Today's Stats:

Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1413     Reading:  128

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1450     BP:  141/63     Pulse:  66

Breakfast:  1445    & Meds What she ate:  1 hard over egg, heavily peppered 2 slices thick cut, lean bacon 1 toasted slice potato bread 1/4 tsp cinnamon on bread 8 oz orange juice diluted w/8 oz water
Med/Dose	Administration	Explanation
glipizide/10 mg	1 pill at least 1/2 hour pre-meal	standard breakfast and dinner med
Albuterol/2.0+IPRAO/.5	nebulized during meal preparation	standard breakfast, sometimes dinner med
Protonix/40 mg	1 pill at least 1/2 hour pre-meal	standard breakfast med
lisinopril/2.5 mg	1/2 tab with meal	standard breakfast and dinner med
Detrol/2 mg	1 tab with meal	standard breakfast and dinner med
metformin/750 mg	3/4 of 1000 mg tab with meal	took into consideration high blood glucose and lack of evening glipizide, last night
Iron Protein Succinylate/18mg from 360 mg Iron Protein Succinylate	with meal	standard breakfast, lunch and dinner med
Daily Senior Multivitamin	with breakfast	standard breakfast supplement
vitamin C 1000 mg	with breakfast	standard breakfast supplement
folic acid 400 mcg	with breakfast	standard breakfast supplement
garlic/1250 mg	with meal	standard breakfast med
1/4 cup pure cranberry juice w/12 oz water	after breakfast	standard after breakfast supplement

    I started at 0930, checking in on and rousing her every half hour. She was even more intransigent than yesterday. Somehow, I erroneously thought she'd be bouncing out of bed this morning. At one point, around 1100, I sat at her bedside and kept up a running commentary on the day and what we needed to do; during which she dozed, during which I would shake her lightly to get her eyes open. Around 1230 I tried to get her up by threatening that if she didn't move it she would lose it. Didn't work. I feigned disgust and left. At 1315 I tried to move her to the edge of the bed, with the intention of physically lifting her upright, as I'd learned to do with the FT. I suppose, if I'd kept at it, it would have worked...but I gave up. You can't move someone who doesn't want to move. Finally, at 1405, she looked at her clock and said, "I guess I'd better think about getting up."
    "Yeah," I responded, surprised, "now that most of the day is gone. Mom, I'm going to be continuing (I started during the several periods I tried to get her up) the water torture, today. You're very dehydrated."
    "Okay. I know."
    And we were off. Since breakfast, I haven't been able to get her interested in her magazines or crossword puzzles, although she is interested in watching "her" afternoon programs.
    For me, days like this are exhausting (I know, I've been using that word a lot, lately...I've been feeling it a lot, lately). Although I have other things going on while I check on her and try to rouse her every half hour or so, foremost on my mind is her sleeping, especially when I'm not expecting it. As well, "our" plans have fallen through. We will have to get Mom's blood drawn, tomorrow. We'll have prescriptions to pick up and joint business phone calls to make, tomorrow. I'll be going to the post office, tomorrow. We'll go turn in some more stuff at the acupuncturist's office for credit, tomorrow.
    On days like this, too, I get mired in my own activities while Mom sleeps, and am not the best company when Mom finally awakens, although I try. She knows I'm trying. She's not fooled, and becomes The Reluctant Charge. And, we end up having an unplanned, low key, medium tension day, with possibilities for redemption. Wonder what will offer the possibility tonight.

Lunch

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1830     Reading:  117

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1837     BP:  101/70     Pulse:  69

Meal:  1845  & Meds What she ate:  3.5 oz bag microwave popcorn 12 oz V-8 juice with 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Med/Dose	Administration	Explanation
metformin/500 mg	1/2 a 1000 mg tab with meal	considered slightly high blood glucose and popcorn
Iron Protein Succinylate/18mg from 360 mg Iron Protein Succinylate	with meal	standard breakfast, lunch and dinner med

    At 2000 this evening Mom decided it was time for her to go to bed. I overruled her. "No way," I said, "that you're going to bed after being up only 6 hours. Today, regardless of when your day ends, we're going to get in three small meals, all your meds and three doses of iron. I figure that'll take us to a little after 11 tonight."
    It's been difficult. We struggled through a couple games of Sorry, tried to play Scrabble but she lost interest about half way through (she was doing pretty good, too), tried to get her to practice with her walker at least in the house and which was truncated with a bowel accident (a good thing, actually, I was expecting this one; it's been a few days), then in the bathroom for awhile, tried going through a few boxes, now she's watching back to back episodes of M*A*S*H and doodling in her crossword puzzle magazine. She's not happy with me, since I'm making her stay up.
    "Look, Mom, this isn't any fun for me, either, when you do this and I finally have to force you to stay up. Believe me, this isn't on my "Things I've Always Wanted To Do" list."
    "No, I expect not," she says, then turns back to the TV.
    It is times like these that remind me that I am nothing more than a visitor in the country of the old. I have no idea what my mother's day, today, has been like, for her...not wanting to get up, finally getting up, not wanting to stay up, not wanting to be aware of anything that's going on around her but considering herself alive with integrity, the integrity of being very old.
    I know one thing. I wouldn't want to be alive and very old as my mother is without someone like me around. My mother was smart, asking me to live with her before she really needed me more than for the emotional comfort of not living alone. I was smart to say yes.
    This post, by the way, was originally published at 2105. Damn server clocks.

Dinner

Blood Glucose:     Time:  2207     Reading:  91

Blood Pressure:     Time:  2214     BP:  124/53     Pulse:  64

Meal:  2245  & Meds What she ate:  5 oz tuna mixture (celery, green onions, dill pickles, enough mayo to substitute for glue sandwich with 2 slices of toasted potato bread. That's all she wanted...no pickles, no chips, nothing else.
Med/Dose	Administration	Explanation
glipizide/10 mg	1 tab at least 1/2 hour before meal	standard breakfast and dinner med
metformin/500 mg	1/2 a 1000 mg tab with meal
Iron Protein Succinylate/18mg from 360 mg Iron Protein Succinylate	1 tab with meal	standard breakfast, lunch and dinner fare while she's anemic
Detrol/2mg	1 tab with meal	standard breakfast and dinner fare while we're trying, again, to see if this will work on her

    I did not, by the way, administer her usual dose of 2.5 mg lisinopril last night. Her BP seemed quite settled, a bit on the low side, diastolically speaking, so I decided to skip this dose and see how her BP is in the morning.
    We'll see if we can't manage a somewhat sturdier day, today, than yesterday.