Lookin' at my butthole!

Jack, or Jackie, as I called him, was hit by a car when he was five, which caused permanent brain injury and hemaphaligia (or paralysis on one entire side of the body). Jackie also developed some OCD or obsessive compulsive disorder, as a result and echolalia, which makes a person repeat either his own words or someone else’s a lot. For example, if you said, “How are you?” to Jackie, he would say, “Good, good, good, I am. How are you?” and when you said, “Good,” back to him he would say, “Yeah, good, good, good. Yeah, good.”

Because the body builds up toxicity and resistance to drugs, there were often notes in the Pathways log book stating that Jackie’s meds were changed or adjusted, so we should watch out for his obsessive behavior, like lining up scores of dixicups around his room with various levels of liquid in them, or layering his clothing, like enough to make him appear 50 pounds heavier.

Jackie was in his sixties when I started working at Pathways and by far his most obsessive trait came with eating. Once, after reading that his meds were changed, I walked into the kitchen to find him stuffing an entire bag of marshmallows down his throat. Literally, he had ripped one end of the bag open and had his mouth open to the ripped end and was using his right hand to force the entire bag into his mouth! Another time, I had to sit next to him to slow him down while he ate. This was one of his ADLs and I would have to tap his hand after three bites taken at lightening speed to remind him to slow down. Jackie liked me, so he didn’t want to be mean to me, but he also didn’t realize when he was talking out loud. Every time I touched his hand to remind him to slow down he would say, under his breath, but rather loudly, “Hate you, hate you, I do, you bitch!”

(As an aside, I met my future, and then ex-husband, “Alex” (in case he wants his privacy) at Pathways, and for some reason, a huge number of his siblings and in-laws also worked there. The story I am about to tell is really his, but because he came home from work and told it to me, and I can picture it so clearly, I feel like it is okay to tell it).

So Alex shows up for work one night and finds a note in the log book saying that Jackie’s meds have been changed again. He has been assigned to work with Jackie and his roommate and goes in to find them, but Jackie is nowhere to be found. Instead, he has left nearly fifty dixicups filled at different levels with water in a line around his room. Alex knows this is not a good sign and goes looking for Jackie. After being unable to locate him in the public areas of the house, Alex goes to the bathrooms. One of them is locked so Alex knocks and Jackie lets him in, but goes back to what he was doing immediately.

What he was doing:

Jackie is ass-naked, standing on the sink, bent over with his butt to the mirror, looking over his shoulder. Alex says, “Jackie! What the hell are you doing?” To which Jackie replies, “Look, look, lookin’ at my butthole I am!”

Needless to say, this became a huge joke in the Alex/Abby household and we would randomly call out “Look, look, lookin’ at my butthole I am” for comic relief.