Friday morning found Rusty and I on the road to Wallowa, we had all kinds of medical equipment to return to "Lending Hearts."...A volunteer run organization that has a HUGE inventory of everything from crutches to hospital beds...(including wheelchairs, commodes, walkers, depends, wet/dry pads and even an alarm to keep your loved one from getting out of the bed or chair.) All of these things are free to anyone needing them,(donation are welcome but not necessary.)..Call Linda Bouck at 541.398.0196.
...On each of Herb's trips to the ER, we kept hearing the words "care center."..We have one about 5 blocks from our house, "Alpine House," assisted living, another one in Enterprise, Senior Living, with "memory care." With the help of the hospital, we started researching local, LaGrande 70 miles away, and places even farther away...Also home care was in our minds and something called "comfort care," offered at the hospital but the patient has to need "critical care."..All of these places have to evaluate the patient before admittance...Alpine house, wouldn't work, Senior living was full, Wildflower in LaGrande was working on our application and ready to do an evaluation, in the meantime, home care was first in our minds...Rusty has a van that can hold all of the equipment and we soon needed another walker, a wheelchair and a commode, may as well bring a hospital bed as well.
...I have to back up a bit, what I'm writing about now happened within 2 1/2 weeks...On Saturday, April 19th Herb took a bad fall in our driveway, hitting his head, but was able to get up and into the house, with help and no noticeable ill effects...Then Tuesday morning found him back in the ER and the diagnosis at that time was brain bleeds (from the fall) and possibly flying him to Boise, to the "trama center." At this point, I told the ER doctor, that we had decided, at our advanced age, we wouldn't be flown out of the county...If they couldn't fix us here, then we would let nature take its course...He looked at me like I had two heads and horns!..But after he consulted with the "trama team"again they agreed, Herb would stay in Wallowa county, but they didn't didn't have a bed available, so we brought him home.
At this time Herb was started on an antiphychotic drug, to help with agitation, confusion and what he called, craziness in his head...He as well as Rusty and I, felt so totally helpless...continued
I helped Rusty unload all the medical equipment, putting it in the proper places, ready for the next family to use...He took us on a scenic drive home, giving us time to think, talk, reminisce and bring us to some kind of closure...I still have a lot to tell...Dinner last night was Sweet and Sour meatballs over rice, eaten on the deck, with our view of the mountains...Hugs To All...OWAV:)
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