Quote Originally Posted by kevster
Spoon, how do you cope with the fact that Chelle needs a lot of looking after?
I make like Nike and Just Do It. Her seizures cause her to be unable to function physically for a [relatively] short period of time, so I occasionally have to carry her out of restaurants/grocery stores/etc or from the car in the house to the bedroom, but she's like 95 lbs so it's not exactly physically demanding. It is a bit annoying to have like 50 people staring at you but I think we all know I don't have any problems with telling someone off.

Side note: Funny timing, she just started to have an episode and I had to get her from her computer chair to the bed (which are like 3 feet away from each other for that reason). This is why I no longer play fast tables.

For me the two hardest parts are that it's really caused my poker to suffer (both in growth and volume) and that I'm very much an introvert and one way I deal with stress is going somewhere and being by myself, which just isn't possible.

Side note: She's "Little Michelle" right now, and she wants to paint. But I'm playing poker, so she gets to watch TV instead because I can't risk her eating paint. Or maybe she's going to make a fort on the bed instead. *shrug*

The stress has probably worn on me a lot more than I'd like to admit. I have a really hard time playing poker for more than 60-90 minutes straight now, when before I could play my A game for 3 hours straight multiple times a day. Her therapist has recommended that I seek counseling at some point over this.

Side note: She's going to paint, but I had to make her promise not to put the paint or anything she paints with in her mouth or I'd take it away from her.

I very much feel like our relationship is as much of a father-daughter relationship as it is a boyfriend-girlfriend/husband-wife. It's not just because of the "Little Michelle" thing but that I basically have to do everything to look after her and take care of her too.

Side note: Okay she's not going to paint. She's on the computer.

I don't know if I've really answered the how do I cope part specifically, but I really don't know the answer so it's hard to say. I just keep on keeping on pretty much.

Side note: She's going to paint again. Also she apparently (accidentally I think) swallowed a bug that was in her canned drink.