Chapter 231 - Urgency
Five times till 1AM, then 4AM then 5:45AM she said. That's after we went to bed about 11:30PM and she had her meds at midnight. She had a bad night. A few nights ago she only rose once. This morning as I came to she was sitting on the side of her bed. In her dressing gown. She got back into bed but she became "tangled", unable to move into a comfortable position due to the dressing gown. She needs to have a slippery nightie on to move easily on the satin draw sheet. I helped her; she decided to go outside to the TV. I stayed up as well; had breakfast, she a slice of toast & a chai latte. I put the little fan heater on for her & a little later she was too hot so I turned it off. The day has begun again.
Yesterday I photographed another urine test strip dipped in her 6AM sample. At the 2 minute point the leukocyte tab had not changed colour; after an hour or so a pale mauve. So there remains a trace of infection. But since her night time frequency remains irregular yet mostly excessive irrespective of whether the leukocyte tab changed to purple within 30 secs (the suggested "reading" time is 2 minutes) or not it seems to me that UTI is not the major cause of her night time difficulties.
I'm tired. I should have stayed in bed for another hour or two of sleep this morning, even though she did not disturb me during the night. I don't mind staying awake to around midnight although last night I was keen for bed around 10PM to read for awhile but needed to stay up because she fears remaining up when I am in bed, "You will go to sleep & not hear me if I call". So I treadmilled for a 1/2 hour while watching a lecture on a DVD. So if I go to bed "early" she needs to come to bed as well & is then uncomfortable until her midnight meds. She says going to bed is the worst part of the day.
These days I attend a discussion group once a month. I had suggested that we go to lunch at the club after I returned at noon, bursting for a piss. Forgive an old man's concentration on bladder retention issues. After lunch I went again. Then after shopping & home about 4 PM I needed the loo again. Fair enough for an old bloke I suppose after a coffee with lunch & another after shopping, yet she did not need to go until we returned home. At night time, in bed, that is a different matter with her.
More about super market shopping on Thursday. We drove from the club around to Coles' car park. She collected her new glasses from the optometrist; we left meds prescriptions at the chemist, we checked KMart, unsuccessfully, for the royal wedding DVD (later I ordered it from the "Noise" shop over the street) before the supermarket, she pushing the trolley as a walker with me pulling the trolley at the side to relieve her of the weight. Bad timing; 3 parts of the way around she needed her 3PM meds and feeling to unstable to take them standing she staggered out of the supermarket to a bench seat near the chemist. I continued in a hurry to collect the remaining items on her list. Then she called me on the phone (or was it the CB? I don't remember) to say she was unable to rise from the bench seat. So leaving the trolley in the aisle I rushed through the bottle shop, helped her up & helped her back into the supermarket where she needed some hair spray & things to complete our shopping. Then as we queued at the checkout she had to leave the supermarket to find a seat outside, for while she moves she is OK but when she stops walking she begins to wobble & shake. As we walked by the little coffee shop that sells my favourite pear & walnut cakes I tempted her with another coffee. She readily agreed. Later she told me that she agreed simply because she did not feel up to going all the way out to the car park.
She has been stitching another calendar and fiddling with some pretty pieces of fabric. She wants me to digitise & stitch an image of a church for a friend's wedding anniversary; rather than copy a photo off the web, I suggested we drive to the place, an hour away, to take my own picture. I wonder whether the thought of driving today caused her a bad night; she puzzled this morning whether today was the last day of school holidays (suggestive of busy roads). Anyway, I decided not to drive, today's weather looks lousy so I will disregard copyright instead.
I see on my gauge that the wind is blustering up to 28km/hr, just enough to roar around the eaves & whistle occasionally. It's cold in my dungeon. She calls on the CB for another bottle of water. When I take it to her she says she feels like going back to sleep; I do too, I turned the heating on in the bedroom; I'm yawning. Should the phone ring before lunch time I may become abusive.
Yesterday I photographed another urine test strip dipped in her 6AM sample. At the 2 minute point the leukocyte tab had not changed colour; after an hour or so a pale mauve. So there remains a trace of infection. But since her night time frequency remains irregular yet mostly excessive irrespective of whether the leukocyte tab changed to purple within 30 secs (the suggested "reading" time is 2 minutes) or not it seems to me that UTI is not the major cause of her night time difficulties.
I'm tired. I should have stayed in bed for another hour or two of sleep this morning, even though she did not disturb me during the night. I don't mind staying awake to around midnight although last night I was keen for bed around 10PM to read for awhile but needed to stay up because she fears remaining up when I am in bed, "You will go to sleep & not hear me if I call". So I treadmilled for a 1/2 hour while watching a lecture on a DVD. So if I go to bed "early" she needs to come to bed as well & is then uncomfortable until her midnight meds. She says going to bed is the worst part of the day.
These days I attend a discussion group once a month. I had suggested that we go to lunch at the club after I returned at noon, bursting for a piss. Forgive an old man's concentration on bladder retention issues. After lunch I went again. Then after shopping & home about 4 PM I needed the loo again. Fair enough for an old bloke I suppose after a coffee with lunch & another after shopping, yet she did not need to go until we returned home. At night time, in bed, that is a different matter with her.
More about super market shopping on Thursday. We drove from the club around to Coles' car park. She collected her new glasses from the optometrist; we left meds prescriptions at the chemist, we checked KMart, unsuccessfully, for the royal wedding DVD (later I ordered it from the "Noise" shop over the street) before the supermarket, she pushing the trolley as a walker with me pulling the trolley at the side to relieve her of the weight. Bad timing; 3 parts of the way around she needed her 3PM meds and feeling to unstable to take them standing she staggered out of the supermarket to a bench seat near the chemist. I continued in a hurry to collect the remaining items on her list. Then she called me on the phone (or was it the CB? I don't remember) to say she was unable to rise from the bench seat. So leaving the trolley in the aisle I rushed through the bottle shop, helped her up & helped her back into the supermarket where she needed some hair spray & things to complete our shopping. Then as we queued at the checkout she had to leave the supermarket to find a seat outside, for while she moves she is OK but when she stops walking she begins to wobble & shake. As we walked by the little coffee shop that sells my favourite pear & walnut cakes I tempted her with another coffee. She readily agreed. Later she told me that she agreed simply because she did not feel up to going all the way out to the car park.
She has been stitching another calendar and fiddling with some pretty pieces of fabric. She wants me to digitise & stitch an image of a church for a friend's wedding anniversary; rather than copy a photo off the web, I suggested we drive to the place, an hour away, to take my own picture. I wonder whether the thought of driving today caused her a bad night; she puzzled this morning whether today was the last day of school holidays (suggestive of busy roads). Anyway, I decided not to drive, today's weather looks lousy so I will disregard copyright instead.
I see on my gauge that the wind is blustering up to 28km/hr, just enough to roar around the eaves & whistle occasionally. It's cold in my dungeon. She calls on the CB for another bottle of water. When I take it to her she says she feels like going back to sleep; I do too, I turned the heating on in the bedroom; I'm yawning. Should the phone ring before lunch time I may become abusive.
posted by Kilpike | 7:32 am
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