Nebulizer to the Moon

My 95-year-old mother lives with cancer and heart disease.  She takes a handful of meds daily, which she has been doing for years.  She's a fighter, a trooper, a lover of life but a horrible patient.  So her current battle with a stubborn cough/cold has her under the weather mentally and emotionally,not just physically.  The cough is yucky and she's not thrilled with the meds designed to make her cough more so the gunk doesn't settle in her lungs.  But the symptoms aren't getting her down as much as her inability to remember when to take what of the new drugs on top of the drugs she has already been taking. Add to that her lack of mechanical and technical acuity, and you would think that asking her to use a motorized nebulizer to deliver meds directly to her lungs, was asking her to build a space ship and fly it to the moon

I get it.  I really do.  Being unhealthy sucks.  Being sick on top of unhealthy is even suckier.  Keeping track of meds throughout the day is a complete distraction, particularly at her age.  But honestly, I was caught off guard by her tears over an inability to figure out the nebulizer.  It wasn't the nebulizer, per se.  It was her feeling helpless and frustrated over having to deal with all of this ~ added to her difficulty remembering what to take when, which makes her feel dumb.

She has always been hard on herself when it comes to matters of the mind, and she hates it when she feels "stupid."  I don't know if she heard those words growing up, or if she decided for herself that the intellect was everything.  It's too bad she doesn't get that in her Maker's eyes, she is valued just because she is His.