The Long, Comfortable Nap

We seem to be in a plateau period of sleep. When my sister and my niece came to visit mom was very wakeful and engaged, but even before they were out the door she was drifting into a sleepy period. I had hoped that she would sleep for a few days, when it was rainy, and then wake up with the return of the sun. That has not happened. She drifts from one day, when she is wakeful and engaged for two or three hours, into days when she doesn’t even fully rouse when we wash her face or feed her breakfast. I have actually watched her fall asleep with a bite of food half chewed in her mouth on some days. Today was a wakeful day and we enjoyed if for as long as we could stay awake.

On the 4th of July, some of our neighbors moved down the beach line from where they usually shoot off their fireworks to set up their fireworks display right under my mother’s window. Knowing that this will most likely be the last fireworks display that Mom will enjoy, they put on a beautiful Independence Day show for her, and she enjoyed every minute of it. It was such fun to see her ooh and ahh as the colored bursts sparkled and cracked outside her window. She was exhausted the next day, but she surely enjoyed that great show. We are truly blessed in our neighbors.

Mom’s bowels are having a harder and harder time functioning now. She simply doesn’t drink enough fluids or eat enough food to produce regular bowel movements. We have her on both stool softeners and laxatives, but we are having to give her a suppository every three or four days in order to help her evacuate her bowels. She eats lots of melon every day to try to help increase her fluid intake. It’s a good thing she likes melon.

Mom is less able to get out of bed to use the toilet so I am learning how to use a bed pan and we are doing most of our changes in bed now. The last two times that we tried to get her up to go to the bathroom she vomited from the stress, so we don’t stress her any more. We just keep life easy and as comfortable as possible.

So for now, there isn’t much to report. There are smiles and there are moments of laughter, then there are long periods of watching Mom sleep. She talks in her sleep more now, and looks around her at things or people only she can see when she first wakes up, as if the dream is still with her. However, she is comfortable and is having no issues with bed sores due to the air mattress that Hospice has provided us. All in all, she is just enjoying a long comfortable nap.