He's Home!
Ray is home. We've had our first fight already so some things haven't changed...lol.
I picked up the quad stick at the "lending store", the hospital provides it free on loan for three months so he shouldn't need it after that. I got lost because it is up the back of an old industrial estate, waaay up the back. But still I got it. I've also borrowed a narrower shower stool but have decided to have the little store room next to the toilet made into a shower room anyway. That way there is no hassles when he has to maybe have a wheelchair style shower chair. Looking down the track that could happen.
I have all the gear to give him his first insulin tomorrow morning, still shivering in my shoes about that but a lot of you have shared your experiences so I know that practically I have to do it and it will be okay. Also got a run through all his meds, he has five different or new drugs now, the doctor might not want all of them continued, we'll find that out tomorrow when we go to him. There are meds for gout, a third diabetic med, a new one for the arhythmia and the calcium supplement and the b12 shots, weekly now, monthly later, so that is a heap of medication. Most of it will be subsudised so hoping not to have too much expense there.
There is now a shower nurse twice a week and hopefully the minder on Friday mornings to give me respite. I will only at this stage have the help for six weeks as this is short term care package designed to give caregivers the incentive to bring an invalid home. Then if I am lucky I will get the long term help until Ray reaches 65 in September and then he goes into another catagory and I qualify for help more readily, well that is the theory anyway.
I have had three very sad phone calls today. The first was to tell me of the death of an old friend, the second to tell me another old friend has just entered hospital in the final stages of terminal cancer which is sad but he is an older man and has had a wonderful life. The third to say another friend has just had a massive stroke, right side paralyzed, no speech, nothing but the hand squeeze to show he can hear. He is a larger than life storyteller of note who has been the judge of many a debate and once ran for parliament so his speaking has made him famous locally. What a crying shame! He is maybe 65.
Since Ray has had his strokes and limited abilities we have made some fine acquaintances and a few good friends. All are much older than us and so slowly we will lose them, it is one of the disadvantages of having older friends. But when Ray stroked at 57 and had to retire these were the people who offered us help, emotional support and their friendship. We all have expereinced losing those we thought of as friends. For us some disappeared immediately, some fell away as the years went by so we have been grateful for the company of these delightful older women and fellows but are now destined to see them pre-decease us both. Sometimes life is like that.
But on the brighter side I also received two offers of help, one to supervise the tradesmen I will have to get in to do the new shower room and another to give me a sitter for Ray if I need to go out. I will sometimes have to get away, to go the the pharmacy or to get my hair cut or maybe to see Mum for an hour's visit. This could be used when Trev is working nights so with him in the house as a back up I am sure this sweet little older lady could manage. She just has to keep Ray leg-roped to the chair.
And that was what our first fight was about. I put on some laundry and Ray took the opportunity to go to the bedroom. He is supposed to have me by his side when he walks for the first six weeks he is home as he is still tippy on his feet and the fractured pelvis is not entirely healed. I need to write it on posters all over the house and record it on a continual loop and flash it across the television screen: "Ray, please do not walk unless Sue is with you".
So if you see a rocket crossing the upper atmosphere trailing what looks like washing that will be a banner reading:"Ray, where is Sue? She should be right beside you."
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