Not a good start to a weekend...

This new territory of Hospice and medications is a new experience for me that I'd like to share with other folks so they can understand what to expect if they are to choose this path.

First off. Thursday night was one of 'those' nights. Rich had trouble sleeping and would wake up and sit on the edge of the bed for a hour or so at a time with his CPAP on. Sometimes he'd turn the light on and sometimes he wouldn't. 

I'd hear it and get up to check on him. He said. "I'm fine. Just can't sleep."

Finally at 3:30 he was up once more and called my name. I drug myself out of bed and answered the 'call'.

By 4 we were having coffee and as I was making a cup for myself. He suddenly called for a bucket as he was having the heaves. He had a bit of nausea that eventually passed and I made him his breakfast by 5ish.

By 6 he was ready to go back to bed, which he did for an hour and then was awake again. 

The new medication that replaced Prednisone was dexamethasone which helps him breath much better but has nausea and insomnia as some of the side effects. IF anyone is going to have side effects, it is my husband. 

A good side effect was getting his appetite back. 

That passed and by the time I made CrossFit and picked up a few things in town, I'd already put in an 8 hour day. 

Late Friday night, Charlie woke me up by standing on my chest. I told him to go back to sleep. Then ick. I heard the retching. The poor thing, poor me. By 3am Charlie finally settled down after being ill quite a few times.

This morning he is refusing to eat so I'm going to make some cooked rice for him. -- He has had water.

My other half got up complaining of a tummy ache and feeling off. Now hubby takes some pretty powerful opiods to ease the pain of breathing [I cannot imagine since it is no effort for me]. 

A side effect of these meds is...well. You know. Constipation. We have meds to counteract that side effect but once in a while when prunes and prune juice doesn't work.

Um. Other efforts must be done.

I won't go into detail. 

But let's just say that 'we worked things out'. 

We had a bit of a chuckle when we were all done. 

Now back to nursing Charlie. There are no small animal veterinarians available in our rural area on weekends. So I'll be working on him next and doing some cuddling with the little guy.

We never quite know where life is going to take us and I must say that my experiences with hubby, my MIL, FIL, and my father have proven invaluable. I've learned so much about elder care and caring.

Not a thing that happened to me this day was 'disgusting' or gross. As they say "Shit happens".

My one grand daughter was curious about these things. She said she wanted to learn about this process we call life and elder and end of life care so that it wouldn't be such a shock when she encounters it with her own folks.

She said her mom keeps getting shocked and surprised by the things she has to do for her great grandmother [96] and her mom [mostly blind]. 

Life is a process. I've had so many great years with my soul mate that I don't mind caring for him. It is a reflection of caring and love.

Sure, some days I feel it is a huge burden and I even get a bit tired of being 'on call' all of the time. I am going to call my social worker from the VA [if they still have jobs!] and set up a companionship day each week for hubby. 

It will give me a break one day a week for a few hours to go hiking and doing outdoor photography.

You all have a great weekend!

I see snow in our forecast for tomorrow after an 80 degree day yesterday!

Both patients seemed to be recovering. So now I am going to let my laundry fold itself while I get out a clean blanket and read a book until I fall asleep. Wait...does laundry fold itself???

Hubby and Charlie are snuggled in taking a nap. How sweet is that?