Major Wandering Incident

Friday, September 28, 2007

Today is Linda's 60th Birthday! This afternoon we will celebrate her at Arden's Courts with all her fellow residents and the caregivers and staff. We have big cakes to serve plus ice cream (Linda's favorite food in all the world). Linda laughs when I tell her she is going to be 60. But numbers do not have meaning for her now...maybe a lesson for more of us. I tell her I am almost through my 60th year and it has been just fine. We smile and hug and it says to each other that the relationship not the words are at the heart of our love.

My recent trip to South Africa went well for work. I had the worst email and internet connection in several years at the particular site where I was located, so that made things difficult in staying connected with family and friends. And it was a time when we needed connections.

On Sunday, September 16th, we had a major crisis with Linda that could have easily cost her life. By God's grace and I believe accompanied with angelic escorts, Linda survived safely. My sister and brother-in-law, Emelie and Wood Parker, went by to see Linda after church. While looking for her in the garden area they discovered that a gate was open and Linda was gone. This initiated a dramatic and major emergency search process. At the same time, Linda had walked about a half mile away. She crossed a major highway with six lanes of traffic and two turn lanes. She entered an Exxon station that had a small convenience store with it and began filling her pockets with candy bars.

A very kind and sensitive college age manager tried to get her to return the candy. I think he is Muslim, this is Ramadan, and I am sure he was not going to touch her in his effort to get her to return the candy. But she could not understand what he wanted, thankfully. He called the police on a non-emergency number and kept her engaged somehow for the 10-15 minutes for the police to arrive. The police also told her if she would put the candy back they would allow her to leave but if not they would have to arrest her. Fortunately, once again, she could not understand such instructions. I am so glad she was not allowed to leave into the danger zones again. The police then saw her Safe Return bracelet and found that she was memory impaired. After a call to Safe Return they called our home where Bethany, in the providence of God, had stopped by to use the internet. They asked Bethany, "Do you know where your mother is?" And that is how they discovered she belonged at the Care Center.

The police returned Linda to Arden Courts to the tears and hugs and relief of all those searching for her. Linda does not remember any of this so the trauma is mostly for all the rest of us. Since I arrived home from this trip on Monday morning, I have been very engaged in the investigation and seeing how to insure that Linda is as protected as possible. The investigation shows that a part of an electrical board at the gate had burned out, causing the gate to unlock and the alarm signal to not be sent. No one from the manufacturer or the facility is aware of this having ever happened before. It seems to be a genuinely rare failure of the system. We are taking steps to create additional back ups to make a reoccurrence even more unlikely. This includes changes at the gate, purchase of a clearer medical ID for Linda that has both Safe Return and Arden Courts info on it, and an application to have Linda re-entered into the Project Lifesaver program.

Project Lifesaver is administered by our local Sheriff's Department and Linda had been a participant the last couple of years. It provides an active radio signal bracelet that can be tracked by the Sheriff's vehicles. Once before we had a serious wandering experience with Linda about 18 months ago and they were able to track and rescue her within 20 minutes. I gave up that program when Linda entered the care facility, thinking it was unnecessary with the secure system they had in place. I hope to be able to get that reinstated as a further layer of protection. It will help me know that we are doing all that we can from a human perspective.

The bottom line for me is that God is the ultimate caregiver who superintends her care and I am an instrument along with so many family members and friends who are all member's of God's care team. I am grateful to all who continue to serve so faithfully in this difficult journey we are on.

Linda continues to suffer from problems with her feet caused by her agitated level of walking. I estimate she may be covering 10 miles a day. We are applying the best treatment to these symptoms and have made several adjustments in shoes, socks, ointments and medicines. At the same time the effort to regulate her Risperdal (anti-psychotic medicine) continues. Her dosage is a little higher now and spread out through the day. We are closely monitoring to see if she develops any Parkinson's type symptoms like shuffling steps or other difficulty in walking. Our hope is that by slow careful medicine adjustments we can find a level of medication that will slow down the agitated walking and still keep her very alert and engaged with her immediate world. Pray for us and for Linda in regard to this.

Tomorrow morning we will have a second birthday party for Linda and that one will be a family time. We have so much to be thankful for with the simple celebration of life.