Chapter 29 - Good with the Not So

Last Wednesday our friends from the hot air town called in for lunch on their way home from up north. She quite enjoyed the visit; sometime since the girls had been face-face. We had a BBQ for lunch. Then in the evening the quilt group in our village. By 10pm her evening meds had not kicked in so we watched more than a couple of episodes of "Some Mothers do 'av 'em", that old Pommy series, (our DVD order for the two series arrived today) until 12:30am and I'm not sure that did either of us much good for inducing sleep.

Then another social whirlwind day on Thursday when we visited the home of two new friends we recently made (wrong word, friends happen spontaneously) living on some bush acres not far from here. She surprised me - she strolled unaided with her friend around bush path around the dam while we blokes trailed some distance behind. Uneven surface, sticks, leaf litter. That night was another bad one when she was unable to sleep until 3am.

Next morning I was in my dungeon when she surprised me, showered, dressed and her hair in her towelling turban (dries her hair without muscular effort on her part) at 10am. She then ruined a good start to the day by causing herself some hip pain and back ache by stooping to pick up clothes to place in the washing machine. In the afternoon she completed the sitting-on-chair portion of the PD exercises. Although only lasting for no more than half an hour, she was very tired, hot and sweating at the end, so to bed for an hour. Later we walked the village for fresh air. She was able to sleep from about 1:30am.

On Saturday she again appeared at 10am showered and dressed. Today she went through the exercises at 11am with much the same result. She became hot then cold. Rather than bed, she attempted the relaxation procedures at the end of the recording. She then complained of a headache caused by the effort needed to follow the instructions spoken softly over sleep-inducing music while watching (should one's eyes be open) beautiful waterfall scenes on the TV. I find this intriguing - this is opposite to the desired effect! I can remember many years ago her saying that she could not visualise her bodily extremities becoming "heavy, soft, floating etc" at some relaxation classes she attended, no matter how "hard" she concentrated. I am unable to explain it to her. She also had balance and relaxation problems on the several occasions she attempted Tai-chi. Some short periods of machine embroidery, but not for long because of back aches and finger tremors when threading the needle. Automatic needle threaders are like food-stuffs, only 97% fat free.

I awoke at 2:30am this morning to her telling me she was taking a Kalma. In tears, she has been restless, uncomfortable, unable to sleep. These last few nights have possibly been a problem due to the exercise; I think she needs to continue. I see her lessening need for help to position herself in bed and her showering dressing abilities as positive signs. I woke at 7am this morning, tip-toed out for breakfast. I had started this blog chapter when she called me on the CB at 8am. She had not taken her 6:30am meds! Did we both sleep through the alarm? After helping her to the toilet I checked that the alarm was still primed for 6:30am; it was. Maybe she woke and automatically reached out and stopped it. Back into bed; I doubt we will make church today.