Tag Archives: bad day

Stress, Worry, and Pain

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Where to start?! So much has happened in the last week, it’s just kind of a blur. I’ll start on July 4th, which seems like such a long time ago!

Last Friday, Dad and I headed out for a Walmart curbside order. We picked up our order, stopped for gas, and headed home. When we got home, Dad said he had to pee but that he wasn’t going to make it to the toilet so he stepped to the side of the yard and did his business. We live out in the boonies, so there’s no one around to see anything. While Dad was doing his thing, I was unloading the trunk and putting our groceries in the utility cart so we could lug it into the house. All of a sudden, I heard a yell, and when I looked up, Dad was on his hands and knees trying to get up.

He wasn’t injured, and he was coherent. He had just lost his balance and went down. He’s been doing this off and on for the last year or so but never outside. I rushed over to help but there’s nothing for him to hang onto in order for him to help me help him get up. Does that make sense? I tried and tried to get him up, but it just wasn’t working. I hobbled myself into the house to get the bathlift, which is like the lift they advertise on tv for the elderly when they fall. The only difference is that the bathlift is heavier. I tried to help him get his butt on the seat but he couldn’t sit up enough for it to work. He got so weak trying to get up that he just couldn’t anymore.

I called 9-1-1 at this point because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do this without help. I told the dispatcher I needed help getting him off the ground and to please hurry because he’s in the sun! I was almost in a panic when Dad became unresponsive. There he was lying there IN THE SUN, and I was helpless. I grabbed our wet towels we had in the car (to help us stay cool because the a/c is on the fritz) and I wet them down more, and laid them across Dad’s head and back to help keep him cool. The ambulance was taking its sweet time! I called 9-1-1 again. The dispatcher asked for the address again. I told her AGAIN. I think I called 3 times and each time I told her that Dad was on the ground and IN THE SUN, and that I couldn’t get him up.

By this time, our neighbor, Mike, who is a volunteer firefighter, came to help. Two other helpful men came over, also volunteer firefighters, but honestly I have no clue who showed up first. We got more towels to drape over him and one guy had an umbrella he used to keep the direct sun off of Dad.

Finally, the ambulance came. One of the paramedics told me that the dispatcher gave them the wrong address, plus she never relayed the message that this was a heat related incident. I am so angry at that woman! They took Dad to the hospital. I was so hot and stressed out by then, I went inside and jumped in the shower, A COLD SHOWER, to be exact. I just sat there on the shower chair and cried as I cooled off. It was awful. I prayed that Dad would be ok. Then off to the hospital I went.

I had to talk to so many people, and I was dehydrated, so my mouth and throat became so dry I couldn’t talk unless someone brought me some water. They did, and it helped, but not very much. They took Dad to ICU and then they brought me to the ICU waiting room. At this point, I started texting people to let them know what had happened. It didn’t look great for Dad. He was still unresponsive and his temperature had been at 104 degrees when he came in. They were able to get his temp down to normal and he was on all kinds of IV drips and holy crap, it was awful seeing him like that! He was also on a ventilator. He suffered severe burns on his calves from the fabric of his pants touching his skin. IT WAS THAT HOT.

I don’t remember who came first. It could have been my son, since he lives closest but I can’t be sure. The grandkids (Dad’s great grandkids) started coming. I was so overwhelmed by everything, it’s just so blurry. The next day, my sisters and my brother in law came in from Tennessee. My daughter had just been here a couple of weeks before this happened. She had been worried that something would happen and that she’d not been able to see him. I’m glad she came when she did. Work interfered with her coming at this time because she just started as manager of a new Pizza Hut when she got home from her visit.

As the days have gone by, Dad has slowly showed improvement. He came off the vent with a throat sore he couldn’t talk. As the swelling came down, his speech improved. Still not at 100% so it’s a little hard to understand him. He had been on a diet of puree and thickened liquids until yesterday, when they changed it to a mechanical diet. That means he can eat things like meat but it looks like it’s been chewed up already. LOL. His burns are healing. They took him off the IV drips yesterday. They have had him up walking. It tires him out terribly but he’s doing better.

As I was leaving yesterday, they were getting a regular room ready for him. From here they want him to get some physical therapy to make him stronger so we found a place closer to home that takes his insurance. He will be moving there soon, but it’s only temporary, until he’s stronger and can come home. Please pray that he does well enough to come home.

In case you don’t know, I am disabled and can only walk with crutches. This proved to be very difficult for me to get across the hospital parking lot to the building. Every day. When my sisters were here, my youngest sister got a transport chair and pushed me around, making it easier on me. After they left though, I was on my own. I am not strong enough to get my wheelchair in the car otherwise I would have been able to wheel myself around. They have a guy that drives a cart around the parking lots, giving people rides but I had a difficult time getting on and off of that thing so I just walk. I’m in so much pain I just want to sit on my ass and not move at all. This morning my arms and shoulders are sore from using the crutches, I assume. I was going to go see Dad today, but I don’t think I can do that walk again.

