Hard to believe I taught Nutrition last semester
On the one hand, the night passed smoothly; no falls due to my sound trap! On the other hand, he was up every hour on the hour and I had to argue with him to stay put. He fought against my requests with all his might. I won the battle, but it was stressful and more exhausting than ever. But the main problem is solved for now; safety at night. Each problem needs to be solved in time; it’s not so simple to be patient when operating on so little sleep, but obviously possible.
I left peacefully at 8:00 because Laverne, the sharpest knife in my caregiver drawer was there today for the long run. He fell once in the bathroom when he shut her out, but she had a long talk with him and hopefully he will allow her to help. This is the hardest part; he shuts us out because he wants to retain his independence and dignity, but he forgets what he is unable to do (stand on his own at this point, along with many other everyday tasks; really very tragic).
Laverne stayed and chatted with me for 1 ½ past the time her meter stopped. She is a gem, let me tell you. I asked her to be honest; am I doing him a disservice by having him live this way in our home? “No,” she replied, “we just have to convince him to accept our assistance.” She feels that he is safest in our bed with me next to him as opposed to in another room in a hospital bed. I’m inclined to agree with her based on last night, but he’s going to drive me around the bend if he continues to try to break free as soon as I shut my eyes and drift off to sleep.
The CLSC dropped off the travel wheel chair on loan until the Lethbridge chair arrives in a couple of months. I sent Sheryl’s loan of a loner chair back to her house with Yaron, against his wishes; he had places to go ad things to do this evening. After he left I noticed that this dumb chair has no place for the feet to rest, just like the one that weighed a ton. How come they do not realize that his right leg will drag on the ground? I cannot take him out in such a chair…I have a long list of supplies I need from the O.T. I will call tomorrow and mention the foot rest problem.
I was so nervous about sending Gilly off down the front stairs with Elizabeth and Jerry tomorrow that I called the hospital and left a message asking them to postpone tomorrow’s swallowing assessment. It’s not a critical situation in that regard at this point, and I want to be sure that the stairs have a proper ramp and such before he is escorted out, especially when I am not there (or Yaron) and we both have a morning at Vanier tomorrow. My first set f students have class presentations and then I have a guest speaker that I’ve spent time and effort organizing. I do not want to cancel either one of my classes…I’m almost done…I’d like to finish my work if I can. Selfish? Maybe. Yaron offered to miss class and go along for the ride, but I decided that he needs to attend school. It’s my gut decision and I’m sticking to it.
I may ask if Lethbridge will do this assessment through Speech Pathology, since we have what Dr. Kavan feels is ‘a waste of time’ appointment for a speech assessment coming up on December 7th. Laverne agrees with Dr. Kavan, by the way. She is interested in accompanying Gilly to physio and working with him in this regard. She believes in this regard there is more chance for recovery. I will arrange this for next Tuesday. By then I hope to have a ramp set up. I trust her 1000% more than I do Elizabeth, so if it were to be her and Jerry tomorrow I never would have cancelled the appointment.
Laverne and I came up with a few game plans, and so I will work on further adaptations to the house over the next few days.
Yaron just came home from grocery shopping; he expected me to turn on the freezer we have in the garage just to store all the frozen junk food he carefully selected, because he bought more than what could fit into our kitchen freezer. I only turn the extra freezer on when I am cooking for an army (in preparation for a Passover seder, let’s say), and I’m not prepared to waste energy on junk!
This sort of event forces me to stand up and take notice of how my life is really out of control. Who sends an 18 year old shopping and expects him to make reasonable decisions? I should have started the training long before I needed his assistance.
I have to learn to reserve judgment, say thanks for his effort, and provide a much more detailed list next time. With Aaron’s help, we managed to squish it all in upstairs, but we’ll need a can opener to get anything out!
I left peacefully at 8:00 because Laverne, the sharpest knife in my caregiver drawer was there today for the long run. He fell once in the bathroom when he shut her out, but she had a long talk with him and hopefully he will allow her to help. This is the hardest part; he shuts us out because he wants to retain his independence and dignity, but he forgets what he is unable to do (stand on his own at this point, along with many other everyday tasks; really very tragic).
Laverne stayed and chatted with me for 1 ½ past the time her meter stopped. She is a gem, let me tell you. I asked her to be honest; am I doing him a disservice by having him live this way in our home? “No,” she replied, “we just have to convince him to accept our assistance.” She feels that he is safest in our bed with me next to him as opposed to in another room in a hospital bed. I’m inclined to agree with her based on last night, but he’s going to drive me around the bend if he continues to try to break free as soon as I shut my eyes and drift off to sleep.
The CLSC dropped off the travel wheel chair on loan until the Lethbridge chair arrives in a couple of months. I sent Sheryl’s loan of a loner chair back to her house with Yaron, against his wishes; he had places to go ad things to do this evening. After he left I noticed that this dumb chair has no place for the feet to rest, just like the one that weighed a ton. How come they do not realize that his right leg will drag on the ground? I cannot take him out in such a chair…I have a long list of supplies I need from the O.T. I will call tomorrow and mention the foot rest problem.
I was so nervous about sending Gilly off down the front stairs with Elizabeth and Jerry tomorrow that I called the hospital and left a message asking them to postpone tomorrow’s swallowing assessment. It’s not a critical situation in that regard at this point, and I want to be sure that the stairs have a proper ramp and such before he is escorted out, especially when I am not there (or Yaron) and we both have a morning at Vanier tomorrow. My first set f students have class presentations and then I have a guest speaker that I’ve spent time and effort organizing. I do not want to cancel either one of my classes…I’m almost done…I’d like to finish my work if I can. Selfish? Maybe. Yaron offered to miss class and go along for the ride, but I decided that he needs to attend school. It’s my gut decision and I’m sticking to it.
I may ask if Lethbridge will do this assessment through Speech Pathology, since we have what Dr. Kavan feels is ‘a waste of time’ appointment for a speech assessment coming up on December 7th. Laverne agrees with Dr. Kavan, by the way. She is interested in accompanying Gilly to physio and working with him in this regard. She believes in this regard there is more chance for recovery. I will arrange this for next Tuesday. By then I hope to have a ramp set up. I trust her 1000% more than I do Elizabeth, so if it were to be her and Jerry tomorrow I never would have cancelled the appointment.
Laverne and I came up with a few game plans, and so I will work on further adaptations to the house over the next few days.
Yaron just came home from grocery shopping; he expected me to turn on the freezer we have in the garage just to store all the frozen junk food he carefully selected, because he bought more than what could fit into our kitchen freezer. I only turn the extra freezer on when I am cooking for an army (in preparation for a Passover seder, let’s say), and I’m not prepared to waste energy on junk!
This sort of event forces me to stand up and take notice of how my life is really out of control. Who sends an 18 year old shopping and expects him to make reasonable decisions? I should have started the training long before I needed his assistance.
I have to learn to reserve judgment, say thanks for his effort, and provide a much more detailed list next time. With Aaron’s help, we managed to squish it all in upstairs, but we’ll need a can opener to get anything out!
posted by Gilly at 9:19 PM
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