Honey, We're Home!

After two months of rehab and one trip to the hospital, grandma is finally home! I've been spending the last few days making her house walker/wheelchair accessible and moving in my stuff. Yes, that is right...I now live with grandma.

I was a little nervous, but grandma is a pretty good roommate and her first night home was fairly low key. After arriving in the afternoon, we enjoyed some Chinese food delivered by my mom and sister. Then we watched TV...a lot of TV...so much TV that I thought my brain was turning to mush. Luckily my brain stayed in tact because grandma demanded I clean the house before the nurse (home health care) showed up for her assessment.

"This place is a mess! What is that box over there? Megan....what is that tiny speck of paper in the corner, under the sofa? It's hot in here. What is that outside?" I was worried she might start asking about why the sky is blue and where babies come from.

So the place was clean, the nurse came and left (2 hours later...), we ate our zippy toast and finally it was time for bed. Grandma is used to going to bed at 6:30 or 7, so this new 8:30 bedtime was a stretch for her. She literally hit the pillow and was asleep. It was too good to be true.

After mushing my brain with a few more hours of TV, I decided I should go to bed too. Of course, I would be the one with insomnia. I had my alarm set for 5 a.m. (that's when she gets her first course of pills in the morning) and I suppose I was just too excited to sleep. I think I stayed up most of the night, which would normally be OK...but my day started at 4:36 a.m.

"I can't get out of this bed! Help me!" grandma screamed.

I went in to learn grandma was desperate to get to the bathroom. No problem. We just have to get up. Uh oh...problem. You try getting a barely awake, 91-year-old woman out of bed. I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life. I also realized I have the strength of ten men as I literally hoisted her up on to her feet. We made it to the bathroom and then she didn't want to go back to sleep? Well, the manual labor wore me out and I was really ready to go to sleep. I wheeled her in the living room, plopped her in front of the TV and I crashed on the couch.

This is going to be more difficult than I thought...