Chapter 104 - Another Trip

I am typing this off-line in the van park out of town at POW. There are some minutes left on my purchase of an hour of on-line time that cost me $8; and I don’t wish to waste it. Did I describe the horror day we had last Friday? If not then I’ll perhaps get around to it another time. We have been here since Sunday, today we intend to travel about another 150kms to another place.

Saturday was a reasonable day when we should have left; although she did need dressing. After we attended the First of the Month byo lunch at our hall she even did some washing and packing of her clothes.

Sunday was quite different. Except for our booking at the PD conference in POW on Monday we would not have hitched the van to travel over here. Her night had been quiet, only rising twice. Although she was able to breakfast at 7:30am her shakes prevented her showering until after 10am. She had attempted to shower after breakfast but felt to weak & unstable, just as on that Saturday we attended the wedding. Of course she was stressed by 10am. She needed help to finish showering to remove shampoo from her hair, although I didn’t do a good job as indicated by the flakes that needed to be combed from her hair later when she appeared to have a bad case of dandruff. She needed complete help with her dressing. She sat in her chair most of the time while I completed packing the van. She stayed in the house all the while, until I drove to the van to hitch, then she got out of the truck to check the van lights for me; that was the only involvement she had in preparing to leave, which is saying something because she normally checks to see what sort of mess I have made in the van. We left at 11:25am. She slept for much of the 2 hour trip. She has decided to return to meds at midnight and also 5am & that needs the alarm being set.

She slept well Sunday night, perhaps due to her new mattress. The 5am alarm was her only interruption during the night. The all day PD conference was most interesting, even useful. I ordered a DVD of proceedings to save me the chore of summarising them at our next local meeting at home. She said she had felt good all day except that her meds had a long kickin delay. Her ability to rise from chairs has deteriorated.

Tuesday, yesterday, we drove into town where she visited her favourite rag shop. I bought a small folding table for the van because we have removed the elongated table so that she can sit in the director’s chair I bought her last trip. Although better for her, she is having great difficulty rising even from that. The afternoon was enjoyed reading outside the van. Unfortunately, her left arm was exposed to the sun for awhile so last night she found that a rash and an itch had developed as tends to happen to her with too much sunlight. She also bruised one of her fingers attempting to open a meds bottle that had an idiot proof lid – she replaced the bottle because she can’t afford the hassle. All evening she practised rising from her chair, mostly unsuccessfully. This is bothering her a lot. I am trying to encourage her to march her feet while seated in the hope that will help her “talk” to her feet during standing attempts.

Our trip may be rather short.