After the Fall
by Floriana Hall
My husband, Bob, and I were so excited when we heard we had a new great-grandson in Overland Park, Kansas, on July, 26, 2010. He was actually born on the same day I had a total hip replacement here in Akron, Ohio. I recovered nicely and the surgery has helped relieve some of the pain I had. I still have spinal stenosis and arthritis to endure but this winter has been tolerable. The weather, of course, has been terrible and one must walk carefully in order not to fall.
Bob and I flew to Kansas on September 25 to visit our daughter Cindy and her family. Shaun Robert Best, Jr., her grandson, and our great-grandson was two months old the next day. We thoroughly enjoyed the reunion and baby Shaun smiled at us a lot and it seemed wonderful that we had an instant rapport with him.
On September 28, the night before we were to fly back to Cleveland airport, Cindy took me to a dinner theater to celebrate my 83rd birthday. We had a great time. As we approached her home, we noticed that her husband’s car was gone and the lights were on inside the house. We sensed something was wrong. The men in the family had taken Bob to a Mexican restaurant because they did not want to see the play. I had mentioned to Bob to stay put in the reclining chair until we arrived home.
Instead, he went out into the garage to smoke a cigar but told our son-in-law to turn out the light. Bob tripped on a small extension below the garage door which is typical of the garages at homes in Kansas.
An immediate call to Cindy’s husband’s cell phone informed us that Bob was in the ER room in the local hospital. We drove right over to see what was happening. The X-Ray showed that Bob had broken his hip in an unusual way. I asked the anesthesiologist
to administer a spinal anesthetic because Bob has some dementia and I had heard that anesthesia could affect patients with that condition in a negative way. They did not listen to me.
The surgery was performed on September 29, and Bob has never been the same since then. He was so confused and kept saying “I need a head scan.” No one really paid attention to what he kept repeating, not even me. He could not sit up in a wheelchair without sliding down and it took three people to get him out of bed.
Unfortunately, I had to fly home because I was to have an X-Ray of my hip the next Tuesday and also had to pay our bills. It cost me an extra $379 to fly home which I have never recovered although Continental left a message on my answering machine that they were to send a refund.
Life has been like a whirlwind ever since I arrived home. Cindy and her family visited Bob every day but he seemed to be going downhill and desperately wanted to come home to Akron. After three weeks in the hospital and three hundred calls (I tend to exaggerate) I finally found a medical plane that cost $7,900. Medicare had asked for $13,500 for the flight, so $7,900 seemed like a bargain to me. I split the amount on two charge cards.
The plane was small and Cindy actually sat in the co-pilot’s seat in the harrowing flight in the propeller plane. It took five hours to fly Bob and Cindy to Akron, bedside to bedside to Traditions at Bath Road where Bob is still living (or trying to live) at this moment.
Bob has not done well in physical therapy and still cannot walk, pull himself up or go to the bathroom by himself, so there is no way that I can take care of him. It takes a machine and two people to get him out of bed. Our family here visits him nearly every day.
We finally granted his wish to have a head scan which he had been asking for ever since the fall. He had the MRI, EEG, and neck and back X-Ray yesterday. We are waiting for the results. We feel he will waste away without physical therapy even though he did not understand how to walk or pull himself up. Perhaps the tests will tell us more. Perhaps his brain is not working with his arms and legs. The neurologist said that can happen with some patients who have dementia when he checked Bob on the day of the worst snowstorm our area had for years in December.
The ride in the medical van was scary because we kept sliding in the deep snow. The chains to hold Bob’s wheelchair secure clunked and clanked. I almost fell because my pink cane slipped as I was entering the medical building.
The only good thing that has happened is that Bob is able to tolerate sitting in the wheelchair for at least six hours a day in order not to get more bed sores. He has two sores on his feet probably because of his diabetes. The hospital has now released him to eat regular food because he had been choking a lot. He has had so many other issues since he has been in Traditions, it is difficult to mention all of them. One day he was taken in the medical van to an appointment he did not have. However, I have come to the conclusion that all nursing homes make mistakes. Traditions is close to my home so I do not mind the drive there except some days I cannot get out of my driveway unless I have it plowed.
This is the first time I have experienced a loved one living in a nursing home. There is a lot to learn and I am slowly learning to take each day in stride because I cannot change what happened. It is sad, but life can be difficult at times and one still has to cope. As I have always said, life goes on.
