Aud Tales

Some days around here are really good and some days are complete bummers.

Mother (Aud) is trying desperately to get off of oxygen. She will go about 3 days only using it at night and then she will have a day that she is almost completely out of it as far as knowing what is going on.  We were at the doctor's last week and her pulsox is up to 94 which is great for her.

So, it was decided she could go to concentrated oxygen, commonly called "air on demand".  An appointment was made with the oxygen providers to see if she was "eligible" to do this.  Not sure what constitutes eligibility. Another bunch of paperwork for sure.

Here she is discussing how to use this device, and working with the method you use to get oxygen.

There are lots of choices to be made and we were there for 2 hours.  She still has to use the main oxygen
machine at night because it pumps oxygen continuously.

The machine used to fill these small bottles sits on top of the big machine.  I posted a picture of this setup when we first got it; it hasn't changed at all, sorry to say.

We get it all home, I try to fill up the little guys and finally call the company because I can't get them filled.  A very nice man comes to the house, and of course, the damn bottle was not closed and that is why it wouldn't fill.  Never dawned on me to check that.  I felt like an idiot.  Plus, the machine was making lots of racket and I was going crazy.

I ended up moving the oxygen setup to the spare bedroom we created when I repurposed some rooms during the remodel . Of course the room still isn't straight, but at least the oxygen is in a place where I can close the door and I don't hear it all the time.

Mother still has trouble trying to figure out which button to press to turn off the big machine, and half the time, if I don't check on her, she doesn't turn it on or off at the right time.  I remember when my husband got to the point where it was hard for him to breathe, and he was doing silly things like mother is now.  It is really worrying and you have to be vigilant all the time.

That is why some days are good and some are bad. I was so hoping she would be getting better and really wouldn't need the oxygen except at night.  I guess that is not going to happen, at least as soon as we were both hoping. And her legs are bothering her bunches, and she fell again and is very sore all over.

Took her to the doctor to be sure there wasn't a blood clot in her leg from her fall.  She has an enormous bruise now.  He said just to put wet heat on it a couple of times a day, and bathing in our "spa tub" would help.  Of course she hasn't done any of that yet.

Helped me carry in some groceries last night and promptll had a nose bleed about an hour later.  Not sure how I am going to handle getting groceries into the house.  I am having so much trouble with my left arm...I think my rotator whatever it is called is really screwed up for some reason and I have difficulty carrying anything that weighs anything also.

Hmm, think I will scream a couple of times, and  go get some of Cornwell's books from the library and continue my education of the 7th century England.