falls

I used to keep a running list of all the times the husband fell just in case someone medical asked the bruises.

I stopped because it just got too sad because I’d have to write things like “when I left the room he tried to pick something up off the floor” or “while I was walking the dog…” or “I was upstairs in bed when I heard the crash” and then I’d describe his wounds and the questions I asked him that he wouldn’t be able to answer. Like “Did you hit your head?”

I have to start again though, because right now he is falling so often I can’t remember if it’s been four or five separate falls. One happened when in the middle of the night he tried to grab his walker which was too far from the bed and he fell forward off of the bed. He scraped his right knee. Then he fell on top of his walker in his room trying to pick something up from the floor. He scraped both knees and his forearm. Then there was another fall where he scraped the opposite elbow and both knees again. I’m pretty sure there a fourth fall that I can’t recall the details to. And there was tonight.

Tonight, he went to bed around 8:30. At 10:15 I heard him using the bathroom and he called to me to tell me he wouldn’t be getting up. I figured he was down for the night. I stayed up late waiting out a downpour to take Luna outside. We went out around 11:30, came in, closed up the house. I was upstairs, I was in my room, having just finished brushing my teeth I was putting oil on my face when I heard the crashing sound.

I called down, I put my pajamas back on, and found him lying on the bathroom floor. One bandaged knee was oozing blood. I could see one elbow was reopened. He did not have his walker with him and it was dark. He managed to slide himself into the hallway, sit up, and scoot on his butt to the bed where he gently rolled to his knees and pushed himself up into the bed.

Once sitting he was able to use his walker to walk back and forth to the bathroom successfully.

I rebandaged the bleeding knee. I’m praying he doesn’t try to get up again in the night. It’s going to be hard to go to sleep tonight.