So, it's that time of night when I gather from my bag all the scraps of paper I've jotted things down on. Throughout the course of the day I have to scribble notes for myself so that I can remember what I wanted to blog about.... my memory is shockingly bad.
Note 1: Dad and the Doctor
We were talking today about Dad's cheeky little exchanges with the Doctor, and I couldn't remember if these two little things had been included in the blog. Apologies if I am repeating myself.
One day, Dr Rathbone (AKA Dr Kay or Dr K for anybody getting confused) came to visit at the same time as the District Nurses were here. The Nurse asked if Dr would like to have a look at Dad's pressure sore wound. She said yes and went into the bedroom. She came out a little while later, laughing and telling us that Dad had told her it would be £1.50 for anybody wanting to look at his wound!
Last week, Dr K asked if she could lift up Dad's vest to check his tummy. He said to her "Well I don't know about that - have we been introduced?".
And one day, Dr was visiting when Dad was on good form. He was talking a lot and mum said every other word was "bloody". Mum was mouthing to him from the end of the bed: "stop swearing". He shook his head and eventually said to Doctor K "Doctor, do you mind if I swear". Doctor burst out laughing and said "Not at all". Another point scored for Dad!
Cheeky, funny Dad :-)
Note 2 -Jigsaws
I think I mentioned that Lorraine's kids got Dad a jigsaw for Father's Day. I had mentioned to her that he'd said he enjoyed doing them. Although in my 44 years I have never once seen Dad do a jigsaw!! Sooo... this thousand piece jigsaw is very nice, but looks pretty challenging and the pieces are quite small. I mentioned that I would help him with it, and so yesterday was allocated the task of sorting out all the edge pieces. Dad always was good at delegating. He's also been on at us today to ring Colin and remind him that we're waiting for the jigsaw board. So, tonight, I spent a happy hour sorting the edge pieces out into four bags - top, bottom, right, left. I guessed loads of them - it's one tricky looking jigsaw!!! So if you're reading this Lorraine - thanks for buying that. ;-). Oh, and mum says you have to help sort the colours for the middle bit out this weekend!
Note 3 - Getting comfy
Dad now has us raising his right leg higher than the right. I'm not even sure why. So he had me wrap a thick paperback book in a towel and put it under his foot. So now his accoutrements in bed are:
Mattress. Sheet. Pillow. Soft fleece baby blanket under his head on the pillow - this has to be folded in half, double and quarters throughout the day depending on what head position dad wants. Rolled up towel under the right side of Dad's head (to keep him from slumping right). Soft microfibre towel under Dad's thighs... they were getting hot and itchy a few days ago so we placed this here to help him and he says it does. Three pillows at the foot of the bed - one under both feet. One on the hard wooden footboard (real design fault when a 6' plus person is the occupant). One under all of that to prop up first two pillows!
Under Dad's arms we have two "arm rests". One is a short lumbar roll shaped pillow. The other is one we made out of a towel wrapped in a pillow case.
Napkin that Dad drapes over his chest when eating or drinking, and sometimes quite likes to keep on all day. "Loin Cloth" made of a square white cotton waterproof pad. Dad has no blanket on him at all now on most days and nights. If visitors are coming, sometimes he covers up, and sometimes he doesn't - depending on closeness and likely degree of embarrassment for said visitor!
So this helps you see why we spend so much time fiddling and repositioning the various items on and around Dad, several times each day.
Note 4- Rambling
Dad had another little funny turn tonight. I went in about 9ish and he said he was feeling all crunched up in his groin area. Little wonder really - he had the bed in a "jack-knifed" position and his head and legs were both too high. He started asking me if I knew that US jails were different to UK ones. Then he said he'd have to go and tell the judge that he'd got himself all uncomfortable. He said to me that he would have to give up criminal law. I was just smiling at him - all this was so serious, and interspersed with a sensible conversation about me moving his bed height down at the legs and head. Then he settled back onto his pillow and said, quite forlorn-ly (is that a word?) "I'll have to get an office job".
What on earth is causing this? Mum is getting quite worried about it now. We'll speak to Dr tomorrow.
So that's it really. Oh - I went for a swim today! Put the flags out. Only managed 20 minutes. And I was sent a job description for a role I may well look seriously at. More on that as it develops.
I was really proud today - I'd been trying to help somebody on the Macmillan forum. He'd just found out his mum has PC. He replied to my post and said it had been an inspiration to him. Made me smile. The power of online communities never ceases to amaze me - how much support we can give and receive, by reaching out to people whe we don't know, and probably won't ever meet. Incredible.
Midnight now... I'm getting earlier. Dad settled down about 11.30, he had pain in his right shoulder blade again. He looks poorly tonight.
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