February Blog Entries
Silly, silly me!!
Friday, February 15
I really thought Ken and I were finally getting a handle on our lives again. We had about a week with no major catastrophes. Dad was helping Mom again with some of her personal needs. The really nice thing was that I could sleep in until 6am instead of getting up around 5am every day.
Dad was almost at the point of being fairly independent again. Then, last week, he pushed his activity too far… his intent was good, but the outcome was very bad. He decided he wanted to get the tractor out of the shed so that he could take the trash cans out to the street. When opening the double doors to the shed (they were warped from dampness), he had to push to get them open. When they finally opened, his body went right along with the doors and, consequently, he fell down.
Ever since that happened, he’s had bad lower back pain. Two mornings in a row he could not get out of bed. I had to have him roll over onto his stomach and slide out of bed onto his knees. Since those 2 occurrences, he’s been sleeping in a chair. He went to the doctor and then had X-rays to determine if he fractured or broke anything. He’s now on pain pills and not doing well at all. We’re still waiting for the results.
A major setback with Ken’s mom
The same night that my dad hurt his back, Ken’s mom started acting strange. Her balance was not good at all. She was standing at the kitchen counter and started to slide over. This happened a couple of times. That night, Ken had to walk her upstairs… she couldn’t do it without help.
The next morning (6am) she called for us. She fell out of bed and had no control over her legs. We called 911. They came right over and transported her to the Emergency Room. After several tests, including a CT Scan, it revealed she had a brain hemorrhage (mild stroke). It affected the right side of her body. She has some strength and movement in her right leg and arm, but not good control. She also has a very difficult time speaking… can’t get the words out.
That same morning she went to the Emergency Room, Ken was also due at the hospital for surgery (same hospital). It was a very difficult morning for Ken. His Mom’s in the ER with a stroke and he’s due for surgery in 1½ hours. We finally had to leave his mom and have Ken report in for his surgery. He finally got all his paperwork done and was ushered away to change into typical patient surgical attire. I then went back down to be with his mom in the ER and stayed with her and made sure she was all settled into her room.
The rest of the day was spent going back and forth between Ken and his mom. Ken’s surgery was delayed four hours. That was horrible for him and agonizing for me waiting for him to come out of surgery. Then, after I got Ken home that night and settled in and my mom and dad settled, I went back to the hospital to make sure Ken’s mom was doing ok.
I do believe that had to be one of the hardest and longest days of both of our lives. If we had ever known something like that was facing us, I think we both would have turned around and run away. So much for our feeling of getting our lives back again!!