Jumping Out of Bed

7 am this morning I awoke to Jerry, calling me, you know that voice kids have when you know you better run? I jumped out of bed so fast I felt faint, and ran into Jerry's room to find that Jerry had literally jumped out of bed and was laying on the floor. For a brief second I felt a sense of fear and panic, my mind raced through several thoughts in a split second. Did he sustain any serious injury?  How am I gonna get him off the floor? Did this happen in one swift kick or multiple? Jerry said I'm Ok and it was all I needed to hear to take a deep breath, get my wits about me, and take action to get Jerry off the floor. I was thankful to find that the Hoyer lift does drop low enough, (just barely) to pick up from the floor. Once I got Jerry back to bed I did a thorough inspection for injuries, thank the Lord no injuries. What an adrenalin rushed way to start the day. I'm sure some of you are wondering why Jerry's bed rails weren't up, the bed he's in right now does not have bed rails, we never needed them before. Jerry has 2 beds and switches back and forth, bed 1 is the bottom of the barrel piece of you know what with no rails, however the mattress alternates and is awesome for reducing pressure points, bed 2 is the top of the line luxury edition however the mattress does not alternate and Jerry's butt fall's asleep. Unfortunately the mattresses are not interchangeable, so Jerry switches back and forth between beds.

Jerry's spasticity and muscle spasms have increasingly gotten stronger since his brain injury. Jerry never had to take spasticity medication before the brain injury however now he does and we've had to increase it twice. Two weeks ago he had to double his medication and it's helped a little but not much, I'm fearful his doctor will want him on a Baclofen pump, I pray not. Jerry's legs will quite literally kick and jump 2 feet off the bed. He's kneed me in the chest pretty hard and gotten real close to kneeing me in the face a couple times, good thing I move quick, lol.

I mentioned above that Jerry's butt falls asleep, I know for Jerry it's very uncomfortable, we have to keep rolling him side to side and it's hard for him to get relief. For me I find it encouraging ...3 months ago Jerry could not feel anything below the chest line and now he can feel when his bottom is asleep. It's incredible to think that 4 years post injury Jerry is still getting some return if even just a faint tingling in his bottom, it helps to keep hope alive for more to come.

katie