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Prayers for Mom .... And Me
So, mom went to bed around 8 pm last night, she had done the Walmart thing so she was very tired. I laid down around my normal 8:30, put the CPAP mask on and quickly fell asleep.
At 0036 (12:36 am), I woke to a slight banging sound. I also noticed the kitchen lights on. Hmmmm ... what the heck. It sounded like someone was rooting around in the kitchen. I threw my robe on and and started to the kitchen, turned around, grabbed my newest toy (the auto knife) and a flashlight and headed to see if Santa had "dropped" in. I've heard of Christmas in July, but, never May. What was weird, no dogs barking. Annabelle is a huge lover (120#), but, she's very protective, weird she wouldn't be barking or at least crying. Harley was sleeping peacefully in my bed.
So I cautiously went into the Kitchen. Annabelle greeted me with her normal b$tt wagging, She wags her tail but gets so excited, the whole rear end wags. So I headed to mom's bedroom. Nobody home. Looked all around the house and nada. Visions of my neighbor in Illinois who used to "disappear" for days on end and show up three states over (Alzheimer's). I looked out the window and mom's car was still there, some relief, at least she's not driving.
I was just about to dial 911, when I heard the banging sound again. I looked out the window at the top of the door and saw nothing, but, the porch light was on. I opened the door and mom was laying on the ground next to the steps. I opened the storm door and there were rocks all over the porch and I heard, "Thank God, I need help, be careful of the rocks."
I moved the rocks to the side, and went down the steps to see what happened. Apparently after she went to bed, she woke up and remembered that she had left the pork b$tt she bought in the cooler in her car. She went outside around 2100 (9 pm) to get it, and fell near her car, about 20 yards from the front steps, and couldn't get up. She b$tt walked (her words) into the yard from the driveway. She was unable to get up and had been sitting on the sidewalk at the bottom of the steps throwing rocks at the front door since just after 2100 to try to get Annabelle to bark. Amazingly, she throws like a girl, an older girl. Of course, she did not have her phone with her or her "emergency" pendant that she is supposed to have on her 24/7.
These are the rocks she had thrown, fortunately she didn't break the glass in the door and have glass rain down on her. We have a river rock front yard, dad hated mowing grass.
There are more in the crack between the door and the porch, I'll dig them out later.
This is were I found her ... if ya look close, you can see where her feet slid when she tried to get up with the help of the porch hand rail. I'm now really glad I had fortified the rail last summer and added two steps, not sure I could carry her up them when they were normal rise, now, kind of like climbing a ramp with bumps.
The good news, no bleeding, no broken bones and just a lot of bruising. The bad news, I need to make some decisions and so does she. She swore to me awhile back, last time she fell, that she would never be without the phone or the pendant again, but, she has said that before. She's also swore that she would never leave the house without letting me know, even if I'm out of town (She calls to tell me she's going shopping or outside to garden and then calls when she gets back in the house, if she doesn't call back when she said she'd be back, I call the nurse across the street to check on her) and she's been good about that part until last night. She didn't want to wake me. I took her to bed, and told her we'd talk after she got some rest ... I don't expect to see her until noonish. I had to basically carry her up the stairs and into her bedroom. She was worn out. Being 66 myself, made getting her there a lot tougher that I imagined. Maybe adrenaline was helping.
I checked on her this morning and she was sleeping soundly. I need to put some kind of plan in place that will prevent this happening again. We were lucky last night, as this could have been disastrous. She could have cut herself and bled to death, broke her leg and been outside all night ... any number of less than optimum outcomes. I don't really know what to do, I know she is very independent (down right pig headed and I want her to be happy) and getting her into assisted living would destroy her. On the flip side, I'm not sure I have the ability to take care of her. I plan to look into some help dealing with her. As you can imagine, she's mom and I do love her ... she put up with me all these years and trust me, I was no picnic. Not to mention, I made Dad a promise on his death bed to take care of her. Maybe I can find some help that will take a little stress off of me and ensure she has what she needs. She was doing really well with her new therapy sessions (getting stronger and her balance was really improving) then the Chinese virus thing started and they put the sessions off as non essential, I would disagree, but, I don't get to make that decision.
The sad part, I don't really want to have this conversation this close to Mother's Day. She loves to garden and grow flowers and vegetables. I have hen and chicks, six types of tomatoes, some flowering plants and several kitchen gadgets she's ogled over on QVC for her tomorrow and was looking forward to cooking her a smoked b$tt on that special day.
Please, any prayers or advice will be greatly appreciated.
Originally Posted by FuzzyWuzHe
... I wonder ... ya think she'd mind if I put the necklace around her neck, then pulled it snug and locked it with a lead able clamp???? It is water proof.
