Healing time

This morning I feel as Evel Knievel’s mother must have felt. So proud of my wife and yet so afraid of what is to come. 

When I got to her room this morning, music was coming through her open door loudly. It was “Amazing Grace” by Elvis Presley, one of her favorite CDs. I found her sitting in her chair in her nightgown, and she smiled and kissed me when I came in and told her who I was. She always loves to see me.

I sat down in the wheelchair beside her, with a coffee mug in my hand, and started talking with her. Then I noticed a soggy diaper on the floor next to the bed. I picked it up and put it in the trash, and assumed the nurse had forgotten to pick it up after changing her.

Carolyn was getting sleepy, so I put her to bed, and after she closed her eyes to sleep, I went out to talk to the nurse about Carolyn’s morning. I told her about finding the diaper on the floor, and she said she had not changed her, and wondered if Carolyn had done it herself. I didn’t think so, since I didn’t think Carolyn was walking yet due to the pain.

When I went back to the room, Carolyn was getting out of bed. I asked her if she needed to use the restroom, and she said yes. So I moved her into the wheelchair and trundled her into the bathroom. I lifted her nightgown and was surprised to see she had no underwear on at all. That could have been bad, but her nightgown was dry, as was her bed and chair where she had been sitting.

I put clean diapers on her, after washing her front and back with the bidet, and wheeled her back to bed. She wanted to lay down and sleep some more. When I stood her up beside the bed, she shuffled herself forward and turned and sat down on the bed. This is one week after she fell and broke her pelvis. I have never met a tougher woman. She has always healed fast, but this is amazing!

I went back out in the hall and told the nurse she was right, that Carolyn had taken her diapers off herself. Either she took them off or they fell off as she got out of bed. 

I don’t know at this time whether she got across the room, put on the CD of Elvis, and then came back and sat down all by herself, or someone else helped her. The nurse on duty said it wasn’t her.

If she is actually up and about again, I guess the respite from worry about her falling is over. She is still sleeping more than she did, and maybe she is replacing pacing the halls with relaxing to music. I can always hope.

As they say, Hope Forever Springs Eternal. Not much choice at this point.