Moving Mom

My Slice of Life for March 2. See the Two Writing Teachers Blog for more information.

Today, I took lunch to my parents since I was unable to get there yesterday. Soup for mom since that is about all she can swallow at this point and chicken fingers and potato wedges for dad and me. Later in the afternoon, they decided to try getting mom up and into the wheelchair. (A little background: My mom has multiple sclerosis. She has spent time in and out of the hospital since August when she went in a couple of days before school started. This round has been particularly aggressive leaving her mostly bedridden without the use of any limbs.) Moving from the bed to the wheelchair requires the use of a lift and sling. The lift makes the move easier on the patient and caregiver even though it looks like some kind of torture device. We got the sling under mom and the sling attached to the lift. The lift is then pumped up to raise the patient from the bed. Then the lift is pulled away from the bed and positioned over the wheelchair. The patient is lowered into the chair. This went pretty well except for the problem of mom’s inability to hold up her head. It is a much easier process with two people. Once we had her up and in the wheelchair, she decided that she was ready to go back to bed! So we reversed the process and did it all over again. It is certainly difficult to lose the ability to do things for yourself and also difficult to become a full time caregiver. I am extremely thankful that my dad is able to do this for mom and I try to help out and make things easier as often as possible.

Here is a video of a Hoyer Lift in operation. Mom's lift is a little different. She only has two places to attach on each side instead of 3.