Day 7

Day 7 was Monday, but it's now actually Tuesday morning.  Before I could really get my thoughts together, I got interrupted.  That happens a lot, especially in the evening.

Jimmy woke up about 300 am Monday morning, and whatever it was making him sick Sunday seemed to have run it's course.  He was no longer warm to the touch, and said his stomach didn't hurt any more.  But, I ended up staying up with him an hour - so not such a good night for me.  I did get back to sleep; and barely woke up in time to take him the early pill.

Then I had a big mess in the kitchen to clean up, and laundry to do.  And it was a dreary rainy day, so I was not at my best.  I could not persuade Jimmy to get out of bed until well after noon.  Even then, he kept dawdling - it was 2:00 before he finally got up and went into the living room.

Since his "schedule" was off, he was wanting to go lay down again at an awkward time.  At 6:30 he said he wanted to lay down until 6:15.  I had a hard time getting him to understand that it was already later than that!  But, I talked him into waiting for dinner.  (I fixed pork chops, one of his favorites, and he ate the best he has in 3 days!).  I did get dialysis set up; but by 8:00 he was insisting on laying down.

About 9:00 I went in to get the dialysis started.  Some how during that hour he had an attack of stupid.  Yes, I know, that's very rude - I just don't know what else to call it.  The tip of his catheter is to be soaked in a cleaning solution (that has bleach in it) for 2 minutes before I connect it to the tubing and start the cycler.  When we were initially taught the procedure, they just take a packet of 2X2 sterile gause pads, open the top, pour in some solution, the just stick the catheter tip into that and hold it.  Early on I figured out that putting the packet of gause into a plastic cup was safer.  Normally he just holds the cup, with a finger holding the tubing so the tip doesn't fall out.  
So, I go in to get the soaking step started.  First he takes off the BIPAP mask.  Then he's trying to find the catheter on the mask.  What??  So, I get the catheter for him, put it in the cup, tell him to just hold it.  And I leave the room for a few minutes.  When I got back, he had taken the catheter out of the cup and was trying to figure out how to attach it to the BIPAP mask.  
Honestly, I haven't seen him that confused in a long time. :(  What happened during that hour nap???

I got the catheter back in the cup; held it and told him to put the mask back on (that took awhile because he couldn't figure out which was was right side up).  By then it was long enough, so I went on and connected the dialysis tubing and got the cycler started.  

I went back about 10:00 (more pills), and in that hour he had managed to sit up and get undressed (and considering he's been having a hard time with dressing and undressing lately, I consider that a good accomplishment) and put himself to bed. He was able to sit up enough to take his pills and drink some water.

And then, it was a quiet night.

I keep thinking I need to get things back to "normal".  Is this the "new normal", or as normal as it's going to get now?  I thrive on routine.  I need schedules and lists, and without them I flounder.  So this is really wearing on my nerves.  Not knowing what to expect - from hospiece, from family, from him - is making me even crazier than I already am.