Bedridden Apparently

Hubby drinking Boost and Dog Chilling

The Hospice home health aide was here first thing this morning. I told her about the hard evening where Kenny and I tried to get hubby into bed last night.  Kenny has a bad back and his back was certainly hurting when he went home last night. The aide and I decided to keep him in bed until the nurse came instead of putting him in the Geri chair.

Before the aide left, the Hospice nurse came for her weekly visit and the two conferred about my husband. I told the nurse about the extra pain pill I gave my husband this morning (four hours after the 4:00 am one). It turns out I wasn't supposed to do that. However, she will now let him take Tramadol four times a day (every six hours) instead of three times. She ordered Liquid Tylenol three times a day.

She looked at that arthritic right knee and wondered if the ligament was worse. She is sending someone to X-ray it.  I told the nurse about the problems we have been having getting him to bed and about the night recently that his right knee leaned over the bed and he was in pain. That night I had to put a chair beside the bed with a pillow and an ice pack and he went back to sleep.

Had he fallen since Hospice? she asked.

Yes he has, I said as recorded last month HERE,  and he is increasingly less ambulatory. 

You see, folks, my good-natured husband had started recently to protest getting out of the GERI chair into the wheel chair and into bed.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" 

May 27th it took one and a half hours to get him to bed. One night at 10:30 pm I went to get two strong men (Kenny's kin) to help get him to bed. I just thought he was stubborn and that this was the Alzheimer's NO sounding loud and clear. Hubby certainly is less able to explain himself. He didn't say that he did not want  to take a few steps between the Geri chair and the wheel chair because it hurt. I assumed the Alzheimer's stubbornness was kicking in. Now the nurse told him to stay in bed and I will begin that regiment of turning him every few hours to prevent bedsores.

Also the Hospice social worker made her weekly visit this morning. She was scheduled to come Friday, but the nurse alerted her to come today. She asked about my stress level and about my getting out of the house (respite). Yesterday was a hugely stressful day, I told her. However, I was happy to report to her about friends staying with hubby so I can go to church for our 2 pm Sunday service, and about Sally and Jim staying at our home for two Saturdays when I am contracted to work for a DUI assignment. The social worker is arranging some options where I can pay Hospice for respite. She was happy to hear that an application is in to the West Central Florida Area Agency on Aging which will take longer to happen. Hospice and this agency can work together. Kevin who represents this agency is in my Toastmasters club and he called Tuesday to get this in the works. Maybe respite will happen by the fall so someone can be with my husband while I substitute teach. Kenny is less able to help these days and you may recall that he has his mother to attend to and his own doctor appointments.

Verses I Am Meditating On

I canceled 20 days of substitute teaching in May and June and need wisdom for our finances that our resources cover the summer. Proverbs 16:18 reads Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice. 

LORD, help me to be righteous with my little. Help me to be careful with our money. Help respite to come through so I can work for our bills. Thank you for provision in the past. Amen. 

Proverbs 16:9 reads A man's heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps. When this widow (me) married my godly husband in 2000, I had no understanding of how things would go. My heart had a plan for our senior years. I had a plan to fit into a new family and retire without having to work, but the LORD has taken me in the direction that He has chosen for me. In His direction I have seen His mercies every morning. It is not all gloom and doom (although there is anticipatory grief for sure). I know that my husband when he dies will be with our LORD in heaven and then reunited with his body when Christ comes back to earth. This is my hope as well. We senior Christians get to have this happen sooner than most believers.