1. I popped up at 5:30 this morning, mildly agitated about the day that lay ahead, and surmised that I'd better get Mom's laundry over to her room as soon as possible because I had a sneaking suspicion that she didn't have any clean pants to put on. She'd had two or three spills over the last few days, so she was going through her wardrobe more quickly than usual. I finished her laundry by 7:30 and, when I arrived at Mom's room, she was in her wheelchair eating some yogurt, in her pajamas, and the aide confirmed that she wasn't dressed because she didn't have pants in her closet. None of this was a big deal. I restocked Mom's closet with clean clothes.
2. More of a big deal was the fact that Mom was very tired and groggy, barely able to stay awake while eating breakfast. At about 8:30, Carol came to be with Mom and soon asked for help to put Mom back to bed. I returned to be with Mom a little after 9:30. She was in bed, moaning, grimacing, twitching, and pulling her knees up. I went to the nurses' station to see about Mom getting some pain relief medicine. The nurse assigned to Mom was on a break. Soon enough, she came to Mom's room, observed what I saw, and gave Mom a dose of morphine. It helped some.
I was with Mom until about 3:30 in the afternoon. The Deke visited. So did Susan. A little later Jane came by. Mom was fast asleep when Jane visited. Both the Deke and Susan talked with Mom. Mom was all smiles, but not conversational. That's been the case for the last four days or so. It's difficult to know how much she tracks what others are saying to her, but she does know who is in front of her. Mom utters some sentences. They usually don't have much to do with what anyone has said to her. Her voice is barely audible and because of the sound of the machine producing her oxygen, I have to lean way in to hear her. She is also losing sentences. She'll start to say something and her voice trails off into silence, the sentence unfinished. Sometimes she falls briefly asleep in the midst of a sentence.
I returned to be with Mom at 6:00. Christy had been with her the last two and half hours. Mom ate a little bit of her dinner and was ready to be back to bed. Christy was concerned about Mom's pain and, as she was leaving, talked with Nurse Kay. Mom was sleeping. I decided to leave with Christy, hoping Mom might settle into a night of restful sleep, possibly with the help of medicine.
3. The Deke and I have a lot to talk about these days and had a very good conversation. Soon, Christy and Everett were done with their dinner and we joined them in the refreshing cool of the late evening and had a relaxing time and good conversation.
No comments:
Post a Comment