A Bump in the Night

  
 

Early Monday morning, I received a call from The Community*.  Mom had slipped and fallen in the middle of the night. She attempted to get out of her bed and go to the washroom without pressing the button for assistance.  As she fell backwards, she hit her head.

Mom’s bed has an alarm that sounded when mom moved off her bed, but the aides that were working at night were not close by. They were helping other residents.

Initially she had a bump on her head that night which seemed to disappear by morning.  Mom had bruised her elbows and also was complaining that her right knee and leg hurt.  Her nurse scheduled mom for an x-ray.

Later that morning, I received another call about mom’s condition. This time the call was from Dana*, mom’s hospice nurse. Mom had asked Dana* to call me to see how my surgery went and how I was feeling.  I informed Dana* on all the details of my surgery, but suggested she tell my mom that I was doing well.  Since mom does not want to talk on the phone, I mentioned to Dana* that I was going to try and visit mom later that day.

I asked Ron to take me to see mom to make sure she was OK.  We used mom’s wheelchair transporter to help me since I could not have kept my foot down while walking on crutches for that long of a period of time yet.
 

When we arrived, mom was sitting in a huge comfortable chair with her eyes closed.  Ron parked my transporter right in front of her.  I watched her for a few moments then I held mom’s hands.  When she opened her eyes, she smiled.  She was surprised to see me so soon. 

 

I told her I wanted to see how she was feeling.  I asked her if she pushed the button to call for assistance when she had to use the toilet.  She said, "What button?"  Mom must have woken up disoriented.  Understandably, mom still seemed shaken up today and disoriented.  I notice that some days I see more signs of dementia in mom than other days.     

Shortly after we arrived, we were informed the x-ray showed mom’s leg had no fractures.  Mom’s leg and knee were sore from the fall and would probably leave a bruise in the coming days.  I checked mom’s body to find that she had scrapes on her arms due to the fall which the aide had previously told me. 

 

We visited for awhile, took pictures, and then her nurse asked mom if she wanted to go to bed, but she said no.   Instead she wanted to be with the other residents in the activity room so we said our goodbyes and her aide walked mom to the activity room.