21) They have Released him. - Here we go... and the personal alarm system

A blog about myself, daughter of an extreme hoarder parent who fell over on Christmas Day 2025 and broke 3 ribs. He’s currently in hospital thinking he can come home soon... He has terminal oesophageal cancer, kidney function issues, a bladder and a chest infection, asthma, diabetes, skin cancer and he’s 95. Meanwhile I’m running around like a blue-arsed fly trying to make things safe at his house for when he is released, yet being acutely aware he has an uncanny ability to know if anything’s missing and he won’t be pleased if it is. I have a job and family of my own. Slowly but surely, I’m losing the plot.

                                                    The Telecare device (similar)

They have finally released him. I collected him from the hospital on 24th Feb and delivered him home.

On the way home, he asked why we were going the direct route home as he wanted to go to the shops, although he'd not thought to mention this to me before.

Ant told him we'd already done the shopping. He didn't understand - how could we possibly have already done it, we being mere children?

Certain things had to be in place for them to release him - a personal alarm he'd wear on his person, either like a watch on his wrist or as a pendant round his neck. Should he fall and need help he'd press the button on the alarm and the operators call the house, if he's in the garden, to alert Ant, if Ant wasn't there, it would call me.  I'd then have to go to the house from wherever I happen to be, just to check he's OK and hasn't pressed the button in error. I live 25 minutes away.

The hospital had told him originally needed to speak to a dietician first, but the doctor overrode this, saying he'd already seen 3 dieticians and had ignored them all.

When we got him home, he walked into the kitchen, not noticing the HUGE amount of work that had been done in the house. He sat down and I showed him the helpline device. 

'Be VERY careful you don't press the button in error,' I said. I put the device on his wrist.

'How does it work?' he asked, poking it.

WAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAH The alarm went off, very loudly. I ran into the living room to tell the operator we were very sorry but he must have accidentally pressed it and set it off. They were very understanding and cancelled the alarm.

He wanted to know where the main unit was - he went into the living room to see it. It had been plugged into the only empty plug socket by the door, and was sitting atop 3 boxes of junk behind the door. 'Well it's no good there is it?' he said. ' What if I need to tidy up a bit and move the boxes?'

Really?

On front of the unit was a BIG button lit up in red. You couldn't miss it. I told him if he was in trouble in the house he just needed to press the button to speak to someone in the control room. He went to grab the unit. 'What is it?'

'DON'T touch the button Dad,' I said, 'Or it will go off and alert the...'

WAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAH 

'What's that noise?' he asked. 'What the hell's going on?'

'Dad, you pressed the red button. I said not to...'

'What red button? I don't know anything about a red button. What's going on?'

🫤

That evening Ant called me - Dad had been going for a lie down at about 8pm and had set off the alarm from his wrist device.  He was upstairs in bed and he couldn't hear the alarm - although it is a LOT louder than a house smoke alarm. Ant had sorted it with the operator but so far Ant hasn't left the house and left him alone yet.