It is 5 am and I am peacefully sleeping. I hear my father get up and use his walker, he must need to use the bathroom I think to my self and stay tuned because sometimes he gets lost. Some time passes and I hear no sounds of distress, I fade back to sleep and then CRASH!
I jumped up and rushed to my door and I see my dad standing in his doorway, okay he is alive and hasn't fallen. I see a lamp at his feat and think the crash I heard was maybe the lamp falling on the hardwood floor, but it is so small.
He is so confused, he doesn't know where he is and as I survey his room I am shocked. The floor is covered in something wet. I am pretty sure it isn't water. His dirty clothe shaper is knocked over, there is a foul smelling stain on his bed. Then I see the top of his dresser. Usually there is a lamp next to a television there. Not one of the new flat screens, this is a tube tv. It is heavy and bulky with a built in VCR and DVD player. The top of the dresser is empty, the tv falling to the floor was the crash I heard. It is still connected to the cable but I doubt it will work again. It has landed on the tube.
I get him into the bathroom and have him change his clothes. He is very cooperative and does what I ask him to do. I clean his floor, pick up the broken pieces of the lamp, change his sheets and get him back into bed. It is still early enough to have him go back to bed and he complies. Soon he is snoring away. I am tired and leave the tv where it is, it is heavy and bulky. I don't know if I will be able to pick it up,by myself.
Somehow both my children slept through all of this. I crawl back into bed and I can feel the fear in my stomach. I can feel the fear that I pushed aside to get everything taken care of. I called my brother hoping that he can stop by before he goes on a short road trip. I hope that he will be able to help me get that tv moved off the floor. Amazingly after that I fall asleep.
My brother stops by late in the morning, we are all still sleeping. He picks up the tv and SURPRISE! It still works. Even though it landed on the tube, it is still in once piece. The new tvs may look nice with those rectangular flat screens but they don't hold up like the older tvs do.
The whole day is a bad day for dad, he doesn't recognize his home. He can't see much at all. He doesn't know where he is. When we visit mom he can't steer his scooter so I steer for him. He really is like a lost child.
Then we visit mom and she can't breathe. I am getting overwhelmed. It is a bad day for me too. I hope tomorrow dad is more aware, I hope mom finally finds out why she is having so much trouble breathing. The X-rays show nothing, but we all can see and hear how hard it is for her to breathe. At least tonight the kids are at their dad's house. I hope we all can get a good nights sleep!
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