My day from 5:30am to Noon

Published on by Grace

~ Get up at 5:30am to go to the bathroom and empty husband’s urinal- for the 3rd or 4th time during the night. Husband sits up says “Are we up?” I say I guess so.

~ Walk to kitchen, turning on all the lights as I go along, switch on the coffee pot (prepared the night before).

~ Back to the bedroom, put my husband’s safety belt on, get his walker, haul him up, walk him to the dining room, get him in a chair.

~ Walk back to rear bathroom, do my teeth. Walk back to kitchen and get my husband’s tooth brushing/denture stuff, supervise the whole tooth brushing thing. Wash up all that paraphernalia.

~ Pour out two cups of coffee. Get the newspaper. Finally sit down, read paper with coffee.

~ Get husband’s morning meds.

~ Nuke two breakfast sandwiches.

~ Have second cup of coffee, clear out email on iPad.

~ Move husband to recliner. He shaves his face while

~ I take my shower and dress. Back to living room.

~ Husband needs bathroom. Get him there. (He uses the hall bathroom) While he’s doing his thing, I gather stuff for his morning sponge bath. Today will be a ‘spa’ day.

~ Get him back to living room & recliner. Clean the the bathroom.

~ Move him again to the dining table so he can sit in a straight back chair.

~ Cut his hair, give him a mini-facial and a sponge bath. Put him in clean clothes and back to the recliner.

~ Start to put everything away and he needs the bathroom again. Safety belt back on, back to the bathroom.

~ While he’s in the bathroom I wash up the breakfast things and incidentally clean the microwave.

~ Get him back from bathroom to recliner. Clean the bathroom – again.

~ Vacuum the living/dining room because – haircut debris.

~ Fill both of our weekly pill dispensers.

~ Do an Amazon order for more pills etm.

~ Take a break, sort through email.

~ Start lunch (our main meal of the day) – linguini with clam sauce. Put a Marie Callender pumpkin pie in the oven.

Warring aromas of pumpkin and garlic…

In between all this I have fetched and carried water, yogurt and cigarettes for my husband.

~ While the linguini is cooking I’m typing this. Oh look I’m sitting down!

It’s close to 12:30 and the linguini is just about done…Off I go.

FYI: this is the floor plan of my apartment –

 

16 thoughts on “My day from 5:30am to Noon”

  2. That’s a whole lot of tasks in 7 hours and I imagine that the next 7 hours are just as packed. Lunch sounds delicious so I hope you were able to sit and enjoy it awhile.

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    1. That is just about every morning. After lunch things slow down. Afternoons are usually clean up the kitchen, fluff the bed, go through his exercises with him, and some miscellaneous chores – laundry maybe, clean the other bathroom, dust, vacuum the whole apartment, – whatever needs doing. There is always the fetching thing and the emptying of urinals. Around 3:30 we have coffee – it seems like I am forever washing cups and coffee pots. It takes 20 minutes to get him to bed at night.

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  3. That is a lot of work. I find I need two cups of coffee to finish editing my novel for my publisher. Having a Keurig cuts down on washing coffee pots as there are none. Wishing you the best. Have you thought of having someone help you with your husband?

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    1. Thanks for your good wishes. We tried k-cup coffee and didn’t care for it – so I wash cups and coffee pot 3 times a day – it’s really no big deal I’m just so tired – been on this schedule for months and I’m too old for this shit!

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      1. I tend to take the simple route. My husband, retired military, leads me this way. He has some good examples!! And suggestions. Wishing for you an easier time. I like the introduction to your blog.

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    1. Mornings ARE exhausting and I’m not a morning person but things calm down and slow down in the afternoons and then around 5pm things can get a little busy…I get up 3 or 4 times during the night to empty George’s urinal so I don’t get a lot fo sleep…

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    1. No I don’t – his needs are somewhat constant but unpredictable. When he was in the nursing home in January I had to hire, for $35 an hour, someone to watch him sleep! He was disoriented and not mentally stable and tried to get out of bed during the night. During the day I was there for 12-14 hours to ‘mind’ him. Now it’s just a matter of getting food and drink, emptying his urinal, and giving him a sponge bath or taking him to the bathroom – none of those things are done on a predictable schedule so I’m up and down like a jack in the box. I should hire someone to help with the housework but there are problems with that which I won’t go into. My biggest problem is transportation to doctors – there are senior transportation services but they are not reliable, most are volunteer based. There is a service from the local Metro system for disabled people but you have to show up in person to apply for this service – how stupid is that! It is also notoriously unreliable.

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        1. Not so much hard as exhausting and frustrating and when it comes to transportation expensive but this is not my first time with this situation – what is most exhausting is that he was just recovering from the January disaster when he precipitated this one. He broke his left hip 3.5 years ago and that was a learning experience. After the seizure in January and him learning how to walk again (never mind the disorientation and confusion) to have him fracture his right hip just as I was catching a break and getting some sleep – Boom – he pulls an asshole move and we are right back to square one….And then again the reason I am without any friends support is also his doing…Yesterday was our 33rd wedding anniversary – Big Mistake!

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