Day 9

The Euphoria of being home amongst my critters and husband was short lived when it came time to go to bed.

My first attempt was my own bed…but hubby’s side.  I got positioned, laid out some ice with the intention of laying on my back on top of the ice – pillow under my knees and blissful slumber for a couple hours until my alarm went off to take more meds.  So I sat on the edge of the bed, kicked off my slippers and proceeded to tilt to the left.  Hips and shoulders aligned, lowering your shoulders down while simultaneously lifting your bent knees and feet up to the bed – the physical therapists and nurses call it the “log roll”.  Once you are horizontal, then you log roll onto your back.  Or not.  I couldn’t do it – it was waaaaaay too uncomfortable and painful trying to carefully roll onto the ice pack, align my hips, shoulders, etc.  I gave up and settled for laying on my left side.  Pillow between my knees, pillow kind of behind my back attempting to hold the ice packs actually against my spine, fumble around to get the blankets over me, turn off the light and pray for sleep – knowing I had more meds due in 2 hours.  I lasted about 45 minutes.  Got up – walked in an attempt to alleviate the cramping and loosen things up…I could tell I needed ice – but HOW?!?!?

I reasoned that if I put the ice packs IN the back brace and left the brace on…maybe I could complete the log roll and lay ON the ice in bed.  NOPE.  I carted the pillows back to the couch, tried to find a blanket, got a good fresh VERY cold ice pack, and settled into the seated but not exactly reclined position on the couch.  I dosed off and on, but with no support for my head – the bobble-head thing got old.  Plus my legs were sort of hyper extended at the knee and pinched at the hip.  I got up and walked as best I could every couple of hours, trying to think of alternative sleep options.  Then I remembered the blow up travel pillow – went and got it out of the drawer – blew it up, and solved the bobble head problem and got a couple hours of fitful sleep in the wee morning hours.

I could think of no reasonable alternative – I needed a recliner.  So I texted hubby about it, and then put a note out on my church news list asking to borrow a recliner for a few weeks, and by the way, could you deliver it too?  Within short order my mother in law offered the recliner they have in storage.  They just dropped it off about an hour ago, and after some shuffling around of my “essentials”, a flannel sheet to cover it, I settled in with a fresh ice pack and a heart full of the blessing of a chair.