Home time.

Its that time again, and I have had official confirmation from the hospice Staff Nurse that mum is to come home tomorrow. Having spoken to Jemma (apologies for earlier spelling her name Gemma), we have confirmed the arrangements for tomorrow.
She will be let go after lunch tomorrow, once she has food and meds inside her, and will be sent home with a dose-it box for her meds, and a nebuliser for her breathing. The nebuliser is her new best friend, and she is delighted with it.

The mattress however is another matter. The engineer came today to inspect and replace the air mattress (if required) but decided it is working fine, so there is no reason to replace it. Have a look at the picture and you decide if you could sleep on that. It has a rubber sheet over the top, but how the hell do you get on it?
So everyone from the district nurse to the hospice are aware that mattress is awkward as hell for mum, but apparently she needs to try it out, and use it in front of the district nurse, so she can be assessed, and they can decide if it indeed needs replacing for another style.

However.... Mum has other ideas. In her world she will simply NOT sleep in it at all, not even try it, but instead she will use her reclining chair to sleep in. Sadly she doesn't pay any attention to the fact that it will make her bed sores terrible, and just cause more discomfort. Oh well, there is no telling some people eh! So that's something that needs dealing with as soon as possible, but at a steady pace to allow mum to feel in control of the situation.

I have to say her walking is much improved, and she does her walks up the hallways to collect her wheelchair, and as a reward she gets to go out for a cigarette. As she does better with her walking, I have now increased her walks to return the wheelchair after a cigarette too. Positive rewards, and its working well. She has also championed getting out of low chairs, as well as kicking doors open. Mum is turning into a proper thug!

Work have just been informed that I will need to take tomorrow off due to mum coming home. Not sure how it really went down, but my manager was gracious and polite, so I don't feel any pressure from there about being off, for which I am grateful. Now to arrange with my sister with regards to what she plans to do tomorrow. With mum coming home at 12, and the first carer arriving at 3pm I wonder how she will fit in coming around to help mum settle home. Fingers crossed I will be back to work by Friday, and working out how this new routine of mine with working and caring is actually going to work. I do love a challenge.

I always dread mum coming home from hospital or the hospice. Not because I don't want her there, but not knowing what to expect. With her saying she is going to sleep in the chair, will go to the kitchen window to smoke when desperate etc. Then there is how much she will try and move about, will her eating and drinking habits change from what they are now (which is near perfection) and so on. Coming home sounds such a simple thing, but when you break it down, there are so many factors to consider its mind boggling.

Right, I'm getting dizzy thinking about it, so I'm off for some fresh air. Catch you soon.
Regards
Michael

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