Another lesson learned

I had a chance to experience the gritty side of being a care giver on Wednesday evening. My 91 year-old mother has Alzheimer’s disease and lives with us. On Wednesday she had what’s sometimes called a Sundowner episode and ended up falling while trying to climb out a bedroom window. We called 911 and the paramedics took her to the hospital. At ten o’clock that night I insisted Harriet go home. From then until 2 a.m., I sat by my mother’s bed in the emergency ward, trying to keep her from pulling out her IV, to calm her down, to understand her mumbling.

As you can imagine, I went home exhausted when they finally got my mother admitted. But with an enhanced understanding of how much strength my wife has to have cared for me through all those bad years.