I've kept quiet about dad for a while since his nursing home admission in April. Mostly because hoping things would get easier, in different ways they haven't.
For two days on the trot he thought he was Steve Mcqueen in the great escape. The first time, he got out of the home, flagged a car down and asked them to take him to his old bungalow in the next town over. Luckily they were decent people, they did take him to his old town but to the police station who were able to identify who he was and made relevant calls. *
The following night he managed to get into the nursing home car park but was caught and then they were able to see how he'd gotten out. It seems the bloke who struggles to remember the last 15 minutes, found a camera blindspot and triggered the electro magnetic emergency door release button. Thankfully the home and the family were more interested in working together to avoid it happening again, than the blame game so no harm done.
* We had filled a form in using the Herbert protocol which registers your dementia/alzhiemers relatives details with the Police and Emergency services so should they be found, it should help with their return
herbertprotocol.com
Fast forward to this week and he says he has a broken tooth and is in pain. I arrange an emergency appointment, he only has about 5 teeth left and refuses to wear dentures. They see remnents of an old wisdom tooth removal, about the size of two pin heads and say he must of eaten something hard which has caused the issue so take out the small bit causing the issue.
The dentist and nurse are both quite young but the nurse says, there you go, all done, you should be okay now to which dad says, will I be able to have sex now?
I smile at the dentist and nurse, apologise and seriously think about leaving him in the car park but then remember the herbert protocol. God hates me