Lindsey and I were approaching the mushroom farm yesterday morning when the Aged Care facility rang me. The nurse said that she had noticed that Jim was finding it harder and harder to swallow and hadn't been able to eat and increasingly not to drink.
This was worrying but not necessarily surprising. I had noticed that he was choking sometimes when drinking water, even with a straw. He hadn't had any trouble eating his jelly slices or his apple slices, though :-D
So I said that I would call in later in the day and see what was going on and talk to the nurse. Lindsey said she would come too.
We had been chatting about my menu for today and had made one or two tweaks to my plan. A platter of cheeses, dips, olives, crudités, munchy things, followed by roast lamb, roast potatoes and loads of veg and, as a late entrant, rice pudding for dessert.
We called into the butcher and the bakery in Mount Clear and then headed to the IGA.
Suddenly our phones and watches began pinging with alerts and messages. It seemed that Stella had fallen and her watch had alerted everyone in her emergency contact list. And they, of course, contacted Lindsey and me.
I rang the Aged Care facility and asked if Stella had actually fallen. Yes, they said in some surprise. We are with her now. But how did you know?
Her watch. Apple Watches are very useful in an emergency.
We abandoned the shopping. I cancelled the Sunday lunch. And we went to inspect both Stella and Jim.
Stella was on the floor in her room when we got there, surrounded by nurses, carers and other people. The nurses sent everyone else away. Stella had fallen while going to her door so someone could take her to the dining room ready for lunch. She was not using her walker!!! She had hit her head, jarred her shoulder and torn a big flap of skin off her arm.
We went, with one of the nurses, to see what was going on with Jim. He didn't look good, although he was awake and more or less alert. We managed to moisten his mouth and get some water in him. He was watching the food channel on his TV. He couldn't really speak but he could smile and he clearly knew who we were.
Lindsey and I split up. She went to the hospital in an ambulance with Stella. I stayed in Jim's room with him. I also had Lindsey's car in the carpark, plus her shopping and my shopping, some of which was perishable.
It was all a bit chaotic..
So I went to my house in Lindsey's car and put my shopping away and talked to the cats. I went to Lindsey's place. Ian and I put her shopping away and I talked to the dogs. Ian took me back to my place and I came back to Mount Clear in my car. Jim was sleeping quite peacefully. So I stayed for a short while and then went home.
Stella, in the meantime, had had an X-ray of her shoulder and hip. No breaks. A surgeon had put her arm back together with glue and steristrips and stuff. She had a CT scan of her brain. No apparent damage. So Ian collected her and Lindsey and everyone returned to their homes. Stella is more or less ok - apart from being in trouble for not using her walker.
I have put the leg of lamb I bought for today into the freezer (thank goodness I had run it down quite a bit recently!). I hadn't bought all of the ingredients for today's lunch but I do have dips, cheese and loads of vegetables. I'm going to have to do lots of eating and freezing. I might have to take some stuff into work on Wednesday. I can think of several people who will help in the eating department.
Lindsey and I will return to Mount Clear this morning to see what is happening with everyone.
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