Thanksgiving

We left before 8:00 this morning to spend Thanksgiving with family. We stopped at the hospital to see Dad, who was admitted Monday. His kidneys are doing better, but he has an infection in his elbow. They will probably drain the fluid off tomorrow. He's in a lot of pain from it, and is on IV antibiotics and morphine for pain. He is very weak, and I don't see how he can come home alone. I think he'll need rehab when he is discharged. I talked to him about it some, and told him he needed to be in better shape. I pointed out he had fallen twice in the week before he went into the hospital. He told me he hadn't fallen, he'd slid. I told him that it didn't much matter, as he'd ended up on the floor and couldn't get up. Part of the service in his senior apartment is a call button he wears around his neck for emergencies. He had to use it both times. Before he went in, he wasn't feeling good, so he hadn't been visiting Mom. He didn't want Mom to see him in the hospital, as he didn't want to upset her.

We went from the hospital to Sister's. Brother had already picked up Mom from the nursing home. She was very weepy. It was obvious she missed Dad and didn't know what was going on. She has lost most of her verbal ability. It was a challenging day, as we had to watch her closely. At one point Daughter pulled me off into another room to talk. She was in tears about Grandad not being present. She was also upset about Grandma's decline. As I was trying to calm her down, Mom went wandering through. I called Sister out of the kitchen to see to Mom, who needs assistance in the bathroom.

When we sat at the table to eat, Mom began weeping. Niece, who just turned 4, sat in her lap to comfort her. I made the decision that we were taking Mom to the hospital to see Dad. I had warned him I might do this, so I called and told him we were coming. Mom was sobbing in the car, even as I kept assuring her we were going to see Dad. I told her he was fine, he just had a sore elbow. As we got close to the hospital, she got excited. I was surprised, because they didn't begin using this hospital until after she developed dementia. It was also dark, yet she recognized that we were getting close, and began pointing to the hospital.

When we got up to the room and she saw him, she was so excited, she was jumping up and down with joy. She tried to climb in bed with him. She was humming happy tunes as we took her back to the nursing home. Dad was happy, too.

We dropped her off, and came into Dad's apartment. I've never seen it this filthy. We have our work cut out for us. I promised to go to the hospital tomorrow morning to cover the doctors, but I think Daughter and I will spend the rest of the day cleaning. But tonight, we're relaxing. We'll need to be well rested to face the challenges ahead.