Living Room Bed

Mom's bed is in the living room. Why? She has a split level house and her bedroom is upstairs.

We had a stair lift installed - and it works - but it takes a little effort for a person to maneuver onto the stair lift seat. Due to the position of the chair at the bottom of the stairs one has to sit facing out and ride the lift sideways to the top of the stairs. With the lift installed the stairway is narrower and that leaves less room to maneuver onto the lift's chair. We tried, but since Mom's leg strength is not that strong right now, that was too much effort for her at this time. The goal is to be safe and not fall.

The first night home from Manor Care was without mom's pain medication. Hedi, the nurse practitioner at Manor Care, forgot to include her DEA number when writing out the prescriptions. The pharmacist would not fill the pain medications without the DEA number. With the 'War on Drugs' innocent people have to suffer.

It was after business hours and the pharmacy claimed they had tried to reach Heidi and the doctor office she was associated with, to no avail. They said they also called Manor Care, the rehab unit Mom stayed at and where Heidi operated out of, and failed to get a off-hours number to reach Heidi.

So the first night I didn't have mom move much to minimize the potential for pain. She slept on my couch's recliner. Good thing I had left it at mom's house when I have moved from Minnesota to Montana.

The next morning we got the pain medication filled and got mom back on schedule by noon. However the pain medication takes a few hours to completely leave the system and some hours to get back to a 'working' level once it is resumed. Night number two was also spent on the couch recliner.

Night number three we tried using the stair lift. Since that was too difficult right now, and sleeping on the couch recliner was no longer an option as mom needed to lay down, we needed the bed. If Mohamed can't get to the mountain, I decided to bring the mountain to Mohamed.

I took mom's hospital bed apart and with my brother's help I carried it down the stairs around the stair lift and I reassembled it in the middle of the living room. I was able to put it all back together correctly and have it work, even if it took till almost midnight. Good thing mom and I are night owls. My poor brother - a morning person - was tired.

Mom slept better that night and even better every night since then so it was worth all the effort to move the bed. The next day my brother moved a couch and placed the bed against a wall.

A few days later mom's doctor wrote a prescription for a trapeze bar above the bed. That has helped greatly for mom to get in and out of bed. Still, with mom's spinal stenosis, getting out of bed is the hardest part of the day for her. We have an appointment with the Pain Clinic next week and hopefully they can help.