Saturday, January 29, 2011

Watch out!!

Any parent can relate to that moment when you can see that your child is about to get hurt, and you just can’t reach them in time to stop it. For me, it seems to happen in slow motion. This happened to me twice in a week with JJ.  He is becoming the adventurous one.  The first time was falling off a kitchen chair, when standing on it to play with playdoh at the table.  I was right at the kitchen counter making dinner, but couldn’t get to him before he fell.   But luckily he didn’t get hurt, he was just shaken up, and more so, since he landed in the dog’s water bowl.
Now in the same week, a similar situation presented itself to me at the nursing home.  As I was walking down one of our longer common hallways, where lots of folks like to sit in the sunshine, I saw Bob (who is one of my favorites) at the end of the hall standing up, and his chair alarm was going  off. I was too far away to yell to him to sit down, or to reach him to physically get him to sit down.  As I hurried closer, he took two shaky steps and tripped and fell on the floor.  Luckily there was a nurse also nearby, who came to help, and Bob wasn’t injured, just bruised, and embarrassed.  There was that moment when you know; you can foresee the accident happening, and you are powerless by sheer distance to stop it.
I am sure this happens to everyone at one time or another, but it always gives me that heart in my throat feeling.   Especially when you are suppose to be the one to keep someone safe, either as a parent or a caregiver, and you can't.  Luckily this week no one was hurt when I was watching.  Let's hope it stays that way!

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