We had a busy day yesterday. One of my oldies took a spill and spent the night on his floor, we found him in the morning. I cleaned him up, he flatly refused to get in an ambulance but would let the ambulance boys put him in the car and so we took him to the hospital. Poor old fella. Now he is back in the arms of the Institution. And the ER nurses are still a little bemused as to how I managed to swan in and out of the ER even though I am not one of the Relatives Only Relatives!! However the other side have got him now and I know I could have done better to keep him safe. He won’t be able to come home, not for a long time. He will have to go to one of those care facilities for the rehab. His life has taken another turn. All because of a series of un-noted incidents. Nothing happens out of the blue. There is always a warning that a period of flux is coming.
Somehow his phone was not charged or in his pocket and for some obscure reason his house phone was on the blink. He had a head-cold and a dicky knee that had been playing up. He did not think it was serious, so did not mention it to me. This was not my day to visit. You see how that series of benign details converged into one moment. So the knee went out, he fell, broke his femur, could not move, had no phones and had to lie on the floor, (he pulled the blankets off the bed to cover himself) and taking a deep breath he had stoically waited. Of course his daughter (who lives far away) calls him frequently, alerted us to his radio silence that morning and in we swooped. After a rotton night for the old fella.
But you can see how a series of minor incidents went uncollated, critical mass was reached, fate saw the gap, snapped the mat and down he went.
There is a perfect new moon outside my dark morning window and I have been staring at it trying to articulate what I have learnt here. Obey your instincts. If you feel even the tiniest bit of worry, go and knock on that door. I had had that niggly feeling. Be vigilant about upkeep in the house of your oldie. Check the phones yourself. Adopt a home alone oldie and mind him. Make a list and check it twice. Do not relax or ever think things are going well.
I spent so many hours in the hospital with him to make sure that they were taking him seriously and did not mistake his deafness for dopiness, that when I came out into the light, I was shocked to find that it was three o’clock in the afternoon and time to get back to the barn. I actually thought it was about eleven in the morning!
So at the end of the day I took the camera for a wee walkabout to reconnect. But even though the sun had come out, it was slim pickins’. The good news is that my dairy farmeress has started milking again. So I got some cow colostrum for the lambs ( in case Mama does not have milk straight away -again) I will freeze it in small portions. And soon I can begin to make cheese again. 
The garden is still waiting. 
One of Houdini’s chicks, and yes you are right, this little fella looks like another Rooster, as if I did not have enough of them!
Is this a sign of spring? Um NO.
OK that pic of Ton is not even funny, that is just plain weird! The old Codger loves TonTon ( the dog does the visiting with me) so I guess soon we will be able to test his training in a new environment. Because I WILL find a way to get that dog in to visit the old man. He can pretend to be a therapy dog. Maybe not in the hospital, though the image of me and my grinning fool of a dog being escorted out of the hospital by the security men does make me smile and would make the oldies laugh out loud!! Then purse their lips at such blatant rule breaking.
OK today will be another busy day to-ing and fro-ing. So I am going to be RUNNING!!
Good Morning
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
105 responses to “Be ever vigilant.”
Thank you for caring. Having just gone through much with Terry’s mother, it is a blessing that (besides family) there are others who care and do.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
You can’t be with someone every minute. After my 89-year-old mom fell and shattered her shoulder, someone stayed with her 24 hours a day for several months. She recovered enough to live alone again, and we immediately got her one of those pendant devices, which she used twice–with good results–before she died recently. We also got her a phone system that had extensions all over the house, including portables to carry with her every time she took a step with the walker. It was important to her to have her independence, but it was a constant worry. No, that sentence is backward. It should read IT WAS A CONSTANT WORRY, BUT IT WAS IMPORTANT TO HER TO HAVE HER INDEPENDENCE.
Your friend is lucky to have people to care for him.
Oh a broken femur, how painfull, I’m wincing at the thought! And it will take time to heal, but your old codger sounds a gutsy one, so the healing will I’m sure be quicker.
The Spring buds are just starting here too, I can see the fruit bushes stirring into life. Lets hope for some bright days
And you still recovering, how is your arm? Will you be up to par for the planting? How wonderful that you seeing buds!! c
Oh, my. This is a “for the want of a nail, the horse was lost” story. You certainly are earning stars for you crown in Heaven” as my elderly relative would say. (Sturdy self sufficient farmers into very old age). Get that dog there if you can – it does make a difference…can they wheel your friend out to a porch for a visit?
