The only question was how long the improvements would last.  It was a somewhat restless night with confusion at various times during the night as to whether or not it was time to get up.  Mary Ann got up early this morning and the hallucinations were back.  They have continued.  The sheet that was over some items in the living room to protect from the dust of sanding sheet rock joints became someone sleeping on the raised hearth of our fireplace.

Since we had a day free of any appointments or plans of any sort, I suggested we go for a Bear Claw and coffee at Panera’s.  We started out pretty well.  After a while, Mary Ann began shutting down, and needed help getting pieces of the Bear Claw to her mouth.  Then as soon as that was done, she crashed.  She could no longer keep her head up.  She lay it down on the table at Panera’s.

I got her into the car and back home.  She wanted to go to the bathroom.  It was no small task to get her out of the car up the two steps and into her transfer chair.  Then I had to hold her up with very little help from her as I transferred her from the transfer chair to the toilet stool.  Holding her up while getting clothes down is especially difficult when she can’t help.  She had crashed enough that her eyes were mostly closed, and she had trouble figuring out where to put her feet and what to do next — even with words describing to her what to do.

We had some minor waste management issues but got the job done.  It was at least as difficult to get her transfered back into the transfer chair.  Getting her clothes back on took more physical effort than usual.  Admittedly, I was glad to get her into bed for a nap.  I am hoping that she will sleep off some of the confusion.

At times like this, I feel pretty vulnerable physically.  I am stressing and straining and twisting and turning in ways that certainly put my long term and short term functionality at risk.  The other night, Mary Ann was just not putting things together mentally when I was trying to get her on to the commode.  When we get to a certain point in transferring, she needs to sit down fairly quickly to make sure the flow ends up where it should.  I had to physically bend her body into the sitting position, and get her seated on the commode. She just could not connect with what to do.  That was one of the times I worry about what I may be doing to myself that has potential of interfering with our system’s ability to continue to work.

Mary Ann slept for about four hours, got up and ate.  She continued to seem confused and unsure of what she wanted to do.  We have been to the bathroom many times with as few as fifteen minutes in between.  Most often there has been no action once there.

She lay back down at abour 4:45pm.  She got up again at about 6:30pm for supper and some television.  She headed back to bed a little after 8pm.  I am hoping she will sleep better tonight.  We did not get ice cream this afternoon, so she did eat a half sandwich for supper.  That probably will not be enough to make it through the night.  As always, I hope for a restful night, but will, of necessity, accept whatever comes.

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