A bump in the night

I hate to think what could happen when I am not around, but I cannot handle Mum 24/7, so she will have to stay in her house until a place comes up in an assisted living facility. She is happy to do this, but she gets terrified at night, imagining that people are walking around in her front yard, or trying to break into the house. So I leave one of my watch dogs with her every night and pick him up in the morning.

This morning she told me that she had jumped out of bed very suddenly because she thought she heard her cat in distress outside. I think she just had a nightmare as the cat is always inside. She had walked right into the hallway wall, which is made of brick and concrete. She said she had nearly knocked herself out. She thought she might become unconscious so she'd written me a note that she'd hit her head and then she'd gone back to bed.

She has a small lump and a red mark on her forehead. It doesn't look too bad.

If she'd left a light on she might have been able to see the wall. She has macular degeneration, but with her bad memory she cannot remember the way around her house, so she is very likely to run into things that she doesn't remember are there. I think she'll probably remember to leave a light on from now on.

I know that it is very likely she'll have a bad accident in her house. I remember a lovely lady who used to live opposite Mum. She was a former nurse and very alert and competent. She was only around 65 years old, but one day she'd walked into a door inside the house. I had called her that day and spoken to her. She told me she had a huge headache from walking into the door. I reminded her that she could have bleeding on her brain and she should go to the doctor. She said she'd lie down for a while and she thought she'd be fine. But the next day, her niece had found her unconscious on the floor. She died six weeks later.

Mum is very lucky she didn't hurt herself too badly when she ran into the wall. I'll keep an eye on her over the next couple of days.

But I know that an accident could put her in hospital and from there she'll probably go to a nursing home.

She wants to go to the assisted living facility, but I doubt they'd allow her to live in a self-care unit. I think they'd want to place her in medium care.

She's being assessed by the Aged Care Assessment team for placement in a couple of months' time. Then we'll know what kind of place would suit her.