I am spending Saturday and Sunday of this gorgeous Labour Day weekend in a hospital room at St Joseph's taking shifts along with my sisters Kathryn and Alison standing watch over our 92 yr old Dad, Bill who took a fall on Thursday afternoon and really beat himself up..had a mild heart attack
He is black and blue, and much more.. Dementia is always lurking, especially when the sun goes down making him a tough old guy to deal with for the skeleton crew the hospital has on offer as most are on holiday as the summer of 2012 winds down..These days folks, hospitals simply rely on family being present constantly to care for the elderly.. Like life, if you get lucky and get one who really cares about nursing it's a bonus.. Most just get on with their shifts hoping for as little crisis as possible. There are precious few actual nurses, mostly all administraters, maintenance or care givers who are from all over the world,speaking in many tongues, working 12 hour shifts, away down the pecking order from all the glamour you see with the doctors and nurses on ER... Dad had one hurried visit from a doctor ALL day yesterday, I never saw the nurse on duty, and the so called shift supervisor really only came in to see me when I had lodged a complaint with a doctor who actually went to the hospital manager, over her head, and she was forced to file an incident report to explain a case of extreme incompetence, worse, lack of caring..
Minutes, hours, days crawl by at an excrutiatingly slow pace.no TV no radio,.there is a hospital routine, barely functioning over this Labour Day weekend.. All is on hold til the full timers, the Doc's, nurses, physio's, social workers, specialists arrive back to work on Tuesday and plug back in to the grind, eventually getting around to our dear old Dad, so they can sign off on him, cover the hospital's ass and eventually wheel him to the door, back to us until he falls again.. God forbid...
The Air Show at the Ex is spectacular just minutes down the Lakeshore from St Jo's and rages away overhead, the Jays lost on the last play of the game 5-4 to the Rays further along at the Skydome (Rogers Center now), Dad would enjoy them both if he had a clue they were on...
I read Rory leads by a shot from Louis O with Tiger another back.... sorry I can't tell you more..
It doesn't really seem to matter this weekend as we try and get Dad home and wonder how we will be able to manage him so he continues to live with dignity and pleasure in his dotage..
It's 430am, time to get on with the morning chores and routine before driving back to spell my sister in Dad's room.. For this weekend at least you probably know more about what's going on in the golf world than I do..
When I look at Dad it really doesn't seem to matter... It puts it all in perspective..
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Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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