Saturday, March 17 ( 11:32pm)

It’s been a long, long, long long day.. I had intended to tell a story about how Kerrie and I went on Leprachuan hunts, when we were little, but I’m just too darn tired. If it had to be a choice of telling you about our day and telling you about the Leprachauns I’m sure you would rather hear about Kerrie’s day.

My alarm went off, at 1:15am, but I slept through it.. the feeding tube pump woke me up when it started beeping that it was almost empty.. that noise is enough to get anyone out of bed. After running around trying to figure out what I was doing, finally got the next dose of Kerrie’s food going and was able to get back to sleep… that was until Kerrie started letting me know she needed me to get up 🙂

Mom, Kerrie and I were all up by 7:00am and it was time to start morning meds. Then the Home Health Care Nurses showed up at the door around 9:15am. They usually won’t come more than 2 times a week, but since Kerrie is a new patient they have to come out for a few days to make sure they are familiar with Kerrie and to make sure we know what we are doing.  We had a lot to do, and need to get Kerrie her bath, get her up and out of bed, do some PT with her and practice getting in oand out of the car. That was our plan for the morning.

They were there until 11:50am…. we managed to do everything but the PT and practicing getting in and out of the car.

ahh.. a moment of silence and maybe a few minutes to try to get something to eat. Not going to happen.. the Speech therapist showed up at the door a few minutes later. As she was evaluating Kerrie, I was getting so hungry that I sat down on the floor and ate some peanuts just to get food into my stomache. Mom wasn’t so lucky, couldn’t sneak away and hide behind the couch to eat peanuts and I swear I could hear here stomache grumbling from the other side of the room.

The Speech Therapist left somewhere near 2:00pm

Kerrie was already exhausted by this time, but she still joined us for lunch ( our breakfast) in the kitchen :)  Right after that it was back to bed for her.. and time to get to work for us. Tons of laundry, cleaning and getting afternoon meds ready. Before we knew it, it was already 5:00pm and we had accomplished very little of what we needed to. Had some problems with starting the feeding tube and spent 1 1/2 hours trying to figure it out… finally got the evening meds going  and decided Kerrie needed to get out of bed again. She needs to build up her stamina!!!

We got her awake, but she was less than happy about it and didn’t want to get out of bed. While she was laying there, I picked up her right leg and started to do some PT excersizes with it. She kept saying, “I can’t.. I can’t” and I would tell her I knew darn well she could because we had just done them last week at NOMC. “I can’t.. I can’t”.. “Kerrie yes you can..”  “DAMN Jenn, I’ve only been here one day.”  WELL Kerrie, that means you should still be able to do all your PT then!”

Got her up and out of bed again and was sitting there in the family room and I asked her what she would think if I moved home. She gave me this really strange look and said “Why?”  When I said I thought maybe I should come home to help Mom take care of her she gave me this “are you crazy” look and said, ” But Jenn.. I’m going to be going back to work in a few months. “  I hope so Kerrie, I hope so.. but  you are going to have to work on your PT with me whether you want to or not.

Evening meds, then even later evening meds.. and Kerrie’s laundry is just about finished. Now I can do ours. It’s late, but have to do it… otherwise won’t have anythign to wear tomorrow.

Besides, need to something to keep me awake to refill the feeding tube at 1:00am. Definately don’t want that aweful beeping sound again

Mom and I just keep telling ourselves this is going to get easier.. and Kerrie.. when we ask her if she’s happy she’s home she says, “I’m not sure yet.”
Don’t worry Kerrie.. it will get easier. It has to.

Jenn