In the Hospital Again

My father went back into the hospital. I got the call very late Thursday night (9th) / very early Friday morning. Fortunately, my wife was working that night, and double fortunate that they were fully staffed and it was a slow night! So she was able to leave her floor and go down and check on him in the emergency room. She spent the rest of that night going back and forth. You see, with my father's dementia, he doesn't understand what is happening and so needs someone there that he knows to keep him calm and resting.

So that meant that for as long as he was in the hospital, I stayed with him there during the day, while my wife spent the nights with him. It's not easy duty! And after a week, we were wearing out. Fortunately they released him on the 16th, and when I visited him on the 17th back in his memory care unit, he acted as if nothing had happened at all! He didn't remember being sick, being in the hospital, or ever being gone. It was business as usual. :-) One good thing about memory loss, I guess.

The bad thing was that I lost a week of study for my school exams. I really can't afford to lose time, but family has to come first. I was able to do some work in the hospital, but not much. Part of the problem is that he doesn't remember that he needs help and cannot physically do what he thinks he can. So if he has to go to the bathroom, he'll just toss off the sheets and think he can get up and go - but he can't! He needs help. Then five minutes later, he'll do it again - not remembering that just five minutes ago he needed help. And so it goes.

I am so appreciative of the ladies in the memory care where he lives. They take good care of him and work really hard. Whatever pay they get, they do not get paid nearly enough!