911

Scott was sitting on the couch and about 10:30 in the morning he said his back was really hurting.  I didn't think much about it until after his nap when I heard him moaning in the bedroom and went in to check on him. He was laying on the floor in agony.  I tried to get him up but he was in such pain that no matter how we tried he just couldn't bear to be touched..  I finally called Angela and told her what happened and asked if she could come over and help me.  Fortunately she was just picking Ellis up from the bus stop so they came right over. Even with Ellis, Angela and me lifting him he continued to cry out in pain.  Ellis said that we needed to get him onto something that would make it possible to lift him on the bed.  He went down the hallway and came back with an iron board.  We were able to get that under him and with the three of us lifting we got him back onto the bed but left him on the iron board.   I then called his doctor who said that we would have to get him to urgent care before they could give him any medication for the pain.  The reality was that I would need to call 911 because only them helping us would make it possible to get the help that he was going to need.  We got to St. Mary's hospital at 4:30 and left at midnight.  Angela and I followed in the car.  After numerous tests, ex-rays and an MRI the answer was that he had a form of sciatica that would heal in time and there was nothing that they could do but give him muscle relaxants and Tylenol with codine to manage the pain.  After the medicine given in the hospital he was able to rest through the night.  When you add Alzheimer's to the mix you have a very confused man who doesn't understand why he can't get up and down, or last night why I wouldn't let him go home.  Hopefully this is a fluke and we won't have another problem like this in the near future.  I don't know what I would have done last night without Angela.  She never left us and did everything she could to help me distract dad.  I'm sure she saw and heard much more than she wanted to but she stuck with us until he was safely delivered back into his own bed.