In With the New!!

Mom is such a trooper. When a new bed that is NOT what she’s been used to for years arrived in her room and she was told that it is now her bed, she smiled and said “Hot Dog”! She is sometimes confused about which bed she’s getting into in our middle of the night potty runs, but she settles in easily where I direct her. Her willingness to go with the flow constantly amazes me and, as I hear tales of others who are going through this process with much less grace, I am grateful that she is so gentle and loving by nature.

The hospital bed has made things easier for us, though. It moves up and down at the head and foot, just like her bed did, but it also raises and lowers from the floor to make getting in and out easier and, on down the road, the caregiver work that may need to be done will be easier, too. I don’t think it has the softest mattress, but it is a much more comfortable than an equivalent bed in a hospital. I’m looking into a mattress topper to soften the bed up a bit more. I just need to find one in extra long twin.  I did order sheets and a new mattress pad for it, so I will wait to see if the plush mattress pad offers enough added comfort to make the mattress topper unnecessary.

Mom’s shoulder joints are starting to ache a bit more as we have to work harder to move her from place to place. We try to be as gentle as possible, but the pulling up and down wears on her, none the less. There is an item called a Gait Belt that we are using as much as possible. It is just a heavy duty canvas belt that we put around her waist and we use it to lift her as much as possible. I have to admit that I am also feeling a bit of strain in some of my joints from bearing all of her weight when I lift her from bed or her chair. She is getting so weak that she really can’t move herself from either without help and letting her balance herself when she tries to stand is becoming a risky prospect. She never stands or walks these days without someone else holding on to her just to be safe.

The incidents of bladder incontinence are becoming more regular and are not just confined to night time now. However, on some days she is more alert and in control of herself and everyone else in the house!  That roller coaster ride that the nurses said we’d be on… wheeeeeeeee!!

We have cut out the night time insulin completely now. She really is balancing her sugars very well with just her after breakfast shot. Some days she really only eats a big breakfast and a nibble for dinner, but other days she will have all three meals to some extent. Yet, whatever she eats, her body is adjusting and controlling her sugars nicely. But then, she always was an over achiever!