I may have forgotten some details but I think you can understand all that happened. It’s been such a short time but it seems like it’s been weeks. I miss Dad not being home. It’s been difficult, mentally and physically. Tomorrow’s my birthday and Dad won’t be here. We don’t celebrate our birthdays really but it’s many, many years (30+) that he’s not been here on my birthday. It seems so strange.

I now need to figure out how I can get that new house finished so when Dad comes home it’s to a nice house instead of a dump. That’s the focus. My family might be coming back and I think they will help me get things figured out. Fingers crossed that all goes well. I will keep you all posted as best I can. Please pray for us!

Until next time,

PS I apologize for spelling and grammar errors. I’m lucky I can even see straight at this point.

Last Thursday & Dad’s Appointment

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It all started at 2am when the storm they talked about all week decided to hit. With one lightning strike, the power went out. It went out for just long enough to mess up every digital everything, and that did not exclude the freakin’ coffee pot. When the power came back on, so did the coffee pot, which was originally set for 8am the next morning. The coffee actually started to brew at 2am! So, our coffee was several hours old and had to be rewarmed when we got up. The power went out several times during the wee hours of the morning. I had the a/c going in my room, which is digital as well. Every time the power went off, so did my a/c. I had to roll over and turn the damn thing back on via remote every single time. Thankfully, my alarm clock has battery back up because I had to take Dad to his doctor appointment in the morning.

His appointment was a bit early for me since I don’t go to bed until 3am. I know, I’ve heard it before: Why don’t you go to bed earlier then silly? Well, for your information, going to bed earlier doesn’t make me go to sleep earlier, that’s why. I still toss and turn (painfully, I might add) until damn near 4am no matter what stinkin’ time I go to bed! So now that that’s out in the open, I shall continue.

When we got to the clinic, there weren’t too many cars in the parking lot. I thought, Super! This is going to be quick and easy! Well, it was quick but it was painfully not easy at all. The people in the waiting room made me cringe. One lady was dressed in some weird-ass clothing so she looked like a clown. She wasn’t even an old lady. I thought to myself, Be nice, Deb. Maybe that’s all she has to wear. An older woman, who walked past me to use the restroom smelled strongly of urine. I think she was too late, I thought. Holy crap. Again, Be nice, Deb. Maybe her washing machine broke down and she doesn’t have the money for the laundromat to wash her clothes or maybe she was waiting for her son to fix her washer. There was an old man in a wheelchair who was coughing and wheezing like he really needed to see the doctor right away but the two receptionists were yapping instead of recognizing that maybe they needed to get him out of the waiting room before he infected everyone else. They were uncomfortably loud! I guess they thought we all needed to know that one of them has an autistic son and the other, a mother-in-law from hell. One has a dog with 3 legs and the reason for that is he got run over by the lawnmower. How awful is that? Oh yeah, and one woman’s husband was caught cheating on her red-handed by her sister’s husband’s something or other… Jesus. As if anyone in that damn waiting room gave a shit! I had told Dad before they called his name that I may be out in the car when he gets done…and that’s what I did. I held my breath as I walked past the urine lady and the wheezing man and tossed the gabby bitches at the front desk a dirty look as I disappeared through the automatic door.

While I was out in the car, I rolled down the windows because there was a nice breeze. It felt great! I put the radio on a classic rock station and turned up the volume. When AC/DC’s Hells Bells came on I cranked it up and I just happened to look a few spots over where a woman sat in her car, also waiting. She gave me a dirty look as if I might be Satan’s Keeper or some shit and I shot her the metal horns (hand gesture) and she rolled her windows up. And yes, I thought everyone deserved to hear my music because I have awesome taste!

Dad was done fairly quickly and we headed over to our favorite Italian restaurant for some pizza. The server was a pain in the ass. She took our order for hot wings, drinks, and pizza. Then she pretty much came back with one thing at a time, as if she couldn’t carry a beer and a glass of wine at the same time, or plates and a basket of wings, or even napkins and straws. The pizza was great, as always, so I tried not to be so hard on the dip shit.

We headed out to Walmart after lunch and got everything we needed in a timely manner. The problem came when we were ready to checkout. There were only 2 checkers working and there were 8 people in one line and 6 in the other. Geez. Can they not see the long lines of people waiting? I hate that store more and more every time I go there! But at least they had a scooter this time so there’s that…

When we got home we learned that it had poured down rain and the roof sprung a few more leaks. Dad asked me where my ‘grabber’ was because he couldn’t reach a strip of paint from the ceiling that was hanging down. He said it was going to fall eventually anyway. I told him where the ‘grabber’ was and as soon as he picked it up, poor Honey Bear shot out of the living room like a bat out of hell and slammed into the refrigerator, the cart and then my legs! She nearly knocked me down! She’s a whopping 20 lbs. and when you’re not expecting something like that…well, I almost lost my footing. She went through there so fast I didn’t even know which cat it was at first! I’m sure someone from her previous home must’ve done something to her with something that looks like or sounds like that damn ‘grabber.’ Poor baby. So sad.

I was definitely glad that day was over! Going out can be very exhausting for someone like me with chronic pain and even an older person like my Dad. We both fell asleep in our chairs! Everyone has to recharge, right?