Thanksgiving and the Day After

Because of the pandemic, I had expected our Thanksgiving would be different, but I had no idea that we would be so directly affected by COVID. As it turned out, however, it was a Thanksgiving for which I was truly grateful. Kate’s coming home from the hospital made all the difference in the world. The bonus was that she was much stronger than I expected and appeared quite rested.

I will say that her return didn’t go exactly the way I hoped. When I spoke with the doctor that morning (Wednesday), she said that Kate would probably leave around 3:00 or 3:30. I conveyed that to the agency. They said they would have someone at the house by 4:00. At first, I thought that might not give me as much time as I wanted to brief her before Kate’s arrival.

That turned out not to be a problem. At 4:30, I received a call from the hospital saying they were about to release her. It’s a 20-minute ride from the hospital to our house, so I was confident they would be here by 5:00 or shortly thereafter. She didn’t arrive until 7:30. The CNA was scheduled to leave at 7:00 but stayed until 8:00. My uneasiness about Kate’s getting home so much later than expected was immediately forgotten when I saw her.

Once she was in bed. I played YouTube videos that she enjoyed until after I had showered and was ready for bed. It was a lot like our lives before she left for the hospital.

Thanksgiving morning she was awake at 8:30 while I was in the middle of my morning walk. I went to the bedroom and found that she wanted to rest a little longer, so I finished my morning walk. Then I went to the bedroom where I spent the next two hours with her until 11:00 when the  CNA arrived.

Although Kate had met her the night before, I reintroduced her. Kate received her as she would a guest in the house. I told her that I thought we would need more help now and that Tisha was a nurse whom I had asked to be with us while she was recovering from her stay in the hospital. She accepted that without question and agreed that we would need the help. I don’t think, however, that she really had any concept of why Tisha was here.

I was especially pleased when we were able to get her out of bed about 1:30. By this time, she was tired and back in bed before 2:30. We put her back to bed where she remained the balance of the day.

She didn’t sleep much, however. She dosed a little but was awake in bed most of the afternoon. I thought she would go to sleep easily that night, but she was concerned about something she need to do and wanted me to help her. I could never understand what she was talking about, but her concern lasted a good thirty minutes or more. I took the approach of simply comforting her. I told her I would help her, and it might be better if we did that in the morning. I took her hand and told her I had missed her and was very happy to have her back with me. I talked about the fact we had been together so long that it didn’t feel right when we are apart, something with which she agreed. That conversation diverted her attention from whatever was disturbing her.

The next day (yesterday) she was wiped out. She rested the entire day except for those moments when Tisha changed her or tried to move her to a different position.

Two different nurses came by for intake interviews. One was from the new home care agency we are using. The other was from the Home Health agency. Apart from the information they gathered from me, they took Kate’s vitals. Neither was bothered by the fact that she was resting/sleeping so long and said we should let her rest through the day. Tisha and I did just that.

Kate was awake when Tisha left, and we spent a couple of hours watching opera videos on YouTube. It was a nice way to end the day. I was afraid that Kate would be awake all night, but that turned out not to be a problem. She went to sleep easily and slept through the night.

Today we have a new person who will be helping us. I hope she is as good as Tisha and that Kate will be awake a little more. As we’ve been doing, we’ll take it a step at a time and adjust accordingly.