Well, sprung mom from the hospital yesterday afternoon. She was ready to go home! Her left leg is sheathed, wrapped, bandaged, immobilized and water cooled. We have a contraption that outwardly very closely resembles a half-rack sized beer cooler; but is in actuality a "polar pack" designed to circulate ice water around her knee. You fill the cooler with ice and water, fit a pump into the chest, put the lid on with a plastic hose coming out of the pump that connects to a series of plastic tubes wrapped around her knee. Plug the puppy in and it continuously circulates ice water. This is a considerable advancement over the technology we used five years ago when she had her right knee replaced. The old system consisted of two bags of frozen peas which would alternate between her knee and the freezer.
Mom is enthroned in a recliner we moved from the living area to the dining area. She has considerable pain but the meds are controlling it reasonably well. So far...so good... I have no doubt she will successfully captain the family ship from her throne.
I am now sleeping in my own bed but am spending lots of time at the elders. I need to put dad to bed at 9 PM and help him get up and organized in the morning - around 8:30 AM. I'm also in-charge of other intimate dad duties that my sister Linda prefers not to even contemplate.
Dad is very weak and is utterly dependent on his walker for stability and support. He sleeps in a chair in his bedroom. Just getting him into "bed" is a thrash - and somewhat humorous when you think about it. We put a little pillow on the floor in front of the chair for height. I carefully center his "doughnut," an inflatable round pillow with a hole in the center, in the middle of the chair. He then climbs on the pillow on the floor using the walker and my arm for support. I then push the back of the chair forward as far as I can to lower the front of the chair. He then carefully takes aim and plops his ass (hopefully) on the center of the doughnut. Sometimes we have to do this two or three times before we hit the bulls-eye. It's kinda like a game of chance and skill that one might find at Coney Island. Hmmm. Wonder if I could market this?...
Otherwise Linda and I are splitting household duties - cooking, cleaning and so forth. Although we approach virtually everything from very different perspectives, I certainly have come to appreciate her 24/7 trials and tribulations. She's tired and needs a vacation. Mom and dad live a very regimented life - everything gets done in the same order and in the same way every day. Monday through Sunday. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year.
As a semi-outsider I am able to challenge some of the more bizarre and pointless ways of doing things - sometimes with success and sometimes not. Comfort zones are pretty tiny...
In any event everything is chugging along satisfactorily.
In other news, I spoke to daughter Amanda a couple of days ago and she is doing well. Busy, busy, busy. She has decided to stay-on at the camp through next spring although she will have a month off between Thanksgiving and the New Year. Would sure like to see her but I don't know how that's possible given the state of things otherwise...
Leah is not getting as many hours with the Clackamas County Health Department as she had hoped. The swine flu program is operating in fits and starts due to the unavailability of sufficient vaccine. She's had a cold the past couple of days.
Finally, last weekend when I was at the hospital I encountered Kurt West who was in the waiting area with his son poised to become a grandpa and an uncle respectively. I understand all went well and he is indeed now officially gramps. Congratulations to all concerned!
Well, time for a workout. Then the store. I'm cooking steak for the elders this evening.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment