Rough Night

Mom had a rough night. Around 10pm, she was transferred into a air pressurized bed. She was fearful of the transition and crying with anxiety. Once moved, she had some rest for about a half hour. However, that was how her rest continued for most of the night. At most, she would have half hours of rest. But, then they were followed by pain, moans, and often incessant "Oh God" laments. Sometimes, I would put my hand over hers and try to talk encouragingly to her. A couple of times that helped and she fell back asleep. Sometimes I would pray. Sometimes I would just lay and in my mind, yell at God. At one point, I went to adjust her bed. The area where her legs were seemed deflated and the nurse had showed me how to adjust the machine. I hit the wrong button and it turned the whole bed off. Then Mom was in more pain saying that it was from the bed. I rushed to have the nurse come. She came with someone and with a push of a few buttons they restarted the bed. That bought another half hour of relief. I had to call the nurses station twice just for them to change IVs due to the incessant beeping. The nurse was great in coming faithfully every 2 hours on the dot to provide pain medicine.

I don't know how anyone truly rests at hospitals with pages happening so often, constant beeping, people busting into the room loudly and throwing the light switches on. At 7:45, a physical therapist came in to move mom while she rested. I sat up and looked at him and said, "She is not receiving PT, we are doing everything we can so that she is comfortable." He gave me a look of understanding and said that he would go check her chart.

Shortly after that, change of shift time occurred and nurses came to change moms sheets- a grueling and painful process. She also used the bathroom so they had to clean her. Fortunately, my sister came in around that time to relieve me from my post and was able to aid the transition. Exerted by the pain, once covered and clean, mom started to rest.

A nice woman (who we have met before) came to visit us from Hospice and Palliative Care. Her purpose is to ensure moms comfort. She is considering giving mom a pain pump that she can press at her leisure every 6 minutes. It maxes out during the hour, but resumes its new level at the new hour. Her concern was that moms new bed may be causing her more pain. They are working on seeing if they can score her one of the ICU beds. ICU owns their particular beds and they are just for ICU. So, if we were able to score one or one like theirs- that would be its own blessing. The wound care people came at the request of the Hospice woman. They wanted to gauge the level of her wound so that they can make an assessment as to how to alleviate its pain. We were told they may be able to deaden the area. But, she has been resting so well, we didn't want her to be disturbed yet again. I think the wound care duo felt this concern and did not push turning her over to see it. Fortunately, we have chronicled moms journey with pictures and Jenn had the most recent bedsore picture taken a few days ago in her phone. We sit now and wait to see the status of the bed, the plan for pain medication, and the action plan for the wound.