before she passed away 5 years ago.
They never had any children and I've always refered to the old boy and his late wife as 'mums' and 'pop', so he's my unoffical adopted dad so this story counts.

Anyway, he likes a drink and has done for about 50 years, he'll go through an average of a litre of gin a day, his choice and to quote him "I'm over 80 years old, I've earned the bloody right to drink and somethings gotta kill me so I shall die doing what I know."

This to me in some ways is a fair enough comment so if he wants to have a drinky he will, he still eats ok and it's actually very hard to tell if he's drunk or not and is usually only evident maybe twice a week when he needs a bit more help getting to bed.

About 3 days ago, I made him aware that I was gonna be changing his catheter bag for a new one as I needed a fresh sample for testing, not a problem and shall let him know when.
He's got a couple cans of special brew in the fridge that he bought about 6 years ago and went out of date about 4 years ago that he doesn't want to throw out, and yesterday he asked if I could fetch him his 'handle', which is one of those olde style pint glasses with the handle, so I go get it out of the cupboard and give it to him.

I then go outside for a smoke and a tinker with the motorbike and he calls me in.
He then tells me that his beer tastes funny, so me thinking that he opened the special brew told him that would be why.
He then points out he's only just poured it and where's he poured it from.

In his drunken state he had decided to help me get a sample for him by opening the valve on the bottom of his cath-bag and emptying the contents into a pint glass for me.
This was how he decided he was a bit drunk, because he instantly forgot he had done that and saw a pint glass with a 3rd of a pint in it and assumed it was what he was drinking.
One hefty swig of it later and deciding it was 'off' was when he and I decided he had had enough to drink.

I have no idea why he thought a warm beer would be in his glass, or why he decided that I could have his sample in a pint glass.

Over the past few years he and his wife have done some daft stuff while drinking together so may add some more later, he's not my real dad but is as close to one as I've got while my biological dad is the twunt that he is.
(Mensa Reject has gone out, I'll be back on, Mon 28 Feb 2011, 20:50, 5 replies)

Sad, funny, but mainly "Aww Bless!!"
( Vambo, Mon 28 Feb 2011, 22:52, closed)

This ^
is why oldies crack me up.
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Mon 28 Feb 2011, 23:29, closed)

as one wiht limited exposure to that kind of care
fair fucking play to you mate
(pounana Slept well, and dreamed of large women, on, Mon 28 Feb 2011, 23:38, closed)

Nice post, well told and funny
Sounds like my Mrs Arrows grandad, he goes through a litre of whisky a day and also loves his special brew (tastes like shandy to him)He's been told by his doctor to carry on, as it will probably kill him if he stops too suddenly... Weirdly enough I have never seen him drunk :\
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Tue 1 Mar 2011, 9:34, closed)

catheter bags and glasses
my old dad used to need regular visits from me to keep an eye on his carers and stuff.He was 88 and had dementia and short term memory problems. He loved a drink , single malt mostly,and gin when he'd finished the single malt. Early days with the catheter he would empty it himself into a handy receptacle that he could reach from the comfort of his rise n recline armchair( usually a mug or empty glass) and put it on the table beside him, ready for the next carer to remove.
His lunchtime lady Jan used to pour him massive whiskeys. Proper half pint sized whiskeys.( Jan was his favourite )
The amount of times he told me at teatime that his whiskey tasted like piss. Annoyingly i always had to sniff it for him and yes, as suspected, it was his whiskey coloured piss.
In the end i stuck a note onto the out tube of his catheter saying " do not decant " That seemed to work. I do miss the old sod
(a girl called harry, Wed 2 Mar 2011, 15:08, closed)