She's back!

I am just beat! I need to go to bed and rest, but my nerves won’t settle down. I tried reading, but my comprehension is nil. I can’t concentrate on the words, because my mind is whirling away elsewhere. This has been one of the hardest days yet since Carolyn broke her pelvis.

The drugs she has been taking, which kept her in bed and asleep for much of the time are no longer working. She has evidently developed a tolerance for them. All day long she has wanted to get up and walk somewhere. It has been a constant battle to get her to stay in her chair. 

It was a warm, if windy, day outside so I took her out for a stroll in the parking lot. She liked that, but it lasts only so long. I put her in bed, and she rolls out and tries to walk away. I caught her twice before she hit the floor. I parked her in her wheelchair facing me as I sat on the couch. She stood up and tried to crawl over my lap.

The one bright spot was when Leon, the Guardian Chaplain came by and we talked about religions, philosophies, and a little about how I’m doing in the caregiver role. Carolyn actually slept through that, even if she talked in her sleep most of the time.

Shortly after Leon left, I needed to use the restroom, so I parked Carolyn in her wheelchair facing the side of her bed and locked one wheel, hoping if she tried to get up, she would have to climb up on her bed first. As I just got comfortable in the bathroom, I heard a loud crash on the other side of the wall, and I had no doubt what had happened.

Pulling up my pants, I rushed into the living room. Carolyn was in a sitting position on the floor next to the wheelchair, which was on its side folded up, leaning on the rocking chair. After I got her up on the bed, and asked her if she hurt, and after looking for abrasions and contusions, I gave her a stern lecture in my best “Dutch Uncle” voice, just as you would to a small child. I have every expectation that it will be about as effective as lecturing a small child, too. She seemed more mad than sorry, for sure.

I’m at my wit’s end trying to figure out how to keep her from falling again. If it was just a balance problem, one of those wheeled walkers with handbrakes would be fine, but many if not most of her falls in the past have been either from epileptic seizures or Alzheimer’s related neurological glitches that render her unconscious before she falls. A walker wouldn’t help that.

After visualizing her in a harness hooked to the ceiling, or wrapped head to toe in bubble wrap, I am about out of ideas. Restraints on the wheelchair are forbidden, but I did visualize a board under her legs to keep her feet off the floor. Might work, but probably against OSHA regs, too. And, of course, I can see her scooting herself forward until the whole rig topples over forward.

Is the standard end for an Alzheimer’s patient a fall with a broken hip or skull, and then shortly after that they die? I hate the thought of that. My goal has been to get her to the end in as little pain and sorrow as possible.

I’m running out of ideas here.