Saturday, June 5, 2004
Sorry about the break.
I distinctly remember looking at the clock before retiring and noticing it was 0234. My memory tells me that I went to bed soon after finishing this post, but apparently I didn't. I have no memory of what I did after I posted, but whatever I did, it kept me up for almost an hour and a half. I thought, perhaps the time posting was off on this blog, but it's only off by 6 minutes, earlier rather than later. I know what I didn't do after signing off, but I can't remember what I did do. That, I think, is the definition of exhaustion.
Then, again, as I think of it, the way I kept Mom up was to play two DVDs I'd checked out. I remember looking at the clock after the first, a retrospective of David Copperfield's illusions: It was 23-and some few minutes. Mom wanted to go to bed but I insisted we stay up and watch a second movie: Monster. The reason I remember the time is because she wanted to go to bed after the first video, but I was conducting her through foot rolling, which I thought of during the David Copperfield video, and wanted her to continue for another few hours. I told her this. Upon her being unconvinced I launched an argument that involved the premise that "bedtime", to her, isn't a body time, it's a clock time and over the last few days that clock time has afforded her so much sleep that we are now negotiating couple critical physical problems. I pointed out the time to her, reminded her that, throughout the day, she'd barely been awake for 8 hours (she awoke around 1300 and insisted on taking a nap in the late afternoon). She needed to remain awake for awhile longer just to allow her body to operate in "awake" mode. Viewing the second video involved at least a couple of hours and included two bathroom breaks and several skip backs for my mother's benefit. She often asks for skip backs as, even with the closed captioning, she doesn't always get the gist of a scene the first time around unless she's seen a movie a couple of times. So I know that we didn't start Monster until some time after 2300 and that the viewing lasted for somewhat more than two hours. That would have put us a bit past 0100. I am almost positive that I went to bed soon after I finished writing. But, who knows. I am so tired most of the time now that I may be completely mistaken about time, even though I don't think I'm mistaken about what we did to fill that time.
At any rate, I'll be waking her up around 11:00. If her feet are still a bit pudgy she'll get another quarter of a furosemide. I warned her last night that today I need her to move. On her feet. Even if it's only up and down our driveway for a half hour or so a couple of times today. I'll check her blood pressure this morning. If it's, again, alarmingly low, she'll also get a dose of ginseng and I'll check her blood pressure several more times throughout the day. Observation will be intense, as will my direction of how she spends her time and what she puts into her body. I have no idea how much of this she'll resist nor how successful I'll be at keeping her out of bed. I do know we'll probably start her morning with a continuation of the lecture I delivered last night, mostly for my benefit, as these lectures do a great deal more to strengthen my resolve than they do to inspire her to movement and alertness.
Time to finish setting up the house for the beginning of my mother's day. Time. What a crazy idea.
Later.
Then, again, as I think of it, the way I kept Mom up was to play two DVDs I'd checked out. I remember looking at the clock after the first, a retrospective of David Copperfield's illusions: It was 23-and some few minutes. Mom wanted to go to bed but I insisted we stay up and watch a second movie: Monster. The reason I remember the time is because she wanted to go to bed after the first video, but I was conducting her through foot rolling, which I thought of during the David Copperfield video, and wanted her to continue for another few hours. I told her this. Upon her being unconvinced I launched an argument that involved the premise that "bedtime", to her, isn't a body time, it's a clock time and over the last few days that clock time has afforded her so much sleep that we are now negotiating couple critical physical problems. I pointed out the time to her, reminded her that, throughout the day, she'd barely been awake for 8 hours (she awoke around 1300 and insisted on taking a nap in the late afternoon). She needed to remain awake for awhile longer just to allow her body to operate in "awake" mode. Viewing the second video involved at least a couple of hours and included two bathroom breaks and several skip backs for my mother's benefit. She often asks for skip backs as, even with the closed captioning, she doesn't always get the gist of a scene the first time around unless she's seen a movie a couple of times. So I know that we didn't start Monster until some time after 2300 and that the viewing lasted for somewhat more than two hours. That would have put us a bit past 0100. I am almost positive that I went to bed soon after I finished writing. But, who knows. I am so tired most of the time now that I may be completely mistaken about time, even though I don't think I'm mistaken about what we did to fill that time.
At any rate, I'll be waking her up around 11:00. If her feet are still a bit pudgy she'll get another quarter of a furosemide. I warned her last night that today I need her to move. On her feet. Even if it's only up and down our driveway for a half hour or so a couple of times today. I'll check her blood pressure this morning. If it's, again, alarmingly low, she'll also get a dose of ginseng and I'll check her blood pressure several more times throughout the day. Observation will be intense, as will my direction of how she spends her time and what she puts into her body. I have no idea how much of this she'll resist nor how successful I'll be at keeping her out of bed. I do know we'll probably start her morning with a continuation of the lecture I delivered last night, mostly for my benefit, as these lectures do a great deal more to strengthen my resolve than they do to inspire her to movement and alertness.
Time to finish setting up the house for the beginning of my mother's day. Time. What a crazy idea.
Later.
