24 Hours
Earlier this week, my mom was having an off day. She was getting agitated over little things. In the back of my mind, I was thinking to give her something to “relax” a little bit because I did not want her blood pressure to escalate. I let her be in her own world. As the evening progressed, I did not want to bother her, so in the process missed my cycling class. I decided to take a shower, it was my way to be alone and relax. Suddenly while in the shower, I heard a loud bang- I rushed out and found my mom on the floor. Thank goodness she was conscious, it looked like she hit her head and I saw blood on her hands and neck. I called 911 requesting they come to attend to my mom’s medical needs. Fortunately throughout the process she was coherent and talking. She did not want to go to the ER but with a head injury and blood she had to go.
I went to the ER and fortunately, she was still conscious and talking. They had just done an EKG and the nurse tech was drawing blood. In recent years I have become a frequent visitor to the ER, and I see the hospital staff is much more skilled and tactful dealing with dementia patients. The nurse and ER doctor attended to her lovingly, which was very reassuring to me and made the process so much easier.
After a few hours, her scans came back normal as well as other tests, and that was a big relief. The nurse and doctor urged me to go home since it was midnight. They made arrangements for her to be transported back home via ambulance since I am unable to get her into a car on my own, she does not understand what to do when you tell her.
It was a long night- the nurse called me to inform me around 3:30am that they will bring her home soon. A team of three individuals brought her home around 4:30am and transferred her to her bed. I was able to sleep around 5am, and then at 6am my mom was screaming that “she is on fire”. She was scared, and it took me some time to convince her otherwise and by that time it was 6:30am.
I was completely wiped out and managed to sleep for 45min. I woke up, and the first thing I did was order Starbucks delivery. I needed a double expresso to get me through the day. I timed the delivery so it would arrive just when I had to log on for work. In between, I was making arrangements for next week to have the staples removed from her head and inform home health of the latest developments. Work was so busy, that I was unable to take a breather. During my lunch break, I attended to my mom making sure she was ok and not developing any other symptoms post-fall. I was so charged from the expresso that I felt like the energizer bunny. I forgot to eat and kept going. At 5:01pm I was trying to think about eating, and started to feel like I was going to crash quickly. I had a Zoom call at 6pm, and kept telling myself a little longer. I ordered sushi and had it delivered during my Zoom meeting, and as soon as the Zoom meeting was over finally ate. It was a struggle to stay awake to chew, but after checking on mom I crashed on my bed at 8pm.
Yes- this is my life as a caregiver. It is so hard to plan, but one thing I have learned is to be prepared for the unexpected.