9:30PM. What a day. It’s not getting any easier to get into a schedule. Tomorrow we are making more of an effort; today was not a good day to start. Katie….and therefore I….woke up at 5 needing her pain pill. This time, though, after I got her milk (so her stomach doesn’t get upset) and she took her pill, she…and therefore I….went back to sleep well before 6. Alex had his dentist appointment at 9:30, so I was up again by 7:30 so I could take a shower and check in on Katie. She was sleeping pretty soundly, so I fixed Alex some breakfast (he loves my scrambled eggs, and it’s the one time/meal I can actually fix something and make him happy; it’s nice to mother him for a few minutes each day).
I checked up on Katie before we left at 9:15, told her we were leaving, and made sure she was all set for about an hour. She was happily in comfortable-land…sort of awake, sort of asleep. A few minutes later, when Alex and I were almost to the dentist’s, Katie called…..we forgot her blood pressure pill that has to be taken every 12 hours. ugh. How could I have forgotten that. So, I dropped him off at the dentist, came home, and gave her the pill. However, by this time she’s starting to feel a little sick and weak because it’s been too long since she’d eaten. So…..we went downstairs so she could eat some so-called breakfast (Chocolate Fruity Pebbles….yuck.). She was happy with it. She and I are NOT breakfast eaters, so anything to get her to eat is good. It takes her a long, long time to get through a bowl of cereal because she really has no appetite with the pain pills (Percocet) she’s on.
While she’s struggling to get some food into her belly, and I’m sitting there eating the awesome Frosted Flakes straight from the box (not really for breakfast per se, but because I LOVE them), the house phone rings. Usually the house phone is someone calling for my mother because we use our cell phones, and everyone we know uses our cell numbers. For some reason, the visiting nurse “company” has the home number in addition to the cell numbers, but they prefer to use the house phone. Good thing I answered the strange number anyway. It was Gentiva (visiting nurse place). The nurse, Melody, was calling to see if she could come over today to check Katie. I thought she was going to be the Physical Therapist that Jen had mentioned yesterday; it turned out to be another “regular” nurse.
As Katie was finally finishing up her so-called breakfast, and we had made the appointment with the nurse, then Alex called to say that he was finished at the dentist. Katie got herself…..with me “supervising” in case she fell, tripped, etc…..settled into the chair in the first-floor living room. I left to get Alex, drop him back off at home, then I had to go to the bank and Walmart for more milk. I’m so glad Katie loves milk as much as she does. It’s good for her, it helps coat her stomach against the pain pills, and it’s a mini-meal.
Once I got home from all that, it was time for her to take a shower. Well, not really a scheduled time….since we don’t have a schedule yet….but she wanted to take her daily shower before the visiting nurse came over. Forty-five minutes later, she was showered, dressed, dry hair, and felt like a human again.
Nurse Melody (Melanie? Didn’t quite catch her name, and her name tag said “Mel”) came over right on time. She was really nice, but she was not the Physical Therapist we were hoping for. But, she took Katie’s vitals, looked at the little bit of discharge coming from Katie’s scar after her shower—which was determined to be the normal healing since it didn’t have any “danger signs”, and got in touch with Scott The Physical Therapist, who will now be here tomorrow around noon. There was a slight mix-up in communication at the Gentiva Office, so Mel was assigned to us today, but Jen let her know that she’s keeping Katie; Jen will be back Thursday and will continue from now on.
After the visit, it was time for me to start dinner….such as it was. Katie loves the Gorton brand frozen fish fillets, so I got a few boxes of those. We all love them, but they are so incredibly greasy that I hate for us to eat them. However, if it’s something Katie will eat, then I’m happy.
More pain pills followed, along with Katie taking her mandatory walks. It was raining today so she was relegated to walking in the house. She made a very borrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnng circuitous route on the first floor around the living room, dining room, kitchen, and round and round, etc etc. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice again so we’ll go back outside.
About 6:30 I was finally able to sit on the couch, where I promptly fell asleep for about a half hour. It felt so good!!!!
Katie and I have decided that I have to be more like the hospital when it comes to the timing of when to get her up for her shower, etc. Especially on the days I have to work, like tomorrow. I’ll start getting her up around 6AM, give her a pain pill, get her into the shower, then settled into a chair downstairs or the couch upstairs. Then she can come downstairs to eat another so-called breakfast, and settle on the chair downstairs. I’ll leave for an hour or so, Alex will be here, then I’ll be back before she needs another pill.
This will work….I hope. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Til later……
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