A down day

Well, my jubilation at Dad moving his alarm clock to 6.30am instead of 5am was shortlived. He settled down to sleep at 10.30pm and was awake needing help with various things at:
3am (he was sick)
5am (he thought somebody was at the front door)
6.30am (he was shouting out - he was dreaming the carers were in with him)
and finally at 8am (when he claimed to have been calling since 7am).

Mum did the first two "calls" and I took the later two. Problem is, we both are actually awake whenever the other is up with Dad, so the sleep gets interrupted anyway.
I felt guilty at 5am cos I popped my head in to his room (en route to the loo) to see what exactly he had mum doing for him. He caught sight of me and said "Oh - do you want to do my ears?" (referring to the warm olive oil we're dropping in to loosen his ear wax). Mum looked at me and said yes, and instead of declining gracefully I snapped "He's not having routine stuff like his ears done in the middle of the night". I felt so bad later... he asked me again at 6.30am and then said "only if you're not too tired".

Soooo... pretty tired today! I was going to Tesco for mum's food shopping and made the mistake of "popping in" to Ikea on the way. You don't just pop in to Ikea though - it's at least a 4 mile hike from entrance to exit!!! Ah well, got what I wanted so that's the main thing.

Dad seems down today. I came back from my 4 hour shopping trip and walked in to his room. I asked him if he was ok. "No". He's cut his finger on the hoist while pulling himself over, and its really sore. Also, he's fed up of his hearing playing up. I said that he looked tired today. "I am".

Poor Dad. I suppose its inevitable we'll have days like this after a good day like yesterday. He's not really been in the mood to chat so we've kept it functional. He wasn't even in the mood for chat with the Doc or Carers. Dr Rathbone has reduced some of his diuretics as she doesn't want him to get dehydrated now it is warmer (plus he doesn't seem to be retaining fluid). She also said those meds are weight - related and they estimate he's down to 11stone now (from 18.5 stone in January???). That is over a 100lbs weight loss in 4 months. I don't think he's that light yet.... maybe 12 or 13 stone?

I feel bad about something from last night. Mum came in and said that between them they'd managed to drop Dad's sputum pot on the carpet and it had emptied out. I knew she'd struggle to clear it up (bending isn't easy for her and I doubt she relished doing it anyway) but my offer to help was pretty half hearted. I can handle toileting stuff, and blood. Even the pressure sore wound and vomiting (just about) but the sputum pot fills me with horror. I avoid it like the plague. So there is my confession for the week. Sorry mum, I should have got up and done it for you.

On the topic of Mum - I think I may have mentioned how disorganised she is! She has a habit of walking around the flat with things and just randomly leaving them where they don't belong. This often results in many minutes spent searching for stuff - the remote controls for the TV and DVD players usually (there are 4 of these!!!). She also has a way of starting one job and then moving on to another without ever finishing the first, so we follow her round and guess what she was about to do and then just do it for her anyway! And finally, she causes herself a huge amount of work by never, ever putting things away after using them... even when she's next to the place where they belong. Even to the point of not closing drawers behind her (when she does this in Dad's room it drives him potty!). It's like she gets within an inch of where she needs to be and then gets distracted and wanders off.

Anyway, to assist with the problem of missing remote controls, we got mum a pouch thing that you put over your armchair to hold the remotes. Just think Mum, we said, how wonderful it will be when the remotes are always where you put them - in the pouch. How much time and leg wear you'll save. Yes, she totally brought into this fantastic idea, and we spent hours trying to encourage her to use the damn thing. I went home one Friday and when I got back on the Monday the pouch was nowhere to be seen. I confronted Mum to be met with 101 different reasons why it wasn't suitable (kept slipping down the chair, pockets in it too shallow.....). So, once again I failed in my mission to get mum organised.

Today in Tesco I spotted Gardeners Tool Belts - wow, I thought, a remote control pouch for round the waist! I had to buy one... Mum was quite taken with it, even though I'd only brought it in for a laugh. She walked round with it on for, oh at least 10 minutes.

I promised a list of our daily routine - I'm still working on it.
In addition, I think I'll do a list of all the medical paraphenalia that has invaded my parents house..... we spend hours each week doing inventories of it all so we can make sure we have ample supplies of important items. So, I'll put it on my list of things to do.

Popped to Lorraine's tonight to look at her new frock (she has a summer ball at the weekend) which is gorgeous. Then back here for a shower before watching Big Brother. And now it is 12.30am and I am waiting for Dad to tell me he's ready to settle. He did warn me it might be after 1am.... after his restless night last night he's determined not to go to sleep too early tonight.

So, at quarter to one I started to wash Dad's arms (which get itchy and need washing and ointment putting on) and his head. We have a new routine! Because of the soreness of Dad's skin, we have constructed these "elbow pads" out of cut up cotton vests - apparently just the thing for sore skin. We'd been taping them round Dad's arm but tonight we discovered some very light stretchy tubular bandaging that fits over them just nicely, and keeps them in place. Hopefully they'll hold over night.