Sunday

 I slept OK last night, pretty much, except for Ron asking for the wet wipes in the middle of the night.  He can get on the commode by himself these days which is a huge relief for me (means I can leave him for a few hours at a time), but the wipes had been moved a few inches, I had to get them for him.  I am FINE with that he is handling all that on his own, I just empty the pan.  It isn't the best thing in the world but I am OK with it.  

I have gotten used to it.  I went back to bed and slept OK.  I got up and gave him his medication, tried to to my God Time but had a big hairy Biscuit putting himself out there as GOD and wanting me to pray to HIM instead.  I let him get away with it, even Cleo got up on me.  My alarm went off at 8:50 for my groceries coming at 9, they ran off.  

Apparently they don't much like "Transformers" by Tedashii.  Their loss.  Groceries came on time, they made some substitutions but that was OK.  I got 3 1.25 liters of name brand Diet Coke instead of the generic 2 liter, that was fine.  I put it all away.  It is very easy for me to just put bags down in the house when I am depressed, and a few years back I resolved to put everything away the minute I brought it in the house.  It has worked well for me.  

They brought Ron's acid reducer.  Poor Ron, he is going the way of all seniors and getting more and more medications added to his list.  He is taking 2 seizure pills a day.  Necessary.  One blood pressure pill.  Absolutely necessary.  A multi vitamin.  Necessary considering his diet.  Antioxidants.  Ideal, I think.  Naproxen for his pain.  Necessary.  BUT primary doc said he needs to be on an acid reducer if he takes it long term, so I had to get that.  I found one with tiny little pills taken once a day.  He said the brand didn't matter as long as it was an acid reducer and this was one of the ones he named. It's a good thing Ron has a pills of the week organizer he needs it.  

I can't say enough about his willingness to take everything as directed.  It would be impossible for me if he didn't.  I am going to need to write all this down on a card.  But he will ask me when is his next dose, etc., which is good he is owning his health.  

I read something in my caregiver group the nurse wouldn't go in a home because they had cats.  WTF?  A dog I can understand but a cat will either stare at you, ignore you, or hide.  That is just STUPID.  I hope I don't have to deal with crap like this when I get Ron help.  

I mean, that's the logical progression, we will need to get some help now and then.  But I am pretty happy with him now especially on the seizure pills.  

I remember one time, about 8 years ago, I went out and he was drinking.  I came home and he was passed out on the floor next to his wheelchair, very disoriented.  At the time I chalked it up to the alcohol but I suspect he had a seizure.  These may have been going for a while and I was just missing them.  It is hard to say; but the medication is working great so I am very happy.  

I took a nap but woke up with a vicious headache.  I had to take some Excedrin.  But I did have Cleo with me during the nap.  Ron woke me up because he was cold and wanted me to turn up the thermostat.  I am giving him vitamins so hopefully that will help with the anemia.  I wasn't really annoyed because I did need to get up and take something for the headache anyway.  

When I get a headache I usually wake up to it; and I lie in bed trying to motivate myself to get up and take something.  It can take a little bit when I don't have an alarm.  

Of course these days I have pill time alarms on my cell phone for Ron.  That has been working pretty well.  The worst day so far I forgot to set an alarm but Ron woke me up and I got it anyway, on time.  But I just checked and all my alarms are good.  

Tomorrow I get to wash his hair.  I have some no-rinse shampoo I will try and see if that works.  Hopefully it will as there is no way I am getting Ron in the shower.  We have been doing the bed bath for a while so I am hoping we can just get him in the wheelchair and do his hair that way.  We will see.  Worst case I think the techs have a rubber cap they can put on his head.  

I am unclear whether he had an EEG after the accident, his family were very secretive and met with some of his doctors behind my back.  Like the time my sister in law told me she met with "The brain doctor, and he told me Ron's brain was spinning in his head, and every time the brain turned around it would press on the 'bad spot' and that's what's causing the [coma]."  I was horrified.  What must this poor man have thought of someone so ignorant?  I had no idea how to explain that is not how the brain works at all, but his family were sitting around talking about of course the brain spins around in our heads all day, everyone knows that.  OMG.  

I figured out, on my own, he had a shear injury which was really bad.  His brain actually twisted at the time of the accident, causing the coma, etc.  Instead of a few small areas of damage there was a large area.  But his family would have been even more determined to dump him had they understood this.  I was glad they didn't and I didn't tell them, either.  

Just like I told the nurse "Don't ever tell them he has had a stroke" so they would use terms like ICH.  They had no idea that meant "bleed stroke".  And the family wanted to seem more intelligent so they played like they understood.  

Yes, I had to do this.  But even knowing what they did they were hell bound to put him in a home.  They informed me I WOULD tell the professionals I was unable to take care of Ron, and then they would "have" to place him in a Medicaid home.  I refused to do that.  They went behind my back talking to Ron's doctors saying I was unsuitable.  They were laughed at, God love that doctor.  Then she was told I had "a bad back and could do no lifting" but the doctor told them she had seen me do just that and "Would do fine".  And I think overall he has done pretty well.  

He has harmed himself with drinking but other than that has a pretty good life.  He really enjoys laying in bed with the cats, listening to the radio.  

And I got sneaky.  He said he wanted wine instead of vodka so we did that.  He has to drink more liquid to get the same buzz so his urine actually looks normal now.  Thank God.  I was really worried about his kidneys.  He doesn't realize he has to go NPO (nothing by mouth, food or drink) tomorrow morning at 9.  I will let him know about 8, after I wash his hair.  

Yesterday I told him I was making a Walmart delivery (love them!) order.  He said he wanted "the meat in a cup".  I asked a few questions but couldn't nail it down.  I always try to have his favorites on hand, though, so I did order some Spaghettios with meatballs.  He loves those and wants some for dinner, tonight, actually.  Today, after they arrived, I realized that is what he had requested, but the file that stores names is damaged so he has trouble.  

He can remember the name of a girl he "played" with when he was 15 but doesn't know Spaghettios.  That's just the head injury.  I have to play guessing games sometimes but am pretty good at figuring out what he wants, most times, just because we do have almost 30 years together.  I am just glad we caught the high blood pressure - and that is such a God thing to allow 4 seizures to send us to the hospital where we find he has high blood pressure - before he had another stroke.  That would have been horrible and probably would have put him in a home. 

He is happy I just gave him a one ounce bag of generic brand BBQ potato chips.  He loves BBQ chips and I am not really a fan.  I got a variety pack for my hurricane kit but of course it went east, THANK YOU JESUS and we did not need it.  I ate most of the chips but not the BBQ.  

That's it for now.