Sunday Dad update:

I really felt like he was going to die, but I am glad I was wrong. I went and got Michael and I drove to Lafayette very fast, which is unlike me. When we arrived he was awake, but his speech was extremely unintelligible and seemed like nonsense to me. The neurologist had already been and had said they could do nothing right now because of his high BP, but scheduled more scans and tests for tomorrow.

The list of injuries includes:
Lacerated/abrasion on right forearm - was bandaged but appears preety big, no stitches, however.
Abrasion on left leg
Bruises on back and shoulder
Extreme shoulder pain on the side where he landed, but no broken bones.

Later in the day the nurse gave him some Tylenol and he had a lot of trouble swallowing, so they called in a therapist who specializes in swallowing (?) and she did some tests on what he could swallow. She decided he could swallow thick liquids as it was the speed that regular liquid went down that choked him. So he got some dinner that was tomato soup and whipped potatoes and some soda that they thickened with a special stuff...

I took Mom to the cafeteria and fed her and we went to the house to get her medicine and let her change clothes and get magazines and stuff. When we returned to the hospital and went up to Dad's room he had eaten the dinner and was much more alert and his speech was more clear. He seemed a lot more cognizant of his surroundings and who I was.

So here's the plan: Michael doesn't want to miss school tomorrow so we came home. Heather already had the day off work tomorrow so Mom and I are asking her to return to Lafayette (she's in Blgtn right now, at the Ben Folds concert) and stay with Mom when the social worker comes and all that. We are pretty sure he will need nursing home care. Mom already couldn't keep him cared for and keep up the house when he was even somewhat ambulatory. There is no way she can care for him now. Tuesday, Heather can return to work and I will take that day off and go back up and see if Mom needs more assistance emotionally, logistically, whatever and hope for the best. So we have at least the next two days covered of reminding Mom to eat, take her medicine and helping with nursing home/ care assistance etc... After that, I think it will depend what the scans and tests show and how the injuries are healing and we will just have to wait and see. I do have more vacation days I can take now, even though I would rather not, but it may not be my choice.

This is all happening at a difficult time for me. Michael is getting the overwork stress/ depression/illness he felt last year and I am trying to set some boundaries to keep him healthy. Some things are taking off for Hope's Homemades - possible use of a licensed kitchen rented at a VERY inexpensive rate so I could actually start legally producing goods or at least samples, and a couple of marketing opportunities to distribute said samples and information and also to gather more people for email list and/or mailings when ready for full operation. Time once more for that GOOD "P" word. PRIORITIES.