Sunday, January 9, 2011

January 9, 2011

Yesterday I decided to visit Manor Care again and see what this nursing facility was like on a Saturday morning. I was able to meet a couple of patients, an occupational therapist, Holly, the nutritionist, a nurse, Wanda and the mother of a patient. This poor lady, Vickie, brought her 60 year old son there after he had a massive stroke. Before that he was taking care of her. So many sad sad stories. I've decided that this is where Jim should go after TIRR. I've looked at 4 nursing homes and I like this one the best. I could visit several more but they are not close to either home or the office. I need it to be close so I can spend a lot of time there with Jim.

Last night I went right to bed so I didn't blog. I decided to get to the hospital very early this morning so I could learn Jim's bowel program. I got to the hospital at 6 AM. Not all that much to it. I did learn that Jim needed to be getting stool softeners. I was there when the weekend doctor made his rounds and spoke to him about it. Jim's already had his first dose.

I cathed him twice yesterday and once today. The only difficulty is trying to hold slippery stuff while wearing gloves but I'm getting the hang of it.

After Jim's bowel program his roommate started on his. So, I left the room and went to the cafeteria. Then went back to the room and did the stretching exercises with Jim. His tech, Deborah was willing to give him a shower so I helped her. After that I fell asleep in the chair. The weekend nurse, Mary wanted to wake me up to do the next cath but I told her I wanted to sleep.

I woke up around 1:30 PM and got the tech to put Jim into his chair. Then we went to a weekend recreation group. We played UNO with one of the therapists, Lauren. Jim worked hard to try and pick up the cards. His right thumb is working pretty well but his index finger is not very cooperative.

We went to the cafeteria and he watched me eat a grilled chicken breast sandwich. Then we returned to his room. He finally trusted me enough to shave him. I did a good job - no nicks. He looks so much better.

Jimmy Perry came to visit him around 5 PM and I decided to leave. So, I'm having a early evening at home. I'm going to work on Jim's papers and clean up his office. That's where we keep all the tax records, etc.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God bless you, Joanne. What a day. Marguerite