Reason for a week's worth of darkness

I haven't posted in a while because it's been a hellish, stressful and hectic week, but not just because of Christmas...

My father had a "mild" stroke a week ago Friday, but he's been home since Christmas Eve and is doing quite well. At this point he has some residual tingling and numbness in his left hand, shoulder and leg, and as i understand it, that's an amazing miracle. The PT (Froy) has been to see him twice, the OT (Diane) has been once, and what's her name the social worker was here once as well, and all seem encouraged by his progress and especially his upbeat attitude. But I'm not gonna lie and say it hasn't been hell on me and my mom, because it really has.


First off, he's stuck sleeping on the downstairs sofa bed because he's not supposed to climb stairs yet. The staircase is quite long, and because of his unsteadiness, he's using a walker. So Froy says he can't do it until he comes back to show him how on tuesday. The original plan was last thursday, but my dad's BP reading was higher than Froy anticipated, so he said they'd wait till next week. Which meant my dad would be stuck downstairs for several more days without access to shower or tub (they're all upstairs). Also, it's been difficult to relax and assume he's OK down there by himself. What if he needed something and no one could hear him?

I've decided that we can help him get up the stairs so he can have a shower this morning, but that won't be for another 30 minutes at least. He's an early riser by nature and by habit, so he's probably been awake since 6, but he's having to wait on us to get up and help him up the stairs. My mom's exhausted because she's been leaving her bedroom door open so she can hear him. Trouble is, she hears him getting up a couple of times each night to go to the bathroom, which means her sleep is interrupted a lot. So she's not quite ready to help me get him up there, and she'll have to stand next to the shower to make sure he keeps his balance OK.

We'll see how this goes, but so far, it's been the consummate never-ending nightmare.