Solutions
Our dialysis story — chapter 32
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Ben’s over-eagerness to leave dialysis early and Nurse K’s suggestion that he bring headphones so he could listen to TV. When he started dialysis, I offered to buy headphones, but Ben insisted he didn’t want them and wouldn’t use them.
After discussing Nurse K’s suggestion, Ben said he would use the headphones if I wanted him to. I said:
It’s not what I want or don’t want. It’s what will help you from getting bored and asking to be taken off dialysis early.
He said he would try them.
The order arrived from Amazon four days later. I opened the box and showed the headphones to Ben.
Look! Your headphones!
Headphones? Why do I need headphones?
So you can listen to TV at dialysis.
Why would you waste all that money? I never asked for them and I won’t use them.
They were less than $20, and you said you would give them a try.
I never said that. I won’t use them.
He didn’t remember the conversation — at all — and continued claiming he never agreed to use headphones. Almost yelling, he said:
Return them and get a refund! What a complete waste of money!
I held onto them for a few days before again asking if he would use them and getting the same reply that I should send them back to Amazon. So, I did.
Searching for another solution, I suggested magazines he could read at the center. He takes our daily paper to the center, but he’s done with it in less than 30 minutes. He agreed to consider magazines.
He perused the magazine rack during our next grocery trip and chose two. I can’t remember the last time I purchased a magazine in a store and was shocked at the price. Those two magazines cost $12 — one was $7 and the other $5. He finished both in two days of dialysis.
Ben didn’t see the price of the magazines and would have had a fit if he knew how expensive they were. At $12 a week, we’d spend $624 in a year — the equivalent of almost 33 pairs of headphones!
I needed to find a different solution.
I gave my daughter a subscription to The New Yorker magazine for her birthday last year. Ever since, I receive weekly email offers from various newspapers and magazines based in New York. I always hit delete but paused when an offer for the New York Times newspaper appeared.
Special Offer! $10 a week for seven days of the New York Times for a year!
It's still more than Ben would like to spend because he doesn’t want to spend anything, but it's worth the price to me. Plus, our local newspaper is owned by the New York Times, so both papers would be delivered together.
I ordered the newspaper.
Ben was perplexed and thrilled when the first New York Times was included in the bag with our local paper. He thought it was a mistake.
After revealing that I had ordered it, Ben complained about the price — a price he didn’t know. I assured him it was a very good deal and cheaper than buying magazines at the store, adding that he could consider the paper his early birthday present. He made me promise I wouldn’t spend any other money on his birthday.
Although Ben enjoys The Times, reading it at home and at dialysis, he wants me to cancel once the special deal is over.
All I say is:
We’ll see . . .
Right now, we have a solution, and that is definitely worth $10 a week.
© Dennett 2023
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