Lots of Excitement Today

I started writing this in the Emergency Room at Kaiser Moanalua this evening. But that's getting ahead of the story. Our day began at about 4 am. I heard Dad get out of bed and head for the kitchen, so I turned over and watched on the monitor. He made it to the kitchen in the allotted time (25 seconds) so I closed my eyes. Then I heard a not-so-comforting sound and looked up to see Dad's cane on the ground near his legs; the upper part of his body was obscured by a chair. I rushed out to the kitchen to find he had fallen on his way from the refrigerator to his chair in the family room. Since Dad is now almost 140 pounds I was unable to lift him like I was able to a year ago; I called 911. Five big EMTs from Fire Station 07 came within about 5 minutes, picked him up, checked him out, then made him walk back to the bedroom with his walker. He did well and refused to go to the emergency room.

The EMT's gloves; I was too busy to take photos when they were here.

I had gotten about 3 hours of sleep before all this happened. I tried to get back to sleep after Dad was back in bed, however he was restless & kept making noises so I was unable to sleep. So I spent time on my phone Googling how to deadlift. At 7:30 I got out of bed and gave Xander his medications and took care of a bunch of other things before starting breakfast. When I went to call Dad for breakfast he came out to the kitchen to eat; I was very pleased to see he was continuing to use the walker.

After breakfast I finally got sleepy enough to need a nap. I was asleep shortly after my head hit the pillow. About 30 minutes later I heard the chime of the garage door: I looked at the monitor and saw Dad was looking out the door. And then I watched him fall for the second time today! It was in slow motion since he had placed the walker behind him so he could open the door, it and the chair next to it slowed his fall. I decided to try what I had learned about the mechanics of doing a deadlift; it worked! Dad was also able to grab the door knob so that little extra also helped. I have decided to join a fitness club and work with a personal trainer to learn how to properly deadlift so that I can safely lift Dad in the future.

After I got him off the floor, Dad decided to eat lunch in his bedroom, then he went to sleep. While he was asleep I picked up a pie at Napoleon's Bakery and took it to the guys at Fire Station 07 as a thank you for helping us out in the morning.

Dad also decided to eat dinner in his bedroom, when he sat up I saw that there was a spot on his thigh by his scar that was red & swollen. I sent the photo to Curtis to see if it was there on Wednesday morning when he cleaned Dad up and changed his clothes, it wasn't. Dad said it was sore but he didn't want to see anyone about it. I decided to watch it and if the red area got larger or had a red line going up his leg or he started a fever or he started throwing up, I would take him to the emergency room.

Dad's scar and swollen red area.

About half an hour later Dad was moaning so loudly I could hear him in the kitchen. When I went to check on him he said it was more sore than it had been earlier and that was even after taking Tylenol. I didn't see any of the signs but he was feeling a lot more pain; I told him I was going to take him to the emergency room. Dad did not object, which meant that it was really painful.

At the ER, as always, Dad's vital signs were great! All the x-rays came back negative. The only things out of the ordinary was that his calcium and potassium levels were low, which may have contributed to the falls; he was given potassium supplements and Tums (for calcium). Dad was diagnosed with cellulitis; they put him on a Clindamycin antibiotic drip while in the ER and sent him home with Clindamycin, to be taken 4 times a day for the next week. They also gave him Albuterol inhalation for his cough; he sounds a lot better. We got home before midnight and his leg was already feeling less painful and looking less red. He should be sleeping well tonight.


On a more pleasant note, after lunch I saw a rose-ringed parakeet land on the front fence. It turns out it had caught a butterfly and was sitting on the fence, eating it. 

Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri).