gjg

Hi everyone - I haven't posted since August but I look at the message board regularly. I see everybody going through the same things. I have a visiting nurse come to my house once a week and two weeks ago my dad fell the morning of the nurses visit. I had to have the fire department come and help me get him off the bedroom floor, his legs are too weak to go from the floor to a standing position. When the nurse arrived my dad had quite a shiner and was in an extremely confused state. He had a UTI at the time which makes the Alzheimers worse as you all know. I couldn't get my dad to take his antibiotic, he just down right refused, so the nurse told me I had to take him to the emergency room for an evaluation for the fall and UTI. He was admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics and now he has been in the hospital for two weeks. They are trying to get him placed in a nursing home.

My main reason for this posting is to let everyone know not to wait until they have had more than they can bear. The stage my dad is in now is making it very difficult to place him. I only started submitting applications 3 months ago when I was at my wits end. The nursing homes don't want anybody who is too confused, incontinent, needs a lot of care or doesn't sleep at night. They are too much work. He and I have been dealing with the progression for 3 years that I know of. I have done the really bad stuff for 11 months now by myself 24 hours a day but for a 24 hour nursing home staff he is too much to handle. I am so frustrated and so is he. He is a roamer and is used to getting up every morning after a couple hours sleep, having breakfast, getting dressed and then pretty much roaming the rest of the day. Having him sit in a hospital where they have him confined to a small area is making him even worse. If I take him out of there I will never get him placed but the odds of him being placed from the hospital don't look good either. So please, anyone who thinks they may need to place their loved one a few months down the road start the process now, especially if it is a man. Men are harder to place than women. There are less beds available for men. Now rather than being home with him I spend most of my time at the hospital making sure he eats and gets to take walks down the hall. At least I get to sleep at night when I can finally fall asleep. I'm so worried about him that my mind keeps racing and it makes sleep almost impossible. Thanks for listening to me rant and I wish everyone of you the very best with this terrible disease.

Gloria