My New Normal

I have a new normal, let me tell you about it.

I got a hospital bed 2 weeks ago, but it's not working out 100% for me. First off, I'm only 5'2" and the top of the mattress is almost to the top of my butt. Meaning that when I want to sit on my bed, I can only sit on the edge and I'm still pretty much standing/holding myself up. It's not comfortable and I cannot rest while doing this. Which means I lost a comfortable spot, my only spot, to change clothes on. Now I either have to sit uncomfortably halfway sitting on the edge of the bed or I can sit on the very uncomfortable toilet (I have pressure ulcers near some sensitive places that get aggravated and open up when sitting on the toilet). When I go to lay down in bed, the side rail for the side I get in on has to be down, I have to make sure the remote for the bed as well as my phone and tablet charging cable are where they need to be and then I can basically hop/fall into bed. I can scooch myself over a bit, but I still am pretty much on the left side (the side I get in on) and there is "lots" of space on the right. I don't know if not being in the middle effects how I feel in the mornings or not.

I wake up in the morning (morning being whenever I first wake up) with my back spasming and hurting and my legs are in some state of numbness. When I finally decide to get out of bed (which lately has been anywhere between 11:30 and 1pm), I make sure to get everything I need so that I can just leave my room, go to the bathroom, and then go to the kitchen and living room because if I go back to my room first I'll need to sit and rest and as I already said, that's not really possible. So I go potty, then go into the kitchen and get coffee and something for lunch and come out the living room. Where I then have to deal with the couch of doom. I can feel the metal frame pushing into my thighs when I sit. I have 4 or 5 layers of towels (not super thick ones, but still 4 or 5 layers), plus a thin pillow under me, but I'm like the princess and the pea and can still feel the metal. The metal which also aggravates my pressure ulcers. So I can only sit on the couch for so long before the pain gets too much for me and I then have to go back to bed. I'll play games on my phone or tablet or watch some Youtube videos or movie or whatever and I will usually end up taking a nap. The past few days I have gone back into bed anytime between 3pm and 6pm and I will stay there until around 8:30pm. Then I come back out to the couch, have dinner, then around 11pm it starts the metal starts to really irritate me again and by midnight to 1am I can't take it and head back to bed, where I use my phone and tablet for a couple of hours before going to sleep.

I don't know if I'm waking up in pain because I'm not in the middle of the mattress, but I don't think that's it. I know that the mattress is not what I should be using. It's just a standard hospital mattress. The weight capacity is correct, but it's not meant for a bariatric patient if that makes sense. When I was in the hospital last year (both times), I was in a bed with a low air flow mattress because they knew that the regular mattress was going to be hard to be in for more than a day or two. However, my insurance will not pay for that type of mattress for me because I do not have the stage of pressure ulcers that my insurance requires me to have to get that type of mattress. And I don't want that stage either. That is the stage where you can stick your hand into the wound. I'm supposed to be getting a gel overlay that goes on top of the mattress I have now, but it's only 2-3 inches tall. I do not see that being the solution to my morning pain issues. Plus the fact that I can barely sit or get into bed now and they want to add to it? They said they will try and take the wheels off and see what that does. I think it will take the height down enough that I can sit more comfortable, but once the gel overlay goes on top, I'll be back to where I was. And the company said that my bed goes the lowest that they go. If I can barely get in, I don't see how elderly people or those with other ailments that don't allow them to move well can do it.

I've got roughly an hour before I'll be heading back to bed (I still need to take my nighttime pills and I'm in the middle of a show). Oh and the bed people are not able to come out until the 11th to remove the wheels. I have no idea when the gel overlay is coming. It was on backorder when they delivered the bed.

ETA: Forgot to mention the back and butt pain that happens before an hour or so after getting into bed. It's just really uncomfortable to sit in this mattress. I only realized I forgot to add this when that pain started up since I've now been in bed for about an hour.