Saturday, January 22, 2011

UPs and DOWNs

Yesterday was not a good day. Well it kind of started the afternoon before. Mom was having a real hard time walking. I even used the wheel chair a few times because she just couldn't move her left leg. She always wants to try and walk.
I had called the hospice people to see if I could get an aide to come out and help Thursday evening. I had bunko and was worried about getting mom to bed. They said they don't really have people come out after hours (8-5) unless it's an emergency....but that they would try to get a volunteer to come out. So this is a totally different set up than the home health care. She said a volunteer come out and spend some time with her but that's not what I needed. I needed someone who could get her to the bathroom and help her to bed. (Camille had never taken her to the bathroom before and was a little nervous about it) But she said she would take over and Candice came over and helped out too.
So before I left that night, I got mom to the bathroom and in her jammies and helped her into bed. It was still pretty early, so I just turned on the tv for her to watch for a while. Kelley came home a little while later and set up her tv on a table he has been working on. ( It turned out so pretty!) Anyway, I knew mom was in good hands when I left her with those three.
I got a call during bunko...it was Camille. It sounded like she was either laughing or crying really hard. I was glad to hear she was laughing! Olivia had gotten the febreeze and had sprayed Lizzy all over till she was saturated. Candice was worried about it being toxic so she tried to give her a bath. Ha ! I wish I could have seen that! Lizzy does not like to have a bath! Anyway, Camille was just wondering if I had any dog shampoo.
It was fun to get out for the night. I had a good talk with Jane too about the hospice care. She works for a hospice company called Inspiration. It sounds like that is how it works...to not be able to get an aide out too help after hours unless it's an emergency....So i was glad to hear that. I had started wondering if Rocky Mountain was kind of flaky!
Anyway, when I got home, Camille was still up with Sam and we sat and talked for a while. She said they had gotten along real just fine. They had sat in there with her and watched Americas funniest videos till she was ready to go to sleep.
When I went in there in the morning, she was sleeping with her hand under her head. That is not how she usually sleeps. When she goes to sleep, she lays flat on her back with her arms down. She also had her head kinked to the side.
She woke up when I went in her room and as soon as she did, she realized she had kinked her neck. She tried to sit up but then cried out when she tried to use her left hand to push herself up. I guess she had slept on her hand all night and it was really sore. I had a heck of a time even getting her into the bathroom because she couldn't hold on to anything with that hand and her neck and shoulder was really sore too.
I got her in the shower eventually, she said she wanted to sit there and have the warm water run on her shoulder to see if it would ease the pain. So I got the water running on her shoulder and let her sit for about 10 minutes. When I tried to get her out of the shower, she was moving reeeeeeealy slow. I pretty much carried her to the toilet seat. When she sat down, she just kind of slumped back and closed her eyes. I was like "Are you ok?" She said she felt like fainting. I thought I should get her onto the bed somehow. I hollered at Camille to come help me. (So glad she was there!) She brought the wheel chair and somehow, we got her into it. Then I remembered I had pulled all the sheets off the bed cause it was all wet when she woke up (first time that had happened)
So by this time, we had kind of woke her up and got her dressed. We rolled her out into family room and got her into the big green chair. I asked her if she would eat some breakfast, but she said she just wanted a drink. So I got her some juice thinking that would perk her up. She drank a bit then fell asleep. I tried to wake her up, but she just kept falling right back to sleep.
I was really worried... Great! mom is here for a week and I've about killed her!!!!!
So I called the nurse. When I told her what had happened she said she would be right over. She came and checked all her vital signs. They were all fine. She asked mom a bunch of questions like...real simple things and she couldn't answer any of them except for who I was.
She was worried about her soreness in her left shoulder and hand. But when I told her about how she had slept, she said that could probably do it. She said that she had probably gotten too warm in the shower and that had made her lightheaded, and as far as her sleeping so much, she said that she will probably just have days like that.
She slept most of that day. I used the wheel chair to get her into the bathroom cause she just couldn't walk.
Bad day.
Well the next morning, I woke up to a different person. She was very alert and was able to walk without hardly any help. She said she didn't have any pain in her shoulder or hand at all. The podiatrist came over about 11:00 and worked on her feet for awhile. He was really gentle and sweet with her. He did a real good job on her nails and put some medicine on the sores on her toes. She was wanting to have her fingernails trimmed too, so I asked him if he would do that too. He said he would and trimmed and filed them.
Later in the afternoon, Kelley offered to watch the kids so Camille and I went shopping for a while. He is a peach! So great with mom and always makes us laugh. It was fun to relax and walk around Tai Pan with Camille for awhile.
When we got home, Phil and Stacey had come over to visit mom. I think she really enjoyed seeing them. I know she misses all the family. I'm just so glad and relieved to see her feeling better.

2 comments:

Colleen/Grandma/Mom said...

My heart goes out to you. If you're still in the muddle when Camille goes home and my crises wind down a little, I can come sit with your Mom while you take a breather. Keep me in mind--I promise things will get calmer on my end! They have to!

Angie said...

Your a saint I know how hard it is to feel like you cant go anywhere. I was talking to my mom about it tonight. She said she was going to see if you wanted her to come and stay for a day so you could get out and do something. Its tough to get old