More Sleepy Days

Yesterday was a sleep day. I've been writing that a lot lately. It's just easier to stay in bed some days. Even today I feel like I could go back to sleep, and stay there. I wonder if I will ever experience another day where I am energetic, refreshed, willing to do things, go places. As of this moment, I doubt it. I suspect tired is the way I will live the rest of my life, they way I have lived it for a long tim now.

Yesterday's tired was to be expected. It all started on Thursday, actually. I had a busy day on Thursday. Anne and I went shopping at the Wine Warehouse, picking up two more kits, the ones courtesy of Jade and Travis. I was going to start them Friday, but I had problems which I will touch on shortly. Then I thought I would make them Saturday, but I was asleep. Now I am hoping for more energy tomorrow. We'll see.

In addition to the wine, I went grocery shopping for fruit. Anne was kind enough to go look for something at HomeSense for me. I am looking for a 2 or 3 bottle small wine rack to put white wine in my fridge. Then we went to my apartment where Anne retrieved the laundry and I started to put groceries away. After that, a few drinks then bed. It made Thursday a long day.

As to Friday, I slept fairly well after a moderately late evening. I managed to get about 10 hours of sleep, still a couple of hours short of what I really need, but enough to keep me going for the day. Unfortunately the day held difficult surprises for me. First, there was a good part. I got up. My new HCA made me a bit of breakfast, although she did not manage to clean up afterwards. Anne helped with that later in the day when she got here.

As to me, after breakfast and blogging, I went to put on a catheter. That way I would not have to worry about going pee while the party was on. Unfortunately, in the midst of attachment, my bladder decided to relieve itself. I got wet. So I decided to sling myself onto my bed where I would both change as well as finish putting on the catheter.

So, I slung myself. As I began to lift, the sling spread my butt cheeks. My colon, sensing this opportunity, decided to release its minor contents. I was trapped with open butt cheeks. It happened. So there I was, slinging about with wet and dirty clothing, wondering what to do next. My commode chair was out of reach, so that did not help. The only thing I could come up with was to transfer to my bed, from whence I could reach my commode chair. On the bed I would strip off my dirty clothes, then transfer to the commode chair, then head for the bathroom to clean myself up. After that, I would redress, finally attaching that God damned condom catheter.

Alas, while stripping off my soiled clothing, I discovered the contents thereof were more liquid than solid, spreading easily as I moved about. Now, rather than a dirty bum, I had shit from ass to ankle. Worse yet, I managed to spread it onto the sling and onto my bedsheets. Committed as I was, I had to keep going. I worked towards the commode chair, now spreading the mess even further. I finally got the commode chair into place, then used the sling to put myself onto my chair, spreading the mess further onto my sling. At last I made it into the chair, filth and all.

I went to the bathroom, cleaned myself as best I could, and returned to my bed to dress myself and condomize. The bed was a mess. The commode chair was a mess. I had peed and pooped on my pants and underwear. Nonetheless I was dedicated to cleaning it up before company arrived in a couple of hours. So my first step was to get dressed. I covered the dirty sheet with a towel, thus creating even more laundry, and finally did dress myself, including the addition of the catheter bag, but not the catheter itself.

After dressing, I started the cleanup. First I used napkins to get at the stuff I could wipe off. Then I took the upper bedsheet, all my dirty clothes, and finally went to attack my bottom sheet. I could get the near corners easily. I moved into the corner of my bed and the dresser, using the dresser and M-rail as a support system while I reached far across the bed. It was in the midst of that when I realized I had forgotten to put on my wheelchair brakes.

The chair went backwards. I remained braced by the dresser and M-rail. A loss of balance was achieved with me leaning forwards, too far forwards. While I struggled for a bit to regain an upward balance, I just went further and further forwards and down. Ultimately I was so out of balance I just fell fowards, out of my wheelchair.

I managed to get back into my sling. In my infinite wisdom, I had taken the dirty one off the lift and replaced it with the clean one from the living room, all while in my commode chair. After all, I was at least reasonably clean by this time. I lifted myself back up, put myself back into my sling, and said to myself "To hell with this nonsense". Anne was one of a few good friends coming for dinner, and she got here early; I had asked for that when I called her after falling out of my wheelchair.

When she got here the first thing she did was strip my bed and get the laundry started. Then she remade the bed. After that she helped me make my fruit plate for the dinner. Mike, another friend, was coming to cook. Anita brought Apple Crisp for dessert. Steve and Ray brough snacks for games afterwards. Rhonda brought a deli plate for the same. I provided wine, cookies, and dessert.

By the time the evening ended it was well past midnight. So, for two days I was busy, especially Friday. For two nights I was getting by on 8 to 10 hours sleep. So I slept all day Saturday. Even today I feel like I could sleep the whole day away. My get up and go has got up and went. That's ALS and exhaustion in action.