Visiting my family this weekend, a trip to the nursing home to see my dad was part of the visit. Now that my youngest has started school, and living 6 hours from the rest of my family I’m stuck with just weekends to come and help out. I’ve been lucky that my mother is still able to take care of herself as much as she is. This trip my husband and youngest came with and we got to attend a Jurrasic Quest event also. My youngest was super excited about that.
My dad has still been having issues at the nursing home and we’ve been dealing with – is there another place to put him? Surprisingly my mother was told that the nursing home he is in has a five star rating and so he needs to move so that they don’t loose their rating. I’ve been surprised with the number of times they call and tell us that he has fallen. The stories they tell give the impression that despite being unable to walk without assistance when anyone is watching – he appears to be a super quick ninja the rest of the time and get to places and then fall down when they aren’t looking. He is on their list to always be watched yet in the last two days he has fallen twice – and once last week so badly that he has fractured his hand…
While in to visit (Before the last two times he has fallen), we noticed on Sunday that he is now dragging his left foot behind him when he walks with a walker. It appeared obvious to me that he has had a stroke again. The nurse when questioned, said that he has been like that as long as she has known him, but also mentioned that she only works every other weekend. I realized that means that this was the first weekend she had ever seen my dad, as he just moved to that section.
My dad’s medicine seems to be making him pretty tired all the time. It’s pretty sad to see, but even with all that we can see small glimmers of my dad. Strokes do change behavior and physical characteristics. Seeing my dad drag his leg, and unable to stay awake to carry on a conversation reminds me that we have moved from the stage where my parents were caretakers to the next step where my brother and I move up to care for our parents (and our kids).
