Dad Update 4 - Aftermath of the Catch & Release

    At the bare minimum, the V.A. Hospital should have kept my dad a few days longer. Why they released him on Juneteenth, an official federal holiday, when all of the departments had been closed over the weekend and on that Monday due to the holiday, is beyond me. 

    To be perfectly honest, I didn't realize it was a Federal Holiday when I went to bring him home. I had no memory of what Juneteenth was or is. Now I know it was made an official Federal Holiday last year. I only realized most of the hospital was shut down once I got there and had to go in through the emergency room because the other entrances were locked. No signs on the doors. Me and other visitors didn't realize the doors were locked until after we had parked our cars and walked up to them. Pfft.

    Weekend doctors and holiday staff, I am not a fan of. I don't believe those people should be allowed to make patient release decisions. There was no one there to do a physical or mental assessment on my father. He had been in bed for 4 days straight with no activity. All of the departments that contacted me prior to the weekend were closed. The Physical Rehab department, the Geriatrics department, and the Social Programs departments, and others, none of them were operating that day. Pfft.

    Once I got dad home, as I have written about prior, I had a hard time getting him from the car to our apartment. I had to use a rolling walker with a seat on it (Rollator) to bring him most of the distance from the car. I also wrote that either the Emergency Transport or the V.A. Hospital had misplaced (lost) his IDs and cellphone. Both of these issues relate to what happened next.

    Over the next 4 hours my father repeatedly kept looking for and asking me where his cellphone was. I told him more than 14 times that it was lost at either the V.A. hospital or it was in the ambulance. I told him I was waiting for a callback from the V.A. and the ambulance service. I finally wrote a note for him because it was getting to be ridiculous. 

    I took a shower. When I came out, dad was sitting in the living room chair breathing hard. I worriedly asked him what was wrong, and he said, "I don't know what's wrong with me." Then I noticed he was wearing shoes. I asked him why, and if he has gone out of the apartment. He had. In looking for his cellphone he decided to go out to his car, which was parked next to my car, and search the trunk because his cellphone might be in there. This was after I wrote the note, and he hasn't been in that car in months. He had walked to the car, searched the trunk, and walked back, when just a few hours before I had to use that Rollator to get him from there to the apartment. *smdh*

    I took his keys and locked them up. My energy finally gave out at 9:00 PM and I crashed. I went to bed and slept most of 8 hours. I am up this morning, already woke him up to take his morning medications and drink a glass of water. Later I will badger him into drinking a meal replacement Protein Shake. I saw that he didn't eat the soup I made for him last night for dinner, so today I will need to make him eat more and supplement that with the Protein Shake. He went back to bed for now, but I will make him get up in a few hours. 

    I have a lot to do today. I need to make lots of calls, try to find out about the home health and rehab, when they are coming, if they are coming, and if not, then we need to have dad sent to an in-patient rehab. I also have to find out if anyone can find his IDs and phone, and if not, report the phone and order a replacement. I will worry about the replacement of the IDs later. 

    I am thinking that we need to junk his old piece of junk car to remove the risk of him driving, as well as the unneeded expense. Dad is not going to be driving anymore. We don't need 2 cars that need constant repair. The only ones using his car now are, apparently, a family of wasps.

Yes. I found another wasp nest. I discovered several wasps flying out from the dislocated rear bumper! First in the car door, now in the bumper. I wonder what I will find if I lift the car hood up to get the dead battery going again. Sheesh. Sheesh. Sheesh. And double Bleh. 

Let's see how long I can manage before I can't manage it anymore.