October (2007) is full of falls

Fall is beginning. The golden rod is blooming, the peanuts are being harvested.... and Elbert is doing his own version of fall. Physically, that is. On the 4th he fell out of bed during the night. A loud boom woke me up at 2:45 a.m.. I found him on the floor of the back side of the bed, on his all fours. He said he was hunting some money he'd dropped. I told him he'd been dreaming but he let me know that he HAD NOT been dreaming. So, I did the thing I should have done in the first place. I told him to get into bed and I'd find his money!! After he's settled between the covers I scramble around on the floor. 'It was almost $30' he said from his pillow and in a couple seconds I 'find it'. ' I got it', I announce and go crawl back in my bed.

A couple minutes later I hear him call 'honey' so I go back to see about him. 'How much money did you find on the floor?' he wants to know. 'Thirty dollars'. I say. 'Oh Alright'. he says and he turned over to go to sleep. However, I lay awake until daybreak.

Elbert and I sit in the sunroom enjoying our Sunday afternoon, when he decided to get up out of his chair and walk to the window to look outside. I was right there but I could not prevent him from falling. Our sunroom floor is broken brick set in concrete. Hard. I'll never forget the sound of his head hitting the floor. I got him up and he seemed fine. One hard headed man!!

The next day (the 8th) I was walking with Elbert for him to go to the bathroom. We got as far as the dining room when he started leaning. I held on for dear life but I could not keep him up. He hit the floor pulling me down with him. We were a sight, all sprawled out on the floor. He had sort of grabbed onto the china cabinet and it rocked back and forth, dishes rattling. I thought it was going to topple over onto the top of us but the Good Lord just put his hand out and steadied that cabinet and we were safe. That episode just shattered me. I realized that when Elbert has these falling spells I can not physically handle him. So, where do I go from here. I take every step he takes but his strength is greater than mine. I have been told to just let him fall to not let him take me down but that's hard. You don't want the one you love to get hurt.

We saw the doctor. He did not know what was causing the falls and the best help he could offer was a wheelchair. He made arrangements for us to have one. Would that work? I still will have to watch Elbert. He's not going to move that chair when he needs to go somewhere. He'll just hop out and take off. And, Now, I'll have the chair to push. We'll try it. We have to do something.