I'm glad things are more settled today. You may well be in a new
phase, Deborah.

I'm anxious to hear how the nurse visit went today.

That's what I was thinking, this might push the illness along a little bit. Time will tell I guess.

The nurse visit went well. She is very nice and friendly, not overly professional( and I mean that in a positive way). Turns out that she is living in my son in law's old family home- what a small world.

Anyway, the burns are healing nicely and she says it looks like I am doing a good job with that, gave me some tips on the eating thing, like give him Ensure was one.

I told her about the possible APS thing and she said the doctor was probably trying to determine what kind of person I was and he may not have even followed through with it. I haven't been contacted yet.

So my spirits are better. Still added to my work load overall, but what can I do? The kids are making extra effort so that helps.

The nurse will come twice a week.

Where is this nurse from ? I'm so glad her visit went well and you will be getting regular visits.

What are you thinking on the food/eating thing ? I tried all the liquid things, too. Ensure, Instant Breakfast, Slim Fast, smoothies. Ron pretty much turned up his nose at them.

Our biggest issue became constipation.. then blow outs. Miralax helped if I could get him to drink anything. It dissolves real well.. not thick or any taste.. but getting him to drink was the problem.
We often had to finally use Milk of Mag. His soft, sweet diet did not help.

Good luck.. keep us posted.

Janelle Doing #2. Many, many years ago, our personal director was single and lived with his aging Mom. He told of having to manually remove her poops. When Janelle stopped being able to do #2 on her own, I reached way back in my memory bank and remembered the solution to that problem. Now, morning and night, I put on my vinyl glove, lubricate the proper finger and check to see if she needs for me to manually evacuate her. She is very cooperative during this procedure.
It is very effective. I have done it so many times now, that it doesn't bother me.

I know that this is way more info that many of you want. But, I was told early on that tasrefully stated, there is no subject out of bounds.
Bally

Bally, I may need to do that and perfectly ok to tell us about.

My son is a massage therapist and he is going to try a massage technique today. We'll see if that works and I'll let you know.

He seems to like the Ensure, gobbles it right done. I have been able to get some other things cooked carrots, pb sandwich, banana.

I too have had to evacuate my mom's bowels out after a bout of pain medication made her constipated. Not eating or drinking sure makes it worse on top of the medication. Pain medication is bad for doing this. I will say that if you talk to your doctor or nurse about manual evacuation of the bowels they typically here in the US don't want it. But it is common. But considered last resort. If it helps, research online. Personally, I feel do what works. The problem with getting impacted, not pooping, and it staying in there is sepsis infection and that will lead to hospital.

I give my mom stool softener pills which are milder than Miralax or such, cheaper, and it works slower. And not the kind with a laxative, just plain stool softener gel caps. That assumes she will swallow something. Then when I notice loose to almost diarrhea, I stop the stool softener.

Also Carnation Instant Breakfast is cheaper than Ensure and just as good a source of protein if you can find it in your grocery store.

So sorry for all this for you. You are dealing so well. I hope he continues to recover well from the burns and you continue to get sleep.

Deborah,

I am SO glad things are better now....

Please take care of you...


hugs....