3 months ago yesterday our lives as we knew them were shattered. You have no idea how happy the simple things in life make you until they were taken away.
My 74 year old husband of 35 years passed out in a grocery store while we were staying as a campground and away from home. He suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and after several weeks in a hospital and then rehab he is back home but still has a long ways to go if he is going to recover physically. He is a fall risk and cannot be left alone so since 9/1 I have been on essentially lock down with him.
While he was in the hospital, I was able to live at the campground since we were seasonal. I went to the hospital several hours a day. Eventually I had to close up the camper for the winter alone while having to still live there waiting to get him to a rehab at home. I am 67 years old and am still terrified at many levels. He requires much more care than they anticipated. He has pain from before the fall that prevent him from doing a lot of therapy but I do my best to get him up and about as much as I can. He also has cognitive issues that I hope will clear up but fear that they will not. The next morning he doesn't remember much from the prior day and by the afternoon he forgets the morning.
He has nighttime incontinence which is a blessing for the daytime but a trial to have to do so much laundry because it's epic. He knows he's wet and wants it to stop. The doctors think that he is retaining fluid all day and has recommended compression socks (which he hates) and him trying to pee every few hours during the day and he resists that. At night, when I take the socks off, he says he doesn't want toe wear them anymore but in the morning he forgets he said that.
Also he is a fussy eater and only eats a few items. The silver lining is that he doesn't get sick of eating those items because he doesn't remember eating them before. He wanted baked penne the other day and after exhaustive research I found a recipe that fit my pan (I don't want the carbs myself); made it; and he said it was good. Before he finished he said that parts he didn't like??? However, silver lining kicks in and he forgot that there was something he didn't like and has had it twice more. I think it's the meat. He does like the small lasagna's I make that don't have meat.
Anyway. There is way too much resistance on his part and I have to repeat a lot. There is a lot of whys and if I say that's what the doctor says he doesn't really remember his doctor since she was new to him. Fights going to bed; getting up in the morning; getting up to go to the bathroom; getting off the chair; doing exercises; drinking water; and using his walker.
Sorry for the long post and I didn't even get into my fears. Thanks for listening.
Nettie
