And Also...

Well, she's gone to bed--yeah! No, really, I'm not so happy when she goes to bed early because I feel so lonely! Yes, I know, poor me. She's in the coughing, doggone it. Now she's telling someone nighty night. It was so funny the other day--she was napping and all of a sudden she started mumbling. Then she said, "Jesus, ah [as in a sigh]." Jo and I just cracked up. I guess you had to be there.

I was just thinking that maybe my back is hurting me so much because I've been pulling her up in her bed. She gets in bed--well, she sits down on the edge and sometimes she can scoot herself back a bit and then I usually lift her legs up onto the bed (I try to wait to see if she can do it herself but I get impatient), but she can't get herself up high enough so that her upper body is at a proper angle when I raise the head of the bed, so I have to pull her up toward the head of the bed. I used to hate doing this and one time even burst out crying because I was so sick and tired myself--I think it was when she had that cyst on her wrist. I've gotten a better attitude about it because it's just a necessary thing, but it's certainly not fun to do. I've tried lowering the railing before she sits down on the edge of the bed, so she'll be higher up, but she needs to hold onto the railing when she scoots herself back. If she doesn't scoot back, then when I put her legs up onto the bed, she's over to close to the edge. As it is, I usually have to try to move her over more anyway--something else that's probably hurting my back. For a long time I didn't worry about her being up so high in the bed, but when she's got a cough or having a lot of chest pain, I think it's imperative that she be sitting up more instead of lying too flat. Why are things so complicated? Well, I've got to figure something out. Hey, maybe I'll take a hot bath since she's gone to bed early! That's just a temporary fix but you've got to start somewhere!

Oh, I wanted to mention an annoying problem. We got down to our last Poise panty, so I switched over to the pads. (It's about 50/50 whether she makes it to the potty in time.) Well, the pad didn't stick to her underwear properly and got stuck to the toilet seat on her port-a-potty. What a mess! How am I ever going to get it off? Just one of those strange nuisances in the life of a caregiver.

Before I go get my bath, I wanted to put in a plug for a product and company that I love: Grandma Jansen's tea from Tea Gschwendner. It's an herbal tea with cinnamon, orange peel, hibiscus and chamomile blossoms, rose hips, and apple pieces. Yum! It just makes you feel all warm and toasty inside--but I make it twice as strong as they recommend. Tea Gschwendner is a German tea company and they make the most amazing blends--lots of herbal and fruit teas. My favorite black tea is the English Westminster blend of Assam, Ceylon, and Java tea. It's not cheap, of course, but this one of the ways I treat myself since I'm not paid any wages, per se.