Once he is one of those rehab facilities we will be popping in and out dog and I, i will see if i can get him registered as a therapy dog.. c
POSITIVELY anything to make the old folks smile – including (and maybe especially) a lab coat and stethoscope on TonTon! (Brilliant, Tanya!) And YOU Celi, an advocate, a Friend in the very truest sense. How very lucky for the old gentleman to have had you in his corner. May the sun SHINE on you!! xo
You would do the same I am sure, each of us here would i can guarantee it! c
Stoic aren’t they? – the oldies. My darling Auntie Syb was the same, only it was her arm that was broken. She sat on her kitchen floor from 3pm till I phoned at 8:30 the next morning (as I always did). She didn’t answer, so I went straight there…
She is gone now, so I have ‘adopted’ an elderly neighbour – another brave old lady…
Have a lovely day C XO
morning Janet, your aunt syb sounds like one of them for sure, they are a tough old bunch, and well done adopting an old person, i cannot be there for my own father so it makes sense to me to look after a few oldies over here.. c
So sorry to hear about your oldie. Hope the dear heals quickly. And I do hope that you find away to smuggle Ton in, they can bring such joy to others. 😀 (BTW-roosters make great stew 😉 )
I hear that roosters make a great coq au something.. but then I would have to wring its neck and pluck it and god help us -GUT it and i am not sure i am up to all that quite yet! .. c
Coq au vin is great (we make it in the crockpot). With our chickens, I don’t pluck them, but skin them. Much less mess! But, I still wait at least a month before getting them out of the freezer to eat.
I need to talk to you about this sometime! c
Our first lot of chooks, reportedly all females, turned out to be 5 coqs and 5 hens.mIn defence of those poor over-used hens, we killed the roosters, plucked them in the orchard, so the wind could take the feathers where it would, and then set about preparing them for the freezer. My ex – who had been planning to do the gutting, made a hasty exit with his hand over his mouth, while I donned rubber gloves and did the dirty deed. I cooked the first one and none of us could eat it, so I buried the others at the bottom of the freezer for long enough to become anonymous!
That is so funny! poor hubby! c
You are so wonderful to stay there at the hospital and make sure he was understood. Uncommon kindness. I hope he will be able to go home again. …. and that baby rooster photo is really nice!
that baby rooster seems to get himself in more than his fair share of photographs!! c
Sorry to hear this, but it did bring a grin to my face to think of you swanning in and out of the ER.
It is so important and so good of you to be a caretaker in your community. We will all want a neighbor like you for ourselves one day!
I am so sad to hear about your friend. It’s sad how the world finds so many ways to rob us of our dignity. I’m glad you did your part to help your ‘oldie’ retain his as long as he could.
Sweet that this one of your oldies has his guardian angel Celi looking after him–he’d never have made it through this on his own. I’ve no oldies in the neighborhood to adopt, but now you mention it, I realize that our former neighborhood is less than a mile away and I ought to just walk over with some purpose from time to time and visit my two oldies there, since I so rarely see them anywhere now that we don’t go to our communal mailboxes together anymore . . .
You, my dear, are the queen of caregivers and community-builders, so I shan’t try to keep up with that, but I know I can do my little bit better. That much I ought to do! Thanks for the reminder.
Love,
Kathryn
That would be great Kathryn .. there will be an oldie that you can adopt out there, and you will do it so well without them feeling checked up on.. I am no different from anyone else.. c
There’s a special gem waiting to be placed in your crown, Celi. I share that soft spot for the oldies! I’m a Pod Leader so I keep track of the oldies in 5 small clustery neighbourhoods in the Pod. I know who to check on and who can help me do it.
I love the concept – it’s ridiculous that people live alone and no one would take the time to check on them! Mon Dieu! The courage of the elderly to be as self-sufficient as possible and the busyness of our medical system –
Don’t get me goin’ !
This fellow chose to live alone and chose not to accept his daughter offer to come to her, but she had a system in place and it worked. When i am old I am sure i will be just as belligerent about living on in my own home.. and you are so right it take great courage for the elderly to buck the system and stay home.. Your pod system sounds excellent.. c
I have such a hard time capturing action shots of Penny. I need a fast shutter speed, but since she (like Tonton) is mostly black, she just looks like a shadow with scant detail. I will keep working on it. I think I need someone else to throw the stick while I just concentrate on the camera. It’s pretty hard to transition from throwing a stick to clickity click click.
I find the frisbee easier as it wafts down slowly so I can throw it, find it and shoot, you do need a faster shutter speed and yes .. the light.. Ton looks like a harlequin dog frequently!! todays was crazy!! c
Your photographs are always impressive, but that one of TonTon is just amazing action! I am sorry for your friends pain, but I am so grateful for him to have a friend like you.
As for the dog, well, as teenagers we once snuck a friends little dog into the hospital to visit with him… their was one Nun who we were certain knew what we had in that over sized, wiggly shoulder bag, yet, she let us get away with it for a bit, and then after a time came in and mad a big show of making us take it out of the hospital. Our friend had a broken arm, leg, ribs and pelvis from a rock climbing fall. Hence, her leniency! Somehow, I don’t suppose this will work for TonTon! ~ Lynda