Field Trip and Status

I'm not sure whether to categorize K's first field trip out with me (to Innomax), as a partial success, or a flat-out disaster. The goal was to let her try out the power lift bed, that Amy and I found on Saturday, and then to look at some of their headboard designs, to see if we could agree on one for home.

Her PT started and ended late. Then she spent a lot of time getting her boot on the left foot, and trying to get the prosthetic on the right leg. She thinks her right leg is too swollen, for the fitting to get to that final "click" that indicates it's safely attached. So we took the facility's wheelchair

We finally left her room at 4pm. With the store closing at 5pm, there wasn't much time. We got her, the wheelchair, and Mandy into the car, and to the store OK, but she was so tired from lack of sleep, that she was pretty useless once we got there. She kept asking questions, then falling asleep when the salesman would try to answer her. She didn't want to leave when the store closed, so three of the employees stayed around, as I tried to whisk her around to the various headboard displays, as she continued to ask questions and fall asleep during the answers. I finally convinced her we had to leave at 6pm, but she wasn't happy about it.

Getting her back into the car was problematic, as she had a hard time waking up to transfer herself from the wheelchair to the car, but we finally got it done.

Then we ran into awful (standstill) traffic on both I-70 and I-25 -- on Sunday afternoon, would would've expected that? -- so it took almost an hour to get back to Life Care.

She was really knocked out, after all that time riding (sleeping) quietly in the car, so it was another big challenge, transferring her from car to wheelchair, to the room, into bed, and undressed for the night. Her CNA had saved her 5pm dinner for her, so she perked up a little, and wanted to stay up to check that out. By that time, I needed to leave for home, so I asked her CNA to stay with her until she laid down.

Within an hour of arriving home, K called to say she had fallen off her bed, and hit her head hard on the floor. She had trouble understanding me, with us talking on two cell phones, and called back from the room phone, but still had trouble understanding me, and hung up. I called her back at both phones, and got no answer, nor from the nurse's station. After a few more minutes, the nurse called with a summary of the event. She had fallen asleep sitting up, and went over onto the floor, but she had no new pain, and all her fingers and lower appendages were working as expected. They called the doctor, who ordered an X-Ray, but she appeared to be fine.