Friday, June 17, 2005
The cramp. The acetaminophen.
I think the cramp is a bit more than a cramp. It's been bothering her more than either of us expected since yesterday. I think it may be a minor internal bruise from her pole trick at the mall when she decided to sit on her walker against my advice. No bruising on the outside, though, and I can't feel any obvious swelling. When I palpate the area it's 50/50 whether I'm going to set of a twinge. It might be a cracked lower rib but she is having no pain when breathing and the only pain she seems to experience is when she leans over acutely, which usually happens when she stands up on her own. So I've been helping her rise and sit. She's perfectly fine walking, lying down, etc. I decided, though, to give her extra strength acetaminophen (dosages catalogued at the Tests & Meds site for today). It seems to be making a difference. I've been asking her to distraction, under every condition possible, if her right side hurts and it seems to only be bothering her when the acetaminophen wears off, and then only slightly. A couple of times when I've asked she's looked at me as though I was nuts and said, "Why should my right side hurt?!?", so I think we're all right. Since this has been going on for a couple of days, possibly since the mall trip, if she is bleeding internally from an injury her stats from her draw this morning may very well indicate this, assuming, of course, that the bleeding is fairly significant.
The draw and cup peeing went without a hitch. I got caught up in a phone call with MCS so we got a later start than I had planned. The day is unrolling on what would be a normal schedule for Mom.
Not sure whether I'll have much more to report later besides Dinner Stats. I've got an early date with a fax machine tomorrow and then an essentials trip to Costco before we head down to the Valley on Tuesday. I thought I'd get both in before Mom awoke and I should be able to accomplish this.
Truth is, I'm not really looking forward to the trip this time. It isn't the heat. Even though we live up here exclusively now, I'm so familiar with summer in the Phoenix metroplex that I don't have a problem with it. Neither does Mom. I don't know, it just seems like so much work and I seem to be feeling the need to slack off. Normally we make the trip a big production, plan on visiting friends there, etc., but I'm not up for all the extra work of keeping my eye on Mom while wanting to pay close attention to my friends. And the added driving, the inevitable smoking throughout the evening that will end up giving me a couple of insufferable nights afterward when I have to again explain the whole story about why Mom no longer smokes and include the truth about her smoking for one evening once in a while, and listening to her insist that she has decided she wants to smoke, again, then, me having to tell her that I won't allow it because her health is so much better now and it's easier for me to take care of her without the frequent health collapses that were definitely precipitated by her smoking...ohhhh...I don't want to get into it. I feel pretty bad about disappointing our friends. But, aside from being fairly mellow, right now, I'm also tired and I don't want any more excuses for having to do more work than necessary.
So, well, whatever. Later.
The draw and cup peeing went without a hitch. I got caught up in a phone call with MCS so we got a later start than I had planned. The day is unrolling on what would be a normal schedule for Mom.
Not sure whether I'll have much more to report later besides Dinner Stats. I've got an early date with a fax machine tomorrow and then an essentials trip to Costco before we head down to the Valley on Tuesday. I thought I'd get both in before Mom awoke and I should be able to accomplish this.
Truth is, I'm not really looking forward to the trip this time. It isn't the heat. Even though we live up here exclusively now, I'm so familiar with summer in the Phoenix metroplex that I don't have a problem with it. Neither does Mom. I don't know, it just seems like so much work and I seem to be feeling the need to slack off. Normally we make the trip a big production, plan on visiting friends there, etc., but I'm not up for all the extra work of keeping my eye on Mom while wanting to pay close attention to my friends. And the added driving, the inevitable smoking throughout the evening that will end up giving me a couple of insufferable nights afterward when I have to again explain the whole story about why Mom no longer smokes and include the truth about her smoking for one evening once in a while, and listening to her insist that she has decided she wants to smoke, again, then, me having to tell her that I won't allow it because her health is so much better now and it's easier for me to take care of her without the frequent health collapses that were definitely precipitated by her smoking...ohhhh...I don't want to get into it. I feel pretty bad about disappointing our friends. But, aside from being fairly mellow, right now, I'm also tired and I don't want any more excuses for having to do more work than necessary.
So, well, whatever. Later.
