Another Bad Night

I am up at a normal hour, or at least normal for me. There is no reason for me to get up early in the morning. I don't have to go to work or be somewhere. So my morning doesn't usually start until about 10:30 AM when Home Care gets here. Today it started even earlier; Olga arrived at 10:09 AM, 20 minutes early. It didn't matter much. I was awake already.

Last night was tough, another one of those challenging evenings where my body simply refuses to behave. First of all, I have been having Gastro-Intestinal problems intermittently for about a week now. One day I will be fine. The next day I will be struggling with toileting, making a mess, cleaning it up. Last night I went through two sets of bed linens and ended up calling EMS at around 2:00 AM to come and help me.

I was a mess. I made a mess. There was mess everywhere, and this was the second time round. It was bad enough, then, while I was hanging in my sling, ass dripping and flailing in the wind, the EMS folks sent two female EMT's. If my embarrasment wasn't complete, this did it. I just gave up and let them help me get cleaned up and back into bed.

Today I have to deal with the aftermath, a couple of loads of laundry. My HCA did some of the cleaning in the bathroom. She was not here long enough to do laundry. The EMT's had helped with the clean up as well. It's all down to the laundry now. Nothing left but the crying.

This kind of problem is something most people get on occasion. For me the challenge is more significant. I can't just get up and run to the bathroom. The sling usually accelerates events in the most unhelpful manner. So no matter what, the outcome is fraught. Today I have taken the precaution of wearing a diaper. It's just another fact of my life with ALS. It's something I have to live with. That, and the ever increasing weakness in my arms, aggravated by the energy consumed by this issue and the effort it takes to get through it.