Castaway

This is how I ended yesterday's entry:

We finally got back to Atria and helped the aids get her settled in bed, though I will be interested to see how they found her this morning.

This is how I found her room.

And this is how I found her in the community room.

She was in pain and didn't understand why her arm hurt.  I've discovered that she not only has no short term memory, she also has selective hearing.  She doesn't want a broken wrist, so when you try to explain that her wrist is broken, she doesn't even hear you.

Since tomorrow is a holiday and it will be two days before Orthopedics will be open, I called the ER to find out what to do.  The Advice Nurse consulted with a doctor and said to bring her back to the ER.  And so instead of writing the article I was supposed to be writing, we were back at Atria and packing up a very reluctant mother to take her back to Kaiser.

We didn't have to wait TOO long in the cast room, but my mother was very irritated that people didn't come right away.  But we were there long enough for me to learn that my mother is really Adrian Monk (of the show Monk), who suffers from OCD.  It bothered her that the sheet on the gurney was untucked and she mentioned how much junk there was in the cast room.  (They think she may have fallen trying to pick something off the floor.  She is forever finding microscopic bits of something on the floor and leaning over the pick it up.  They keep warning her not to do that.  But of course she won't listen.)

The doctor and I talked about what we could do, since she can't have a plaster cast until the swelling goes down.  The doctor finally decided to try one of those splints that you have for carpal tunnel because even if she rips it off, it can easily be put back on again.

When we got that done, we drove back to Atria.  They had saved a plate of dinner for her and I sat with her for a bit (they brought her steak, a baked potato, and a roll, none of which she could eat with only one hand!).  I cut everything up for her and  then said I would be going home.  "Can't I go with you?" she asked.  When I told her that she lived at Atria, she was very frightened that I leave her alone in the place where she eats 3 meals a day because she didn't know anybody and didn't know what to do.  Walt and I ended up staying longer, but finally left and one of the aids promised to make sure she got back to her room all right.

Will she keep the splint on all night?  I don't have a clue.  But at least if/when she takes it off, it will be easy to put back on again.

Update:  They called me (and woke me up) at 6 a.m. to tell me she had removed the splint.  "Put it back on," I told them.