Michael is definitely feeling better, progressing very well, despite as he puts it, "feeling run over by a large truck". Yes, apparently it's possible to feel "better" and yet also "hit-by-truckish" at the same time. Me .... not so much so.That truck may have sideswiped me on the way past. More in a minute.
As mentioned earlier in his and my posts, the patient desperately wants out of the house and to not be a "bump on a log" (not to be confused with "ants on a log" - a term & creation Michael was unaware of until last night when I explained). Sooooo .... shopping, malls, errands, and driving hither and yon it is. I may have erred in my county count in that earlier post -- I thought a few places where in different counties and Michael has corrected me (damn Yahoo Maps). But no worries, we'll probably hit all those counties soon anyway as he looks for more different places to go to walk and be "out". We've already gone to the Promenade in Saucon Valley on a near daily basis, hit the Lehigh Valley Mall twice (which is two more times than in the last 5 years combined), the mall at King of Prussia, and now also the Montgomery Mall. Plus Target, BJ's, Giant, Wegman's, Fresh Market -- all on regular basis. We're running out of grocery stores to try out.
And while we've been out, we've been trying to do a favor for my best buddy who lives in Ohio, and whose cute little 6-year old stepson has apparently become a Villanova Wildcat basketball fan. They have no connection to Nova, no idea how this started, but every time he hears or sees them on ESPN he goes nuts. So, since we live in Wildcat (of that blue persuasion -- not to be confused with my beloved purple Wildcats or the dreaded other blue Wildcats I grew up hating) country, we've been looking for some promised Nova gear in youth sizes. This has been a bit surprisingly more of a challenge than I thought -- but probably because our first forays were up closer to the Lehigh Valley and out of the core fan area for Nova. At the very least I figured, hey, I know where Nova's campus is and it's not that far, I can always go to the darn bookstore!
But we had great success yesterday so all is good.
But that was part of a series of errands that started with M getting me up early so we could go show community support and eat a $5 pancake breakfast at the local high school for the football team (not bad -- I've had much worse pancakes that cost more), then we drove to the Montgomeryville area (to our south), hit the mall, did his walking, did the shopping, and were on our way back home before noon. He also wanted to see a movie, have lunch and maybe dinner out, back up at Saucon (to our north). And at this point I hit the wall. Said movie would have to be later because I needed a nap --- NOW.
I've been feeling run down and a bit ragged lately. Been doing the dreaded java. Also advil and hot tea to try to knock out my sore throat. And Friday night I just didn't sleep well at all. More like a baby -- you know, up every two hours and cried. HA! Seriously though, up every 2 hours, and always thinking it had to have been 6 hours later instead. Very turned upside down-ish. So I took a nap of epic proportions -- would best that of any of my 2 1/2 year-old nephew. Felt a little more human. And we went to the movies (our 2nd of the week) and had a very nice early-ish dinner at Italian-inspired restaurant up at Saucon. Came home and was nodding off checking email at 9pm, so I went and crashed at what must be a record-early time for me and apparently hours before Michael. [ok, so I didn't fall asleep until 10:30 -- but that's still a record!] We have some things backward here in the patient-caretaker roles at the moment!
But I feel a bit more human this morning .. up early again to tackle the long list of activities for the day and driving all over the county. I really should get one of those black chauffeur hats to go with my black coat and our dark vehicles with the tinted windows in which I schlep -- I mean "drive" -- my dear beloved charge!
Peace
J
Showing posts with label sleepless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleepless. Show all posts
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
More sleep = happier Nurse Jane
We both got more sleep last night -- although M's required some acts of contorsion on his part. As I told him, 'hey, WHATEVER works'.
Yesterday was a longish day -- hell, they ALL have been -- but in a different way. More active, and that's great. But also some nice sitting and chilling. And a real meal for M at a real restaurant type place. ok .. it was the same restaurant I've been eating dinner at with family and stuff off/on since the night of the surgery -- but it is good!
Highlight of the day -- at least as far as M was concerned -- getting caffeine. I desparately needed something more than ice tea and since I've commented that this appears to be a Pepsi town, or at least the CC has a big time Pepsi deal (dammit), I can't get a real, fully sugared, fully caffeinated god damn COKE anywhere. So -- it was off to Starbucks. See, this is a big deal because I don't drink coffee. Only once in a blue moon, or in desperation. And then only doctored and latted and creamed [hey a non-fat caramel latte ain't actually that bad!] and sypruped until it's just a hot adult milkshake [oops! this one IS!] with a hint of coffee flavor. thankfully that's what Starbucks excels at. So I got my hit and felt better.
And then M wanted to try some. Now mind you, he's been off ALL caffeine for 18+ months b/c it so screws with his system with the heart problem and the uber doses of meds. The weeks he went off cold turkey ... oh man oh man. So this was his first real sip or two of coffee in a long time. He tried mine. He was ok. He waited. He was still ok. He asked for more.
I told him "my caffeine dammit" ;-) So we went back later and he ordered his own latte and sipped it slowly and said it was like the veil that had been over his head was lifted for first time in long time and clarity returned. He may even have seen stars and tweety birds and angels singing. He is one damn happy camper. Such an ecstatic look on his face. Huh -- I think the Starbucks people may be his new BFFs and I am now distantly behind them. ;-)
Today -- more walking, chilling. And contacting airlines and such to get assistance getting him home.
Caretaking Lesson: Don't touch the patient's bananas, or now, his coffee. And when he says his needs pain pills now -- no arguing, no stopping to get completely dressed, do not pass Go or collect $200, just get the dang pills.
Peace
Jenn
Yesterday was a longish day -- hell, they ALL have been -- but in a different way. More active, and that's great. But also some nice sitting and chilling. And a real meal for M at a real restaurant type place. ok .. it was the same restaurant I've been eating dinner at with family and stuff off/on since the night of the surgery -- but it is good!
