Good news, when you call 911 to say your elderly relative has fallen and you can't pick him up, they show up pretty quickly. And, as rumored, the firemen were tall, strong, attractive and fairly friendly.
At 3:30 I woke up to hear grandfather calling out on the baby monitor. We ran downstairs to find him caught (arms and shoulders) under the bed railing, with his legs stuck under the bed. Somehow in the dark he had changed his clothes, put on his shoes and fallen but I can't figure out how he got caught under that railing.
By the time I arrived to help him up he was exhausted from trying to free himself and hadn't any strength left. Not enough to sit up straight and definitely not enough to help push himself off the floor. I disentangled him from the sheets and bed rail so he could lay on the floor (on a pillow of course), threw some blankets on him and then my mother called 911 with a request that they not use the siren.
My grandfather knows everyone in the neighborhood having lived here since the late '50s and I didn't want anyone to think he had died. There are lots of elderly people around here, or there were, and every time an ambulance or fire truck arrives you think, well, there goes another. I didn't want to spend the weekend telling people that he's fine, it was nothing, especially as it's sort of not fine.
Usually I can get him off the floor by sliding him towards a chair, I sit in the chair and pull him up backwards, towards me, as he pushes with his legs -- once I get him on my lap I can slide out and voila, man in chair. He's not a small man, still over 6 feet tall, though once much taller, and recently reduced to 165lbs from his usual 185. That night, he was so limp and helpless it was like tugging on a big doll. The fireman on the other hand were able to pick him up easily and drop him in his chair, after which grandfather said to them, "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been here."
Two seconds after we got him back in bed he was knocked out and sleeping like the proverbial baby, then up at 7am ready for his morning Boost and a conversation. By 8am I was ready to go back to sleep and he tells me that I sound tired, my eyes are bloodshot, and maybe I should get more sleep. He's right of course. I look tired and worried and haven't slept through the night in a few weeks and I'm terrible at taking naps.
On the bright side his physical therapist from the hospital showed up today, a friendly guy named Larry. He's given us 10 weight lifting exercises for grandfather along with instructions for doing the standing up exercises while grandfather is lying down. My grandfather turns into the Incredible Sulk when you try to get him to stand up, it is very rarely worth the fight. Perhaps if I set my alarm for 3am he'd be willing.
I have to end with this, I have yet to find a good bed alarm and that is what keeps me awake at night. I keep reading articles about people having to sleep in bed with or in chairs next to their elderly with sundowners, or that you sort of have to rig up an alarm on your own. Most of the alarms I've found require a pin to be pulled out, but he doesn't remember how the TV works half the time, how can I get him to pull a pin? They make cushions that make noise when your pet jumps on the sofa, how about something to let you know when your elder is about to take a header off the bed? Today my mother is off to buy some bells that we're going to stick on something (what?) flexible between the mattress and box springs on the side of the bed that he prefers. It seems more sensible in my head than it does when I read it.
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