Thursday, May 21, 2009

Bob has taken another downward turn. The first week after his Mother’s death he seemed to handle the news well. Although it bothered me that he really showed no emotion. He only twice got a little tearful while talking with his brother, Dave, or his niece, Lesa. Other than that he really did not show any feelings at all. The second week is another story though.

Bob started acting out on the weekend telling us that the pipes in his room were leaking; there was water on the floor, he was seeing people again, the list goes on and on. These all happen in the evening after 4PM. On one occasion I was talking with Tina, Bob’s daughter, on the phone when he had such an episode. She listened as I talked Bob through the event. She couldn’t really do much, but asked me to call her if I needed anything.

The days went on and on Monday Sarah had issues with him while I was at work, and then that night he really acted out with me. I had finally hit my breaking point and stayed home from work Tuesday and phoned the Doctor. They told me his regular doctor was of course on vacation and I wouldn’t be able to get him in for a week. I asked to speak to the case worker and explained to her my situation. She has been following Bob’s case since before he broke his neck. She spoke to the doctor on call and told me to try increasing one of his medications. I did.

Wednesday morning I get up, get ready for work, go to tell Sarah bye, and look down the hall at Bob’s room. I always check on him before I leave. It is like a Mother checking to make sure the children are still in bed. Bob wasn’t in bed. Instead he was up, bed made, sitting in his chair, TV blaring, looking at me standing in the doorway stunned. “Hey, what’s on the agenda?” he asked me.

Holy Toledo, I thought to myself. Normally, this man sleeps till 10:00 and then you have to go and wake him up. Here it is 6:30 and he is wired. I walked in, sat on his bed, and started talking to him. I asked him how he was, what was he watching, what would he like to do today, simple questions. Normally, he would not be able to answer these questions. He would stumble and trip over his own words. Not this morning! He answered every question and even asked me some questions to go along with mine. It was great!

I got his coffee, called my work, told them I needed the day off. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving Sarah with him when he was totally out of character. She is very good with him, but when he is unpredictable, that is not good at all.

As the morning progressed he was more and more alert. I asked if he would like to go to Sea World for the day. His eyes sparkled and he told me yes. I got him ready, called Pat and Tina and asked if they would like to join us. They started to say yes, but remembered they had other priorities they needed to fulfill and told me to be very careful and if I need them they were a phone call away.

Sea World was a hit and miss. We only stayed a few hours. We had good experiences and some bad ones. We left after a few hours, picked up lunch, and came home. After arriving home I called Tina to let her know how the day was progressing and telling her I was glad I stayed home from work today because I didn’t feel right about leaving him with Sarah. Right at that moment Sarah yelled for me to come that Pop had fallen. I threw the phone to Sarah and ran back to Bob’s room. He was lying on his left side propped up with his elbow looking at me. I yelled down the hall to Sarah telling her to tell Aunt Tina and Uncle Pat to get to the house. Tina and Pat were at the house in less than five minutes.

Bob was embarrassed and told me he didn’t need Pat and Tina. I explained to him that it was either them or 911. I could not get him off the floor without help and I need people who would be able to tell if something was broken. He could easily have a hairline fracture in his hip and not know it till we started moving him.

Pat and Tina got there, came straight back to the room and the language of love started flowing. Pat squatted down so that he was on the same level with Bob. For about fifteen minutes he stayed in that position talking to Pop and asking him questions. Pat was in a horrible motorcycle accident the same time that Bob last year broke his neck. They two accidents actually happened on the same day. Pat has extreme vertigo as a result from that accident. He has gone through endless therapy sessions learning how to deal with his condition.

After Pat felt that Bob was alright to get up off the floor, Pat and Tina lifted him up while I checked him over. He had a scrape on his elbow and a small scrape on his knee. Other than that he seemed fine. Pat then worked with Pop for another ½ hour teaching him how to walk without getting dizzy. One thing Pat did point out is that Bob had too many patterns in the room. His bed spread and rugs were too busy. We changed the bedspread to a solid and today we are going to change the rugs in his room.

Bob has a doctor appointment this next Wed. in the morning. I am hoping that we can straighten out his medication and hopefully get him into a specialist at that time. I can’t thank Pat and Tina enough for their help this week. I don’t think I could have done it without them.

Since Bob does not handle stress well these days we are asking people to only share happy things with Bob. Please no news of death, sickness, fights in the family, etc. etc. It is apparent that these things bother him on a level that we can not help him on. Please feel free to pass important news on to Rob, Tina, Pat and I and we will choose to share the information with Bob or hold it for a future date.