25 December 2024
I ws awakened by a call on the house phone from Alice calling on her husband's cell phone. But I can't get up in time to answer it. She worries something has happened to me because I didn't answer so she says she'll call my cell phone. But instead she calls the house phone again on her cell hone.
Meanwhile I get my cell phone and see a text message from Joyce at 3 a.m.
I just fell and hit my head. I screamed to get someone to help me. It took four nurses to lift me up to get me and back in bed. All my clothes were changed, shit on everything. They said I can't get up without help. Merry Christmas.
For some unknown reason Golden Heights called Alice in the middle of the night. Now Alice wants to know who to call if something happens to me. There's no one, I tell her.
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I TAKE THE 48 and the 28 and the 120 to the SNF. The buses come right away so it only takes an hour.
I brought Joyce some of Paula's bread and she eats half of the piece.
She repeats her story about the fall when I ask but it isn't quite accurate. She says it was in the afternoon and she hit her head. She had tried to get up to go to the bathroom. She thought she could do it.
They tossed the Ace bandage because it was soiled.
Her roommate (whose name I still don't get) tells me how she heard a bang in the night and thought Joyce had upended her tray table. She and Joyce both yelled for help but no one came for a long time.
If you press the call button it sets off a timer to monitor how long it takes before calls are responded to (well, until a CNA turns off the call light, anyway). If you just yell, it isn't as effective.
I go down to the desk and chat with Julian (the transport guy but the only one not looking at his phone) to make sure my contact number is correct (it is). He has no idea why they called Alice unless my phone was out of range. Not likely but I was sound asleep.
He grabs the RN on duty and she tells me Joyce did not hit her head but complained about pain in her lower back and left leg. So they have ordered X-rays and she should stay in bed (the first thing Joyce told me was that she wasn't getting up today) until they evaluate them.
And to think they wanted to discharge her in three days.
By then Joyce's lunch has come so I swivel the tray over her and raise the head of the bed and open the containers for her. She eats very little but drinks everything.
We hear a cat meowing repeatedly before I realize it is her roommate's ring tone.
Her roommate says, 'Mike? Is that your name?' and shows me a box of chocolates she wanted to give Joyce as a Christmas present but wasn't sure she could have them. Sure, I tell her, so she does. Joyce doesn't immediately understand but is touched when she does.
Her roommate leaves for lunch with her grand nephews.
The nurse comes in to give Joyce her daily protein drink. She had refused it earlier along with the medications she's been prescribed (including the Alzheimer's pill). I insist Joyce take the meds now too and she does.
I leave shortly after the lunch tray is taken away. Joyce is quiet and I'm quite tired from the fight.