A Little Help?

My dad is still experiencing some side effects from his new drugs.  One of the biggest problems we are having is that he gets up and walks away sometimes and he is not stable enough to do that on his own.  He will be sleeping for hours in a chair and the moment someone leaves the room, he gets up and wanders into another room without his walker and without a helper.  Last night/ Early morning dad got up and walked into the kitchen.  Megan found him and called for Jake.  My dad had no idea what he was doing yet he told Jake he was making toast.  The water was running, he had spilled milk on the floor and he had turned all of the lights on.  He is having a difficult time adjusting to the heavy doses of medicine, but at this point, our biggest concern is his safety.

Tonight, he was asleep in the living room so mom got up to do something in the kitchen.  She heard a loud noise and thought it was Jake.  By the time she left the kitchen Jake & Megan were already on their way to see what had happened.  Dad had wandered into the bedroom and fell into the nightstand.  Megan helped him stand up and they all checked his body to see if he was injured.  It appears that he had hit his back but he told them nothing hurt.  They called hospice and reported the incident.  It is difficult to keep an eye on him every second so the hospice nurse has recommended we get a few baby monitors so we can hear when he is up and walking around.  We are going to leave one in Jake & Megan's room downstairs and possibly a few additional ones in the spare bedrooms in case someone else is sleeping over.  If you have any baby monitors that you aren't using anymore, please let us know because we might want to borrow them for a while.

This transition has been extremely difficult for everyone.  Visitors have continued to stop by each day and that is great, please just make sure you call ahead of time to make sure the timing is ok for everyone. Thank you for all of your well wishes.

Thanks-

Amy