It's A New Year

Thank goodness 2011 is over and done with.  For me personally I don't remember a worse year in my life.  A new year is supposed to be a sign of promise, of hope and new things and wonderful things to happen.  Understandably the biggest and most over-whelming reason was due to all of Joe's medical problems.  We did manage to go through the month of December though with nothing unusual or unexpected taking place.  For that I am really grateful.  Considering all that has happened to Joe in the last 1 1/2 years, I am scared when I think of what could happen this year.  Though I try to keep a positive attitude, it's hard when so many times that keeps getting taken away from me.  I do know that this hope for better things won't come from focusing on what might occur, so I'm going to try to be more positive.

We did go visit the kids in Utah for Christmas this year and even the drive to their home was uncomplicated and really quite nice.  Joe managed to sleep through most of the trip which eliminated the need for several bathrooms stops and I could keep on driving.

Joe is still having some cognitive and reasoning problems and that still presents some challenges for the both of us.  He still has problems getting up to use the bathroom at night and then finding his way back to the bed.  We keep the bathroom light on all night with the door pulled to in an effort to help him navigate to the bathroom and I guess it's just hard for him to walk back across the hall to climb back into bed without becoming disoriented at times.  I'm still trying to figure out how to solve that problem since I love a dark, cool room for sleeping and he's needing basically the opposite.

We did have our first medical problem yesterday though when he got up during the early morning hours.  He had gone to sleep on the couch, was on his way back from the bathroom and lost his way in the living room.  He tripped over something and hurt his back causing it to start having spasms.  They were so strong you could see his body move.  A call to his primary care doctor said to take him to the ER, but since I had given him a pain killer they seemed to have backed off.  I was left in a dilemma as to what to do with him as I needed to go to work and I couldn't take him to the adult daycare or leave him at home by himself.  I finally gave in and called a wonderful family from the church and Doug came over and "Joesat" for me.

When I got home, Joe had slept most of the day on a heating pad and seemed so much better.  Before going to bed, I gave him another painkiller and both of us managed to sleep all night long.  Ahhh, this is what a good night's sleep feels like for both of us!