New Decisions...

Today, I was late getting to Daddy's house because on Mondays, we do our grocery shopping and errands. I get a call from the nurse, asking me if I was taking Daddy to the doctor. I said, of course not! She said he was insisting he was going to the doctor today. So, we quickly finished shopping, and flew home, I jumped in my truck and was down there as fast as I could get there.

I walked in to a man covered in blood. There was blood everywhere. There was blood in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in the living room, the bedding was covered, his clothes were covered. I almost had a heart attack right there. He said he fell, in the hallway, at 11:30 last night. Luckily the nurse from hospice walked in at that very moment.

She took one look at him, and put him right in the shower, so we could figure out what the heck happened. The aide came as well, and together, they got him cleaned up, while I got all the bedding and clothes in the washer, and started working on cleaning up the blood that was everywhere else.

He has two more sliced places on the arm, on the shoulder, on his leg, and this doesn't include the arm he sliced from wrist to elbow last week. They patched him up, and got him dressed. Showed me what to do to care for these new wounds. And, suggested I get somebody in to help me.

I can no longer do this by myself. I need help, and am not to proud to ask for it. Whether he likes it or not, is irrelevant anymore. I decided to go ahead and get the life alert, so that will be installed tomorrow. I have a list of people to call who we will have to pay, but they will come in and cook, clean, whatever I need them to do.

My plan is, I will go down in the am, take care of any mess. Then the Aide can come get him in the shower and change the sheets for me. I will change his bandages, and do whatever else for his care, and then hopefully I can find somebody who will come in for a couple hours in the afternoon to help make him something to eat, and sit with him, and just help do whatever he needs. I will be starting the interview process this week.

My goal is, and always has been, to keep him out of a nursing home... but as this progresses, that is looking like I may fail in my goal.  Now, that I have made that decision to get some help, I feel seriously overwhelmed, because I have to interview all these people and find somebody who will do a good job, and also will put up with him, which is no small task. But, I will find somebody who can fit our needs, I feel sure.

The confusion he has had the last few days, leads me to believe he is getting much, much worse. Today he wanted to know when the electric company was coming. They were not coming. He said his tv needed to be fixed because it was broken. It was not broken. He kept wondering why I was taking him to the doctor. I was not taking him to the doctor, the doctor comes to him. He kept saying it was Saturday... so much confusion. Luckily, I am not the brightest bulb in the box, and can understand the confusion pretty well.

So, another adventure begins in trying to get some help. I have to do it for my own sake.