Sort Of On Schedule

This morning was to be a different kind of morning, a morning where I would get up early, get things done before Home Care got here, do my exercises with Home Care, all so I could get to the ALS Clinic by 12:30 PM. The general plan got followed. The details got messy.

I woke up at 8:18 AM; I remember looking at the clock and thinking "What on earth am I doing?" I wanted to get up at 8:30, so this would have to do. I shook myself from sleep to slumber, then spent about 15 minutes building up the energy needed to sit up and go. Once I felt like I could make the move, I slid my legs over the side of the bed, only to find the floor was wet. It was urine. The closing seal on my overnight urine bag had come undone, or perhaps I hadn't sealed it properly the night before. It was leaking; about half the contents were in the bag, the other half were on the floor.

So my first task in getting up was to grab some towels and a mop, and clean up the mess. This took about 15 - 20 minutes. I am pretty sure I got all of it, but there are some spots under the bed I cannot see or reach. When I get home from the clinic later today, I am going to pull out the bed and make sure its is clean under there.

By now it was almost 9:00 AM. I rolled my way into the bathroom and did what I had to do. Things went reasonably well this morning, although I could have waited longer I suppose. I didn't. I rolled into the shower and put the plastic bag over my foot bandage. I then realized that this baggie was not going to hold without tape, and I could not do the taping myself.

Instead I decided that I would simply put my foot up on the shower bench to keep it reasonably dry. I tried that, only to drop my foot just as it got to the edge of the bench, dragging my toes over the edge and banging them down onto the footpad of my commode chair. It was then that I noticed the blood drops inside the foot bag. I had pulled open the cut and it was bleeding, not a lot, just enough. I said "To hell with it" and showered anyways.

After the shower I called the Home Care Wound Nurse to come and redo my dressing. Fortunately she was almost next door and managed to get here within a few minutes. She redid the dressing and had me all cleaned up by 10:10 AM. She also gave me a bit of a lecture and a couple of nasty looks. By 10:30 AM the Home Care Aide was here to do exercises with me, and I was pretty much back on schedule.

It's now 11:27 AM. I've had my coffee and breakfast cereal. I'm about to put on my catheter and bag. After that I will put the booster pad on my wheelchair so I can get in my truck. If all that goes without incident or accident, then I will be on my way by 11:45. Sounds about right to me.