Christmas Eve - an early gift

I've had this in my head most of the day...

Twas the morning of Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

I awoke to find my dad had a fall
His head was all bloody, a hole in the wall...

It was about 4:30 am and I was having a coughing attack. I got up to take some cough medicine, and found my dad sitting on the floor of his room, right by the open door. I turned on the hall light, and he just looked at me. "Dad, you OK?" "I'm fine" was his response. I hurried to awaken Tom because I wanted some help. I wiped my dad's head, and found the blood had already dried. I flashed back to a "kaboom!" I had heard about midnight. I thought he had rolled over and hit the wall. I was sure of it when I heard him mumbling, which he does in his sleep. But seeing the blood had already dried, I am pretty sure he had been sitting there for hours. During the transition from the floor to a chair, I realized that my dad did not know that he could have called me for some help. I also saw that he had no idea how to get himself up. I ended up sitting on the floor next to him and showing him what to do with his legs so he could get up into tall kneel. He did imitate what I did with my legs, but Tom and I had to help him up to kneeling, and then help him to position his foot so he could push up to stand - again with some help. He had obviously been getting up to use the bathroom, so there was that mess to clean up, but it seemed insignificant to the fall. And it was a good one. There is a hole in the wall, about a 6 inch circle and about an inch and a half deep, where his head hit. (He told me not to worry about it, that he would fix it later.) He has some good scratches in that area of his head, and a deeper gouge just above his eye at the end of his eyebrow. I told Tom that God had given us an early Christmas gift - no broken bones. It could have been a lot worse than it was.

So...today I looked up the symptoms of a concussion -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/concussion/DS00320/DSECTION=symptoms
Ask my dad if he had any of the symptoms? Nope. The most common symptoms, confusion and amnesia. Can't use that as an indicator. No vomiting, no slurred speech. Headache, dizziness, ear ringing? Can't trust his answers. So we'll be looking for the nonverbal cues, as discussed in the article. He seems OK, but today was the first day that he needed help getting off the toilet. I could attribute that to soreness from the fall. It was also the first day that he put on 3, count 'em 3 shirts. Not one then another, but 3 on top of each other. He always tucks his shirt in, and with that extra bulk, he had quite a hard time fastening his pants.

Lessons learned:
* There is now a night light in his bedroom. I had thought it best to keep his room dark so that he would sleep, and not get his days/nights messed up. But safety is winning out.
* My dad does not know to call when he needs help.
* I was able to go into the bathroom and help him get down and up.
* Tom was able to go into the bathroom and help him get up, even though he was protesting.
* We are going to get some type of bars to help him in the bathroom.
* I need to role play with the caregivers in case my dad falls when they are here.
* Keep all doors SHUT except for his and the bathroom, day and night. The master bedroom door was open and he went in there to use the bathroom. That toilet is lower, and he was in there forever, ("I'm fine"), and he could not get up without help.

My dad slept til 12:30 pm today. I think it was because he was up most of the night sitting on the floor, not because of the head hit. I am hoping that is what it was. He ate well today, and enjoyed our Christmas Eve dinner, watched football, and was his usual quiet, pleasant self.

So I'll keep my eye on him tomorrow. Poor guy. I think he's gonna have a black eye.

A sincere Merry Christmas to all!