Highlight of the day -- at least as far as M was concerned -- getting caffeine. I desparately needed something more than ice tea and since I've commented that this appears to be a Pepsi town, or at least the CC has a big time Pepsi deal (dammit), I can't get a real, fully sugared, fully caffeinated god damn COKE anywhere. So -- it was off to Starbucks. See, this is a big deal because I don't drink coffee. Only once in a blue moon, or in desperation. And then only doctored and latted and creamed [hey a non-fat caramel latte ain't actually that bad!] and sypruped until it's just a hot adult milkshake [oops! this one IS!] with a hint of coffee flavor. thankfully that's what Starbucks excels at. So I got my hit and felt better.
And then M wanted to try some. Now mind you, he's been off ALL caffeine for 18+ months b/c it so screws with his system with the heart problem and the uber doses of meds. The weeks he went off cold turkey ... oh man oh man. So this was his first real sip or two of coffee in a long time. He tried mine. He was ok. He waited. He was still ok. He asked for more.
I told him "my caffeine dammit" ;-) So we went back later and he ordered his own latte and sipped it slowly and said it was like the veil that had been over his head was lifted for first time in long time and clarity returned. He may even have seen stars and tweety birds and angels singing. He is one damn happy camper. Such an ecstatic look on his face. Huh -- I think the Starbucks people may be his new BFFs and I am now distantly behind them. ;-)
Today -- more walking, chilling. And contacting airlines and such to get assistance getting him home.
Caretaking Lesson: Don't touch the patient's bananas, or now, his coffee. And when he says his needs pain pills now -- no arguing, no stopping to get completely dressed, do not pass Go or collect $200, just get the dang pills.
Peace
Jenn
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Rough night
Perhaps I shouldn't have skipped my routine nightcap -- either because I pissed off the karma fairy that was looking over me, or maybe it was helping more than I thought beyond placebo effect.
Although I have little to no room to complain on this because while I didn't sleep well, I wasn't the one in pain. So a minor inconvenience really.
Weird sleep pattern last night in our first night back together and with no nurses or whatever. I was hypervigilant apparently and jumped or woke up at every move, moan, shift or whatever from him (he tried sleeping in bed first, mostly sitting up with umpteen pillows). To the point that somewhere in the midnight to 2am window he merely reached over to give me a pat or rub on the back and I immediately responded with "what, what??!! what do you need? are you ok?"
We're now working out a new system where I only jump up if he pokes me ... hard ... and I try to just go "mmmmmm" at anything else. He eventually left and went to sleep on the couch in the other room of the suite because it was harder, firmer, and narrower - so he was not tempted to turn over, lest he fall out, hit the table and then the floor. All the extra pillows and blankets I requesistioned came in handy.
He finally got some sleep after the 5:15am advil/tylenol triple dose. But he also asked me then to find out the pharmacy hours and get my butt there to fill his percoset pain pill scrip ASAP. So I reset the alarm, got up and ran to pharmacy to be there shortly after opening at 8am -- waited the hour or so for it to be filled. Wandered to hospital for ice tea and Au Bon Pain, got rest of the OTC meds and came back. Thankfully he hadn't woked up during any of this, and not until I got back. At which point I'm not sure whether it was the hotel door sorta slamming shut (hey! they're heavy!) or the pain that woke him. He says he's back at a 6-8 on the pain scale, nearly ICU levels. Percoset seems to work quick though b/c he was back to a 4 when I left to go type this. Cross fingers he feels better and doesn't need the percoset on a continual basis.
We're staying here at the hotel next to clinic until we leave on Fri. He has an outpatient follow-up on Thursday. And we're trying to see my good buddy Jen when she gets back to town after being called away for a family emergency/death in her husband's family while she was waiting with me on day of MLK's surgery.
Peace
Jenn
Although I have little to no room to complain on this because while I didn't sleep well, I wasn't the one in pain. So a minor inconvenience really.
Weird sleep pattern last night in our first night back together and with no nurses or whatever. I was hypervigilant apparently and jumped or woke up at every move, moan, shift or whatever from him (he tried sleeping in bed first, mostly sitting up with umpteen pillows). To the point that somewhere in the midnight to 2am window he merely reached over to give me a pat or rub on the back and I immediately responded with "what, what??!! what do you need? are you ok?"
We're now working out a new system where I only jump up if he pokes me ... hard ... and I try to just go "mmmmmm" at anything else. He eventually left and went to sleep on the couch in the other room of the suite because it was harder, firmer, and narrower - so he was not tempted to turn over, lest he fall out, hit the table and then the floor. All the extra pillows and blankets I requesistioned came in handy.
He finally got some sleep after the 5:15am advil/tylenol triple dose. But he also asked me then to find out the pharmacy hours and get my butt there to fill his percoset pain pill scrip ASAP. So I reset the alarm, got up and ran to pharmacy to be there shortly after opening at 8am -- waited the hour or so for it to be filled. Wandered to hospital for ice tea and Au Bon Pain, got rest of the OTC meds and came back. Thankfully he hadn't woked up during any of this, and not until I got back. At which point I'm not sure whether it was the hotel door sorta slamming shut (hey! they're heavy!) or the pain that woke him. He says he's back at a 6-8 on the pain scale, nearly ICU levels. Percoset seems to work quick though b/c he was back to a 4 when I left to go type this. Cross fingers he feels better and doesn't need the percoset on a continual basis.
We're staying here at the hotel next to clinic until we leave on Fri. He has an outpatient follow-up on Thursday. And we're trying to see my good buddy Jen when she gets back to town after being called away for a family emergency/death in her husband's family while she was waiting with me on day of MLK's surgery.
Peace
Jenn
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