Pg 38 - My Life

Welcome back to my Romance blog.  I hope you are enjoying my story and I want to thank you fo reading this.  As I reflect back on my life, I wish I would have seen things the way I see them now. But I have learned a big lesson, to take each day and make the most out of it so that there is no regret.  I read yesterday that Davy Jones from the Monkeys died from a massive heart attack.  The group, The Monkeys played such a big part of my childhood.  I remember when the Beatles went on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time and my parents had a fit with me watching the devils music.  Then I heard the sound of the Monkeys and of course fell in love with Davy Jones.  I must have put at least three of the YouTube hits from the Monkeys on face book and twitter. My poor partner on the ambulance had to listen to them sing since I kept playing them on my computer.  Rest in Peace Davy, you were loved by many. So on with my story. 

My job took my midnight shift away from me so I had to change jobs.  I found a job in Wickenburg, about an hour away but I would be gone the same two days a week, twenty four hours a day.  That way I would only have to worry about someone taking care of Dad two days a week and I would be home the rest of the week, plus get more sleep. 

My father in law was getting worse.  He was in his own little world and I couldn’t find a way to get in it with him. Alzheimer’s  is such a terrible disease. My poor husband one day was outside in the back yard
doing some yard work and Dad was in the house sitting in his chair. Jimmy said he was a little puzzled when he saw Dad standing in the middle of the kitchen, pulling up his pants.  Jimmy thought that maybe Dad tried to go to the bathroom, even though he wears depends and was having trouble pulling up his pants. When Jimmy approached to help, he discovered that Dad just had a bowl movement on the kitchen floor. It seems that he couldn’t find the bathroom without Jimmy’s help.

This wasn’t the only time that Dad had trouble with bowel movements. One day when Jessica was watching Dad, Jimmy walked in from Culinary School. The house seemed quiet except for some muffled yelling. Jimmy walked into the family room and asked Regina where Jessica and Grandpa were. Regina just pointed to Dad’s room and said, “You’d better get in there.”

Jimmy opened the bedroom door and the yelling, louder now, was clearly coming from the adjacent bathroom. He opened the bathroom door and got the shock of his life. There was diarrhea all over the bathroom floor and a large pile of clothes. Dad was stark naked, standing in the running shower and Jessica stood just outside the shower using a floor mop to clean him off. Dad was yelling and demanding that she “STOP.”

Jimmy finally regained his composure enough to ask Jessica if she needed any help and she just yelled back, “NO!”   Jimmy said he slowly backed out of the bedroom and into the hallway where he just stood there, now knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Then in March Dad may have reached a turning point with this disease.  Jimmy had Dad in the bathtub, cleaning him up after another bowl movement when Dad fell backwards into the tub.  Dad just laid there looking up at Jimmy like what do I do now?  Jimmy got him cleaned up and dressed and a couple of hours later he threw up all over himself.

Since this accident I noticed that Dad would not stop hiccupping.   He stopped drinking his coffee and won’t eat breakfast.  I fear that Dad is entering the third stage and last stage of this terrible disease. 
He can hardly walk now and to me it seems like he is not responding as he normally does so I took him to the emergency room.  And yes they admitted him with the diagnosis of pneumonia.  

I wasn’t home to long before I got a phone call from the doctor who told me, he couldn’t wake Dad up. He said that my father in law was unresponsive and probably wouldn’t make it through the night. Of course I had to argue with him, since I just was with Dad a few hours ago, and he was awake.  So quickly I called my sister in law that her father was on his death bed, before I went back to the hospital.  Fearing the
worse I scampered to his room, and to my surprise I found dad naked as a jay bird trying to crawl out of the hospital bed. The oxygen tubing was pulling away from his nose and he was caught between the bed rails which was the only reason he wasn’t out of the bed.  I called the nurse to help me get him back into bed which in turned told the doctor whom seemed amazed that dad was up.

The next day when I got off my twenty – four hour shift I went to the hospital to check up on Dad. I noticed the food trays in the hall but no food tray in Dad’s room. I asked the nurses who told me Dad only took about two bites so she took the tray away. I asked for the tray, woke Dad up and gave him his breakfast. He was so happy and went to town with the food. The nurse walked in and said “I must have a way with him.”

The doctor came in to see me along with hospice and we all agreed that Dad had to come back home with me for the rest of his days.  It was set to have hospice come over once a week along with an aid to come over the two days I had off to give Dad a bath those two days.  

Our life was being consumed now by taking care of Dad with the thought that he may die.

Well time to get off, hope you have a great day. Oh yea, if you are interested I have an Alzheimer's book called ALZHEIMER'S A CARETAKERS JOURNAL. You can get  it on Amazon.