#182 The Lift

After Jay had lost control of the left side of his body, but before he was confined to a hospital bed, he occasionally fell while getting out of our bed.  You have to understand that it wasn't just that he was paralyzed on the left - he was completely unaware, when he wasn't consciously thinking about it, that the left side of the entire world even existed.  Intellectually he was aware, but as a practical matter his brain simply crossed it out. 

So when he first attempted to get out of bed in the morning, he would forget to compensate for his "missing" left side, and he would fall.  (After a while I learned to tie a string connecting his right wrist to my waist, so if he tried to get out of bed while I was asleep, it would slow him down, remind him there's a problem, and wake me.)  Once on the floor, with the "dead" left side and no awareness that the left side existed, he couldn't get up.

He was 17" taller than I, and 100 lb. heavier, so it was difficult for me to lift him.  I figured out a way. 

I'd push and pull until I got him sitting up against the bed.  Then I'd sit on his lap and pull his right arm over my shoulder and hold it with my left hand, and grab hold of his clothing at the hip (or his robe belt that I'd tied around his hips if he wasn't wearing anything) with my right, and then I'd roll to our left, pulling him over on top of me.

So now we'd both be face down on the floor with him on top of me.  I'd wriggle around to get him balanced, then I'd get up on my hands and knees, work my feet under me, then stand up, bent over with him on my back.  (The strongest part of my body had always been my legs.)  Then I could turn slightly, and fall back or sideways onto the bed.  From there, he could get to the walker or wheelchair safely.

I thought I'd invented the lift.  I was surprised to see the characters practicing the same lift !! on Are You Being Served on PBS last night.  It's a type of fireman's lift.  Great minds and all that....

As a postscript, even though it didn't show up for another two years, I suspect it was lifting Jay that way that finally destroyed my knees.