Monday, January 21, 2008

we got a call this morning at 0900. it was the hospital. the doctor that admitted my dad to the hospital called to ask us a quesiton: was he, my dad, an alcoholic? they wanted to make sure that they weren't dealing with someone going through alcohol withdrawl. dad was very belligerent and thrashed around a lot last night. it sounds like he was cussing a lot, too. he wants to come home. so they have him in bed restraints.

we saw him this morning, but he was asleep, we didn't want to wake him up. my mom and i think he probably needs some good sleep because he hasn't had a good night's sleep since this all went down.

the biggest thing right now, it seems is this: he doesn't know where he is. today he thought he was in coney island on the subway train. he's not, he's in a hospital in beech grove. we talked to the nurse who was caring for him this evening and she said that he has been a model patient, happy, cooperative, and was eating.

my mom and i did something today that i have dreaded i'd have to do someday. we went and looked at rehabilitation centers that have long term care facilities, in short: nursing homes. we know that we can't take care of him that way he'll need to be taken care when he is first released from the hospital. i have to work and my mom just isn't strong enough to do it all by herself. and i'm pretty sure that i'd be a nervous wreck. we looked at three places today and we found two that we really liked.

we went to see my dad this evening; he was asleep, again, but he woke up and saw us. he knows who we are. he had to go to the bathroom so we got his nurse to help him. he wanted his book that we brought for him, part of me wonders if its not a "security blanket" issue for him right: having a book nearby. i don't know, i guess we'll see.

this is very hard. so very hard.

3 comments:

thirdworstpoetinthegalaxy said...

I'm so sorry, man. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

ds said...

sorry man. been following this story. your dad can't be that old, can he? you're not that old. anyway, for what it's worth, best of luck.

loofrin said...

he will be 71 this april. he and my mom married later in life. i'll be 34 this feb.