Day 259

Day 259

Thurday February 6 2014

Physical:

As seems to have become “normal” these days, DH spent the majority of his day sleeping.  I didn’t try to wake him in the morning .. just let him sleep as long as he felt like he wanted to.  Then the nurse called, so I went on and got him up.  He was awake and alert when she got here, but before she left he had fallen asleep.  Again, he slept all afternoon, but still had no trouble going to sleep when he went to bed.

He ate a little better .. a BoJ chicken sandwich (but didn’t eat the “dirty rice” he usually enjoys), and a large bowl of salad (with shredded pork in it) for supper.

In the morning, during a brief wakeful spell, he had been very disoriented again; and he got a bit annoyed with me when I tried to calm him down.  I don’t know what he was thinking during the rest of the day, since he mostly slept.  He didn’t say anything else too “off” to judge by. 

People:

The nurse came about noon.  She brought BlJ for us, which was very thoughtful.  She assured me that arrangements have been made for someone (either a nurse or a CAN) to come by here at some point over the weekend I’m away.  That’s a bit of peace of mind!  His vitals were all in a good range (his O2 sat was 97%, with no exertion and on 3 ltrs .. I sometimes wonder what it would be without the O2; he can go without it for long stretches without any visible distress … but I’m not going to try to deprive him of it just to find out!)  His B/P seems to be staying in a good range.  She always says his lungs sound “clear”, even though he frequently has trouble breathing.  They may be clear but they are gradually losing the ability to function. 

Emotions:

This was a strange combination of a good and bad day.  I’m still having problems with my joints,  right knee especially, aching a lot.  It seems like the Aleve is no longer as effective as it once was; but I don’t really know that anything else would be much better.  And besides, it’s a struggle to remember to take one lousy vitamin and the Aleve in the morning, as well as all those dratted eye drops.  I don’t want to add something else to forget.

I found a bit of busy work to do; but spent a lot more time just mindlessly “watching” TV.  But I also emailed back and forth a lot with a friend I’ve known since college .. 50 years!!!  We’ve gone long stretches, years even, without being in contact.  But we always “find” each other again.   Other than the hour the nurse was here, and going back and forth to the computer, it was a long day.  I have a list of things I want to get done; but it’s depressing how many things on it I just can’t do by myself.  For example, I printed out instructions for the dialysis set up.  I took a series of photos of each step.  I printed that all out .. but … now that it’s on paper in a size for “normal” people to see, I can’t see it well enough to insert the pictures into the proper sequence.  I also have one bill that needs to be paid online (because they wanted to charge me $15 just to pay by phone!!  No way!!) .. but I can’t do it until TGF helpps me with that.  And I’ve not seen or heard from her all week, even though she was *supposed* to come by and pick upp something that got left last weekend, and get my grocery list for this week.  She has plans for Sunday, , and DSS works on Saturday, so I don’t get to even leave the house this week.    I guess she’s going to wait until Saturday to come by at all. 

There was one sort of funny incident yesterday (Thursday).  When I was getting DH up and dressed, he said something about he sure did give me a lot of trouble.  I replied that was OK, I got to yell at him a lot.  And he said “I know”.  And we both laughed at that.   I don’t think he actually remembers me yelling at him (and no I don’t do it all that much; but yes, sometimes I just get frustrated beyond what I can tolerate) .. but he knows that I get upset with him at times.  I’m sorry that he’s aware of that, because I know the things he does are not on purpose.  But knowing that doesn’t make it any less frustrating at times.

One week from today I get to get away for a weekend.  I have a long list of things I want to get done .. but a lot of them I don’t want to try to do too far ahead.  And, as I said, some things I can’t do without help.  Apparently my volunteer “went away”.  I don’t know what happened .. she never showed up the last time she said she would, and has never called since.  There could be any number of reasons, and I’m trying not to let myself think she just didn’t like me or coming here.  I really just don’t know.  TGF clearly won’t have any time for me this week; so I don’t know if some things will get done or not. 

After looking back over my planning list, I realize that I’ve completed all the projects that I can do without help; and the only thing on my list for today is to watch the Olympics opening ceremonies. 

I went in to take DH the one “early” pill (needs to be taken at least an hour before others .. if I aim for around 7:30 it helps me remember to also do one of my eye drops then).  He was so sound asleep, it was a struggle to get him to take that one pill.  I ended up putting it in his mouth .. and even then, it took several minutes to get him to take a drink of water and actually swallow the pills.  It’s unusual for him to be quite that sound asleep by this time of morning.  But I hope there’s nothing else going on.  The dialysis is still running .. once again, it’s taking closer to 12 hours than the 11 it’s supposed to be.  I’m waiting for it to finish so I can get in the shower .. and then will check on him again.  More pills are due at 9:00 anyway.

I think I need to find something other than the Olympics to fill this day!!!