Unexpected Outing
I know that I just posted a blog this week but we had such an unexpected day that I just had to share.
Yesterday was an extremely busy day for me. I had Physical Therapy in the morning. It didn’t take that long and I figured I could fit in an hour and a half visit with Dick before my appointment with my back specialist. When I got to Dick he was asleep. I rarely try to wake him because waking him suddenly leaves him especially confused. Gradually I got him to wake up but he was nearly unresponsive. I could not get him to eat or even respond yes or no to simple questions.
Yet again he was sitting in soaked pants and had obviously not been changed since the night before even wearing the same clothing. This is one thing that I find so difficult to deal with. I don’t care if he says he doesn’t want to be changed. It is a matter of basic cleanliness and health. I was able to get the aide to shower him.
I was beginning to be pressed for time to make it to my back Dr. but something made me think it would be a good idea to take Dick along just to give him a change of scenery. I took him out in a wheelchair and tossed him into the car. This was the first time I had used the wheelchair recently assigned to him at the home. Throwing that around was even heavier than the chair Dick has at home.
It took a good hour before I started to see some “life” come back into Dick’s eyes. He was baffled at to what the Back Doctor was treating. Part of me gets so frustrated that he does not understand that my back is so bad because of the lifting I do for him. He doesn’t seem to think I am working that hard or that backs can be damaged. In the end I believe he understood what we were trying to do at that appointment. The bad news is that the Dr. is recommending surgery for both my back and neck. I’m not so sure about that.
Next we rushed nearly to the Maryland line where I had to have adjustment to my CPAP. I have recently gone through a sleep study and amongst the many other sleep disorders I am being treated with the CPAP. In the beginning I guess there is a lot of trial and error. I found that he was not able to grasp this whole concept other than the machine was suppose to help me breath when sleeping and he is still very interested in having one for himself. Now that I have learned more about CPAPs I am amazed that Dick did not continue using one after his initial hospitalization. It seems his vascular dementia would not be as bad if he had enough oxygen at night. He understands that and asked frequently if he could get one. But then after we left he constantly asked what we were doing at that lat place.
It was time for me to take him back to the nursing home next. I was exhausted. I stopped by McDonald’s for a lunch for him to eat when he got back. He liked that quite a bit and he gave me only mild troubles when I tried to leave.
By 6:00 this morning I woke up in extreme pain from lifting Dick and throwing his wheelchair in and out of the char. I have gotten little done today and I hope that at least I can do so “to dos” tomorrow. I did not even get in to visit Dick today because I simply do not feel safe driving at times. That means I MUST get in there tomorrow.
I am thankful that Dick did so well going out for a while. I just wish there was a way of doing that where I would not be left in such pain.
Ruth
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