Muddling Through a Rough Day

Well, it was good while it lasted, but the Ambien didn't keep me asleep last night or the night before. I had a particularly rough day with Daddy yesterday, too, so the sleep would have been helpful. Daddy was way over in the middle of his Queen sized bed and couldn't seem to get up yesterday. I tried helping him get into position to sit up, and even pulled on him some, but he sat up several times and fell back over each time. I called DH to come up and help early, which he did. By the time he arrived, I'd finally gotten him to sit on the side of the bed, and I'd managed to change him out of his wet night things. But I sure wasn't going to try to help him walk up the hall to the living room, not as worn out as I already was, and as weak as he was.

We worked together to finish getting him dressed and get breakfast on the table, and afterwards we took him to the toilet, because he hadn't had a bowel movement in several days. I gave him a Dulcolax the night before and prune juice for breakfast, so it was time to expect results. Nature finally took care of things, but it seemed to wear him out, as he slept in his chair almost all morning.

Without going into any details, I had quite a cleaning to do in the bathroom, and it set off the nausea, just as it has ever since I've been on the PD meds. I tried all day long to relax, take some gas pills and antacids, but nothing would settle my stomach. It really didn't stop hurting and cramping on me until about bedtime. I blamed a lot of it on tasting the pork and beans at lunch, but my tummy was already tender before that.

Let's face it. Care giving involves dealing with some less than pleasant bodily functions. We dealt with them when our children were babies, and we deal with them again when our parent's bodies return to the state of babies. There are times in life when such tasks are easier to deal with than others, I guess, because this is certainly not one of my better times. DH isn't very good in this particular department, either, although he's improving out of necessity, God love him. I took care of all this sort of thing with my mother and his Dad, but now he's having to help, and he's doing his very best to survive it. He's from the generation that didn't even change diapers, either, so he doesn't even have that experience to fall back on. Under the circumstances, he's doing fantastic. I can't brag on him enough.

I can't help but wonder if it has occurred to him that he's getting the practice he will need to take care of me someday, hopefully way off in the future. It has certainly occurred to me!