It started like a normal morning I got up at 7:30 or so and left Cheryl sleeping soundly in bed. I put the last of yesterday’s coffee in a mug and told the microwave one minute. I woke up the Wordle on my tablet and went out to get the paper. Someone, perhaps our new neighbor brought them inside the front door. I picked up Jeanne’s paper and her mail. She is 98 and does not go out much or downstairs much. I carried her stuff up to the bag she hangs on her door for that purpose. I noted that she had not retrieved yesterday’s paper from her bag. (Maybe I will check on her later.)
I watched the news on hurry up speed up as I had prerecorded it when it came on at 7 AM. There is still a lot of things going on that I have no control over. But at our little group of condos, the decks are fixed, the roofs are on and the trim is newly painted. The landscape folks want me to accept the quote for scraping snow and putting out ice melter. Winter is coming.
I started thinking about Cheryl, winter, gloomy weather, sundown syndrome and care partner stuff. About 9:30 AM I went to see if she was awake and ready for breakfast.
I found her in that in between sleep and wakefulness that we all experience in the morning. Usually my right hip tells me (You are old buddy boy. Move your ass.) to get up and move around. Cheryl and I exchange small talk and teasing for a bit.
“Do you want a kiss on your ear?”, I say.
“No”, she replies.
“What about on this cheek?”
“Okay.”
“Scrambled eggs for breakfast?”
“Sure.”
“Toast with grape jelly?”
“Yes.”
“Want any bacon?”
“Not today.”
“I am going to get your rollie chair. I will be back.”
She is more comfortable these days with me scooting her out of bed and into a transfer chair. We go into the bathroom for a trip to the toilet, pills and then into the kitchen for breakfast.
On this day when I sat her on the toilet she began to shake, sweat and cry a little. “My arms really hurt.”, she said. She initially complained about the toilet seat being cold. I ignored that because she often makes that complaint. Her hands and arms were shaking violently and I held the glass and straw for her to take the meds that I placed in her mouth one by one. We have done this before but not with the shaking action.
I had been gently rubbing her left arm as I helped her take her pills and she asked me to stop. She told me her arms were hurting. I got her a nsaid pain reliever that had been prescribed by her doctor for occasional pain occurrences.
It is a little chilly in Ohio this morning and although our thermostat reads 75 F in the bathroom it seems even to me a little chilly. In the middle of moving her from the toilet to the transfer chair, I got her heavy fluffy ugly pink bathrobe on her. I combed her hair and rolled her to the kitchen.
Apple juice, scrambled eggs and jelly toast later, the shaking and sweating were gone. Her arms did not hurt anymore. She still reports a little pins and needles tingling in her hands and fingers. The meds seem to be working but this whole episode was new. It began after I had gotten her out of bed with no complaint and onto the toilet, also with no complaint.
A cold toilet seat seemed to start everything. And that is very weird. Maybe I need a couple of these snazzy covers.
Carpe Diem.
Adjunct_Wizard 