B and B

It's 11:00 a.m. and I'm just back from the morning routine at the hospital. My mornings are looking something like this:

5:15 (or as late as 7:00 on a good day) I wake up to one or two lovely little girls patting me gently (or not) with words such as "Auntie Carol it's morning time, get UP!"

6:30 or 7:00 My sister-in-law comes home from the hospital and I transition from home to hospital.

8:20 We start the preparations for my brother's daily trip outside, where his girls come to visit every morning. Preparations include:

• pillows on the wheelchair
• check to see that the heparin and morphine supplies are sufficient for a few hours
• get shorts or pants on (this a purely male bonding event)
• sip coffee (this morning there was Tim's and Starbuck's)
• empty catheter bag
• move furniture out of the room so we have enough space to manouvre
• hook IV lines onto the handle of the wheelchair to prevent an accidental pull on an IV site (these are precious)
• take the morning doses of pills
• examine the breakfast tray to varying degrees of horror

I'm sure there's more, but much of this is now done on auto pilot..........

We head out of the hospital, one person pushing the chair, one with the IV pole, and often a third person to hold doors open and prevent elevator doors from closing on my brother's legs. Out to a gorgeous spot with trees, sunshine, shade, and fresh air.

There's a white board on the wall facing my brother's bed, on which are written the nurses name, various phone numbers, a record of his eating for the day, etc.

This morning he asked me to write "B and B" on the white board. This is a big event.

Today is bath and bowel movement day.

Our new routine.

B and B.