Stressed!

You should know that I have healed both shoulders to the point now where I can put most shirts on myself by myself, even if a few things still need an assist. I needed a clean one this morning and managed it myself, once I dealt with the sling by myself, both times. Why both? The first time after I tucked all the bits into their locations and got them smoothed around the lumpy parts of me, finally ready -I thought- to head out in public, I passed my bathroom mirror and happened to notice it was on backwards! There is a pretty printed design on the front, but now it showed on the back.  Hard to miss, you say? Sighhh... OK, off and redo. No further problem, with that at least. Who knows what other overlooked nonsense will pop up?

So why so late to figure out how much stress I was under? I was changing to go drive over to the local hospital, following with some delay the ambulance taking Steve back there. His ability to walk has rapidly been declining, he was feeling literally sick, and finally asked me to put in a 911 call. Not the "I've fallen" call, but "send me an ambulance" call. After much discussion of his circumstances, off they took him. I sorted the house as needed, like checking what food sat out, which clothes of his went in the "dirty" hamper, and returning pill bottles from where the paramedics were examining them to where they sit in a bag until the day-of-the-week holder gets restocked. Then off I went, though I did decide I'd better have something in me besides coffee and morning pills, and grabbed some graham crackers to crumb up the car. OK, in honesty, the front of that shirt too, but I brushed off what I couldn't collect and eat from a clean shirt first.

I sat with him in the ER for several hours, until they formally admitted him. Until then, he had several IVs pumping fluids, pain meds, and antibiotics into him, took a trip to X-ray and back while I hunted down the closest restroom, chatted with staff as they came and went giving my memories of what had been going on with him as opposed to his recollections, and so forth. I suspect it's why wives go to hospitals with their husbands. It's not for entertainment value, despite the need to crack the tension with something silly occasionally. No, I'm not sharing that comment with you though it did change one of the nurses' minds about how far to dim the lights on her way out. 

It didn't help that last night was not one of the nights I remembered to plug in my phone. Luckily I have a car charger for the unused lighter port that works when the car runs. By the time I parked at the hospital it had one full bar of charge. I could turn it on again. Calls were at a premium. We agreed to call Steve's daughter who is great at contacting everybody in the family as to what's going on. Most families I know seem to have one of those. Three short calls at different stages of information and decisions were managed, and I charged the phone again on my drive home mid afternoon. That was after he was admitted, finally promised a sandwich three hours after lunch was skipped, had his surgeon's input and recommendations, lined him up for OT and PT evaluations under his current status which had left him barely able to walk a single step on one leg. Right, so now we hear about how his surgery was extra technically difficult, which means it often leaves the patient much worst the next few days than when they were discharged. Somebody gave us the wrong bingo cards that didn't have that row of options on it! We are both used to at least slow improvements as days go by from healing. 

Oh well, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition either! What are we complaining about? He came home to walking with minimal assist from his walker, a good way to get up the stairs to the front door, and expectations of a more normal life than he'd just been having with that bad hip. Maybe next time he comes home? Will that be from the hospital again or from a few days in some care center? (Does Medicare still require three CONSECUTIVE days in the hospital before they start to pay for that? Daddy went through those hoops a few times in his last years.)

Tonight I'll be doing some cleaning, some laundry (his), a bit of TV watching, and hoping shoulder #2 which had been doing extra duty these last few days will settle down and quit griping without my needing to reach for my own unused Oxy. I'd recently found that wearing the soft sling to bed at night helped me sleep by minimizing pain to the point of no pills for it. I'd even quit Tylenol... till today. No choice. We had unreal expectations. 

Among those are a planned family party here for the weekend. We're telling people to stand by, don't cancel yet, we might have changes but cancelling is a last resort. We've got two phone trees going now. At least mine is the short one.

Oops, the washer is done with the first load. Hey, did I remember to check his pockets?????