Getting ready for bed

It's half past midnight and I'm just climbing into bed, because Mom only  finished getting ready for bed  herself and will be lying her head on the pillow as we speak. Usually I'd still have to get ready for bed myself, but I was smart this time and did my nightly rituals while waiting for her tonight.

Mom started getting ready for bed around 9 tonight, but she's only finally getting to sleep 3 hours later. First on the list: night meds. But she has to have something on the stomach. Okay, I have to prepare a small meal, tonight was pineapple and cottage cheese (it's actually pretty good). Because of her swallowing issues, she can't have any thin liquids besides water, so first I have to drain the canned pineapples. Then, since she's only supposed to be eating tiny, tiny bites, I have to cut up each and every pineapple chunk on her plate. This takes a while.  And eating takes a loooong while. She has to follow swallowing techniques; drink every three swallows, then cough to make sure her airway is clear.

This takes an hour.

Then she takes her meds. In applesauce, following the same precautions.

So, 10 o'clock, she's finally in the bathroom, getting ready for bed. She starts with her teeth. She got pneumonia because she aspirated a little bit of a thrush  infection while under anasthetic during foot surgery. Mom is prone to thrush and to aspiration in general, so the idea is to keep her mouth clean. Swallowing tests showed that liquid started down the back of her throat before she swallowed; that's another way for water to get into the lungs and pneumonia to start. That's why she can only have water. The lungs can handle water, but not so much with fruit juice or soda. So before she drinks water she she has to go through a crazy procedure which she repeats before bed:

• brush each section of the tooth with a toothbrush with a little bit of toothpaste
• cleanse that section with a swab or clean toothbrush
• rinse mouth with water for 1 min
• rinse mouth with hydrogen pyroxide rinse for 1 min.

And then there are all the other things that she does to get ready for bed, which isn't much anymore, because she seriously downsized in bathrooms moving from the upstairs bathroom to the downstairs.

Pretty soon it's  11, or after, and she's finally in bed - the big hospital bed we're renting and which is taking up a sizable portion of both the living room and kitchen.  Mom's always tired by now, if not from the day, then from just getting ready for bed, and she can be easily confused. It can be hard talking to her and figuring out exactly what she means. So insistent, but so meaningless. The hardest part of the day, trying to find the woman  you grew up with in that troubled face.

Invariably, we look at her foot - the one that was operated on, of course! It's actually not that bad. Her first operation was awful - this is nothin'.  

And then it's midnight. 

Almost time for another day.