Dad's Christmas

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone

Well, we brought Dad over to our house to spend Christmas with us, but it

was pretty disorienting to him. We picked him up about 10am and he stayed

all day, opening presents and eating dinner. But since we normally pick

him up at dinnertime he never did quite work out what time it was, he kept

thinking it was time to go home.

Then as my sister-in-law was leading him to her car, he took off across the

street to try to get into a stranger's car. When she called him back he

BACKED up rather than turning around, and ended up tripping on the curb,

falling back over on his head, and fracturing his wrist. He will have a

splint on it for several weeks. The worst thing is that his pants zippers,

which were already getting to the point he couldn't handle them, are now

quite impossible. We went out and bought him some sweatpants but he is

having trouble adjusting to them. It turns out he had been using Depends

but now he can't quite work out how to get them on and off by himself.

This is all hardest on my darling husband. He spent the better part of a

half hour in the bathroom with his Dad trying to get him back in order, and

I can tell it is taking a toll on DH's poor broken heart.

I am wondering just how long they will tolerate him in the Assisted Living

area of the nursing home, where he has his own apartment. They have plenty

of people with Depends but I am worried that if he can't get them off and

on he will soon be moved to the nursing unit permanently.

Christmas is hard for us because we lost Jerry's mom right before Christmas

three years ago, it seems things are always happening to try to break our

spirit around then. Fortunately the kids still love their Grandpa without

worrying about him, and are able to share their joy in the season with him

too.

Hope you all had an accident-free holiday at least,

Christie

[Guest guest]

Christie,

Wow! You really did have an exciting Christmas. I'm sorry to hear of your

dad's fractured wrist. Broken bones are the big fear with the falls. I also

live in dread that my husband will hit his head when he falls.

Christmas is very disorientating for my husband, as well. We always get

together with the whole family - they came here this year. Both and I love

having the children and grandchildren here, but when it comes to opening gifts,

he looks so lost. All that activity is more than he can deal with. We tried

slowing down the gift opening process, but it was still too much.

Has anyone in the group come up with a way to increase their loved one's

enjoyment of this holiday, and decrease the confusion?

Christie, I still work and travel on business quite a bit. While we were

between live-in caregivers, I left my husband with the Assisted Living facility

near us a few times. isn't able to handle toileting by himself, and needs

help with his Depends, zippers, etc. At least at this AL facility, they didn't

seem to have a problem helping him with that. I hope it proves to be the same

for your father.

Hope the New Year brings some more pleasant times for you and your husband.

Sometimes we just have to look for them harder than we used to.