6 September 2025
It wasn't as quiet a week as it may appear so I'm taking moment this morning to catch up.
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FOR SOME REASON it's been very difficult to get a CNA to respond to the call light around 11:30. It must be a break time. We've waited 20 minutes for one even after I've let the head nurse know there's a problem. And the problem is that it's also when Joyce needs to change her pull-up.
So I've been getting her out of bed with her hospital socks on (which grip the floor), walking her to the bathroom and helping her change the pull-up. Because she's sitting on the toilet to clean up this also encourages the bowel movements the staff has been trying to induce with stool softeners.
Two birds, one stone.
I also take advantage of her standing position when pulling up the pull-up to rewrap her Ace bandage over both bandages on her wound. When they wrap it in bed, they never get above the bottom bandage, binding her leg.
They never started the scheduled toileting. But I guess I'm doing it once a day now.
She had red eye again but it was because she rubs her eyes with her long fingernails, which get dirt caught in them. There are eye drops in her drawer which clean things up immediately but I also cut her fingernails and cleaned them to prevent a recurrence. I guess this isn't covered by the staff either.
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MEANWHILE I had my annual wellness visit, which was a riot. I did a few more blood tests and everything is great. My primary said the stitches looked very well done, everything (meaning the wrinkles) matching up but it will take a year for the scar to diminish. She suggested I baby-proof the house. Ha ha.
I did get the stitches out earlier this week. And have been doing wound care on myself at home. Vashe, antibiotics, bandage. I don't want to scar people with my scar.
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THE LAST FRIDAY of August, Joyce had a triage interview with the psyche people (the department name is incomprehensible). Joyce was approved by the triage nurse for a half hour session later this month to discuss her anxiety.
There's been some strange episodes I'm chalking up to her anxiety. A call about someone taking her trekking pole. A call about a delivery no one expected, which turns out to be bandages for her wound. A call about a non-existent appointment on Saturday. Joyce or a befuddled nurse calls in response to Joyce's anxiety about the issue.
And she is always anxious about standing up and walking, even though we walk 300 feet to the scale every day and she does fine. But it does not escape me that she always has assistance walking. At least me. Two RNAs and me. She has just lost the ability to stand up by herself, stay standing and walk a few steps unsupported. Which complicates life at home.
Part of dealing with dementia is exercising, apparently. I take her to the gym every day to work on the SciFit, the Spirit Cycle or do a puzzle. The RNAs walk her on Mondays and do stairs on Thursdays. At home there would be none of this.
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THIS WEEK we both have appointments. Joyce has another evisit on Monday with the Memory Clinic nurse practitioner Saroya. She has a debridement on Wednesday. She gets her hair washed and cut by Jose on Thursday just before I get an injection for trigger finger in my left hand. And on Friday I have what I hope is my last CT scan from the original brain bleeds.