I am on my seventh day of bed rest, lying on my side waiting for a pressure mark to disappear. When it first appeared it was only small and I assumed it would heal up after a couple of days. A week later and my carers have only just started to see some improvement; what was a small enough mark on the surface is obviously more substantive underneath. Being in bed is one thing but lying on my side is another. It is not only the niggling painof the body cramping from being oddly positioned, but that it is so hard to do anything lying sideways. Voice recognition software means I can use the computer but reading text on an angle is surprisingly difficult. The brain seems to be trained to track texts left to right but when proceeding bottom to top I keep repeating or skipping lines bottom to top I keep repeating or skipping lines.
As each day goes past, and my dreams of being up and about on the next come to nothing, I am getting increasingly grumpy. When my carers check my bum in the morning and tell me that the mark is still there I am tempted to tell them to @$*& off. In the spirit of the idea that positive talk is transformative, here are some reasons to celebrate being in bed:
- … (Very long pause as I wrack my brain) the Cat has 24-hour bed service – see photo
- I have the opportunity to sleep whenever I choose
- I am allowed to watch the test cricket, Australia vs South Africa (although a five-day test that Australia should have won ending in a draw didn’t help my mood)
- I’ve been able to finish my marking and even do some of my own writing
- the boys are able to stay away from me to avoid getting jobs (a blessing to us all; they avoid work and I dodge a fight)
- I missed travelling home in the rain earlier in the week, and will be able to remain inside when heat-wave temperatures hit us (predictions of 41°)
- I get waited upon hand and foot – even more than normal. And Elly insists that this is literal, and that my feet and legs are bloody heavy
I’m feeling better already… But God help the carers if they find the mark still there tomorrow.
