Pam had a stroke in 2009 as a consequence of pneumonia following a common cold - this is referred to in detail elsewhere on this blog, However, the stroke has affected the muscles on her left side, such that her left arm and hand are now very stiff and apparently difficult to enable via physical therapy. In addition, Pam's head is strongly inclined to tip sideways, almost to rest on her left shoulder and is now almost impossible for one to tip it 'the other way'.
To counter this, when Pam is bedded each day (at 1:30pm) I have taken to tipping her body toward her right side by using cushions under her left side. In this way, gravity tends to centralise her dear head - more permanently, I hope. Here's the idea...
The yellow cushion (a stiff pillow) supports her shoulder and upper back. Its effect is enhanced by the use of a rolled-up towel between it and her pink pillow. That her upper torso inclines to the right and even with the bullying effect of the towel, Pam still declares that she is comfortable and happily stays this way until the following morning - when I get her up. Now ask me why I love her! Gravity is the weakest force known to science and yet here it does some gentle good.
Another antagonism has recently come along to attempt to give Pam grief - in the form of a recurrent headache. I don't know what causes this - and my first thought was to the torturous gravity effort. However, when returned to a tip-less state and given time for it to settle down, the headaches remained.
Two Panadol tablets 'might' give relief, but one Panadine Forte certainly does, but the codeine therein tends to constipate her bowel - so I'm between a rock and a hard place. For some reason, Pam doesn't want to go to the doctors 'just for that'. (That's an opinion I might eventually overrule.)
A change...
The arrangement as described above was tolerated by Pam for about 14 days (although I only told you about it yesterday), but today Pam announced that the yellow cushion, which was tilting her upper torso, was beginning to cause cramps in her neck.
Eek! The last thing I want to do is to hurt Pam and as you can see above, I have been uncomfortable about the 'bullying' towel. Well! It's the bullying yellow cushion that suddenly got the flick.
Pam now lies somewhat flatter on her back with just the arrangement of the two pillows supporting her buttocks (to solve a pressure-sore issue) giving her hips a slight tilt to the right. This has been the case for the last goodness-knows-how-long but the recently 'falsely damned' rolled towel remains as of half an hour ago and after a few days I'll supply a photo of whatever consequents from the missing yellow pillow. It's a matter of time, but Pam is once again comfortable which is the major issue and yet the experimentation nevertheless continues...
What else can I do - hmm?
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