This may seem like a weird story but it’s true. My husband with his Parkinson’s disease is
not able to turn or move himself in bed.
(This lead to the creation of the Bed Sled). But that’s another story.
First I need to explain that we sleep together in a queen
size bed. In the beginning of his diagnosis he was not able to settle to sleep
unless I was cradling him. After his
drug dosages were worked out, his need for my touch subsided somewhat. But not
completely.
He will still during the night reach out to make sure I am
in bed, that I have not left him alone.
It’s hard to sleep with this “touching” disturbance. It’s nice to be needed but I need my sleep. For
the past couple years when he rolls in bed, because he does not have control of
his arms or legs movement I was often times getting kicked or punched while
trying to sleep. I found myself moving away from him and closer to the edge of
the bed, sometimes hanging on “with my toenails”.
When he would call during the night to roll him, I got out
of bed, went around to his side and took hold of the Bed Sled pulling and
rolling him in the direction he wanted to go. I would often not be able to fall
back to sleep for a considerable time, if at all.
One night I tried laying a foam mattress on the floor
alongside the bed. But with my bad knees it was difficult getting off the floor
to answer his calls. So I was back in the bed.
Then I tried putting a clothes hamper up against the bed on my side, so
if I rolled I had something to catch me. It helped but was very uncomfortable.
Also our dogs, Tippy and her brother Tobie, slept in the
bedroom with us. So whatever I did I had to make sure I would not trip on the
dogs when getting to him in the dark.
Now that both dogs are gone, and the cats sleep in the powder room, I
can have a clear path on the floor. So I
moved my cedar chest up against my side of the bed, piled some extra bed
pillows on top to bring it up level with the bed and am now sleeping on this “bed
extension”. Works pretty good actually. I am able to sleep without falling out. And when he wants to roll I don’t have to get
out of bed most times. I reach over and
roll him without getting up from bed.
Occasionally I have to get out of bed to perform the roll, but most
times not. It’s not the easiest thing
for me to get into bed now, but once I lay down its pretty comfortable.
Now when he rolls it is like a log roll, literally from one
side of the bed to the other. I don’t
need to pull him over to make room for me.
I just make sure I get him into bed far enough when he is transferred
into bed. So when I roll him towards his side of the bed later during the night
he will not roll out. I still find him looking at me to make sure I am still in
bed with him, because I am lying just outside his reach (unless he really
stretches). But now I can sleep
better. And to think I considered
getting rid of the cedar chest because we don’t keep woolens anymore!
The point of this story is that nothing is stupid if it
works!
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