Anyway, here's Wonderwall
Phil's been in the hospital all week, and likely will not be coming home until next week. He seemed to be getting better on Sunday, but then he tried to get out of bed, fell, didn't hurt himself thank dog, but then couldn't get up without help. Even allowing for the kind of shrinkage that comes with being halfway through the 8th decade of life, he is not a small man. Mom is 80, David has a bad back, and I'm 5'4" with no upper body strength.
Mom kept saying he just needed to rest and he'd get back up eventually. I made dinner, he was on the floor. I served it and then cake, he was on the floor. I came down at 9:30 to walk Penny, he was on the floor. The three of us got into a blazing row because I thought EMTs should be called, he didn't want that, and Mom wanted to wait until morning. Which amounted to making an 85-year-old man sleep on a cold floor all night. An 85-year-old man who was developing alarming chest congestion even as he was claiming to not need help.
We're not Japanese, by the way. We do not have the kinds of floors that are meant to be slept on. Their bedroom floor is thin carpet over a cement foundation.
Having lived with elderly parents for over a decade now, I can say the #1 most frustrating, crazy-making thing about them is their stupid false pride bullshit. I can cook and clean and run errands, but I am just not equipped to deal with that aspect of them, so after a few minutes I was like OKAY FINE, HAVE FUN SPENDING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE ON THE FLOOR and went back upstairs.
It's not like Phil falling out of bed and being unable to get back up just effects him. It throws everyone's life into an upheaval. Everything else has to grind to a halt while we deal with him. For instance, Mom was supposed to get knee surgery in a couple of weeks, and I'm pretty sure that's going to have to be postponed.
Mom must have eventually come to her senses and also managed to get through to Phil, because around 11:00 I heard EMTs come into the house and load him onto a gurney. Mom said she'd follow the ambulance to the hospital herself and I was too exhausted to insist on driving her. Plus, I had to get up in 7 hours for work. I need my job, I need 40 hours a week, and the one thing I do not let their drama interfere with is my job. Whatever else happens, I am leaving the house Monday-Friday at 7:00 in the morning and not coming back until almost 6:00 in the evening, and they are just going to have to plan their bullshit around that schedule.
David could have driven her, but he'd already wrecked his back trying to pick Phil up and I guess she just didn't want to push him. I spent nearly an hour trying to calm Penny down; the way she saw it is strangers came into the house and took her daddy, then her mommy left, so she was freaked out. It was past midnight by the time I went to bed.
Anyway, turns out he has a UTI, which is no joke in an octogenarian diabetic. They have him on IV antibiotics and are making him drink fluids by the bucketful.
And because life wasn't interesting enough I guess, we could be looking at Tropical Storm or Hurricane Hermine in the Gulf next week. Most models seem to predict Florida will get it, but of course it could do anything over the next few days. Sheltering or evacuating with a weakened, angry old man who just got out of the hospital sounds like a super fun time.
Mom kept saying he just needed to rest and he'd get back up eventually. I made dinner, he was on the floor. I served it and then cake, he was on the floor. I came down at 9:30 to walk Penny, he was on the floor. The three of us got into a blazing row because I thought EMTs should be called, he didn't want that, and Mom wanted to wait until morning. Which amounted to making an 85-year-old man sleep on a cold floor all night. An 85-year-old man who was developing alarming chest congestion even as he was claiming to not need help.
We're not Japanese, by the way. We do not have the kinds of floors that are meant to be slept on. Their bedroom floor is thin carpet over a cement foundation.
Having lived with elderly parents for over a decade now, I can say the #1 most frustrating, crazy-making thing about them is their stupid false pride bullshit. I can cook and clean and run errands, but I am just not equipped to deal with that aspect of them, so after a few minutes I was like OKAY FINE, HAVE FUN SPENDING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE ON THE FLOOR and went back upstairs.
It's not like Phil falling out of bed and being unable to get back up just effects him. It throws everyone's life into an upheaval. Everything else has to grind to a halt while we deal with him. For instance, Mom was supposed to get knee surgery in a couple of weeks, and I'm pretty sure that's going to have to be postponed.
Mom must have eventually come to her senses and also managed to get through to Phil, because around 11:00 I heard EMTs come into the house and load him onto a gurney. Mom said she'd follow the ambulance to the hospital herself and I was too exhausted to insist on driving her. Plus, I had to get up in 7 hours for work. I need my job, I need 40 hours a week, and the one thing I do not let their drama interfere with is my job. Whatever else happens, I am leaving the house Monday-Friday at 7:00 in the morning and not coming back until almost 6:00 in the evening, and they are just going to have to plan their bullshit around that schedule.
David could have driven her, but he'd already wrecked his back trying to pick Phil up and I guess she just didn't want to push him. I spent nearly an hour trying to calm Penny down; the way she saw it is strangers came into the house and took her daddy, then her mommy left, so she was freaked out. It was past midnight by the time I went to bed.
Anyway, turns out he has a UTI, which is no joke in an octogenarian diabetic. They have him on IV antibiotics and are making him drink fluids by the bucketful.
And because life wasn't interesting enough I guess, we could be looking at Tropical Storm or Hurricane Hermine in the Gulf next week. Most models seem to predict Florida will get it, but of course it could do anything over the next few days. Sheltering or evacuating with a weakened, angry old man who just got out of the hospital sounds like a super fun time.