It has continued to be cold and white, with more on the way. My parents’ apartment was cold so we went and got a kerosene heater for them. It was a fun adventure driving to the neighboring city in order to find one in stock. The wind was blowing the snow across the road in such a fashion that it was not drifting just moving. It had a certain haunting beauty to it.
I was bundled up warm, in my heavy winter coat, after all anything below 10 degrees ought to be considered cold, right? Or am I just an ignorant southern girl? I was shocked to see people in town with light weight jackets on. At a gas station, I had to wonder about that young man with his jeans pulled down and his behind sticking out with nothing but a layer of cotton brief to keep it warm. A fashion statement is one thing but honestly, I hope he didn’t get frost bite on his bottom while standing there pumping gas.
Well, after delivering the kerosene heater and getting it set up the apartment got warm. Usually the apartment stays sufficiently warm, the thermometer usually reads 78 most all the time, although my mother will tell you differently. But the wind was blowing from the south so they did not have the extra insulation from the west and north walls and they were unable to maintain a temperature above 74. Mom is afraid of kerosene heaters and did not want to use it any more than necessary. We used one just like this one for years to reduce our electric bills in the winter time and so long as they are placed safely out of the way of people and things, they do a fine job of keeping one warm. We have been concerned about my parents if the power were to go out, so we feel much better knowing that we have a back-up heating source for them.
Hubby’s Dad has had a good week for the most part. We have introduced some more supplements and they have seemed to help with alertness and his ability to stay awake more. His mind is more alert, one day he spent the whole afternoon watching two movies with Racheal. She said he dozed through the first one but seemed to be fully engaged in the second one. This is a big improvement from where we were two weeks ago. There still seems to be some anxiety problems when Hubby is not in the room with him.
He is still not wanting to get up and walk much but we do find that he is restless a lot, fidgety and I suspect that is from perhaps feeling better and there is a certain amount of boredom setting in. It is hard to know how to address this.
Hubby has only raised his voice with him once this week…after the fact, I asked what had happened. Evidently, Dad wanted to go to bed. And he knows that there is a bathroom between the back room where he spends most of his time with the television set and the bedroom, but it has a very narrow doorway that his wheelchair will not go through. (Actually it has two such doors—one on both sides of the bathroom). He told Hubby that he wanted to go to bed and was going to go through that door! Hubby explained that the chair would not fit and rolled him up to it to show him. Evidently, Dad knew better and was going to prove his son wrong so he started to ram the chair through the door way, which was going to tear up the door molding and still not accomplish his trek to the other side.
Hubby has gotten a GP lined up and has an appointment sometime next week I think. Also, a new eye doctor is on the calendar.
We make him get up and walk at least two or three times a day. He is rarely self-motivated to work it. He had one really good day this past week when he walked several times and did well. But for the most part we have to make a point of “getting him” to do it. The other night he had a bit of a struggle and just sat down and claimed how sorry he was and refused to work at it any more. This defeatism kicks in frequently enough and it is something his son counsels him on every time it shows up. It is one thing to be tired or simply not up to doing something, it is another to sit down and claim you are too sorry (old) to try any more.
Hubby has had some exhausting nights this week. He said he was up at least once every hour last night and some times as much as three or four times. I got up early so that I could sit with his dad so hubby could get a couple of uninterrupted hours of sleep.
On a more positive note, the daughter with Lyme has had enough improvement that she actually went to sleep last night without any Benadryl! This is the first time in about three years that she has been able to just go to bed and sleep for six hours without anything to assist her!!