Making Preparations

As I have to return to work in the next two months I have had to start to think about problems that need to be addressed. My main concern is what Pete is going to do to pass the hours I am away. I will be gone for 6 hours - luckily there is no travelling time involved as I work as a housekeeper at the local hospital which is, literally, 3 minutes walk away! That is from our front door to the main entrance! I get a 20 minute break and so can easily pop back home just to make sure all is well. But there is always the chance that he may fall or something may happen that needs me to be here. The community rehab nurse who visited last week mentioned we could get a home alarm where he just presses a button and someone will ring me. This sounds ideal but Pete is very much against that - I think the reason being that they are associated with the elderly and infirm and hang around the neck. That sounds an awful thing to say, but there it is. As fate would have it we had a catalogue through the post today from the firm I got the half step from, and in it is a large button mobile phone which has an emergency button which can be pre-programmed with a telephone number. This sounds like the answer as I can just put my mobile number into it and if he needs me he just presses this button and it will ring my phone. I will have to get permission to have my phone in my pocket at work, but I think this will be ok. (if not, I have a back up plan but, hopefully,won't need it!!) if Pete falls he should be able to get up ok providing he hasn't hurt himself.
Another problem is tying his shoe laces. Pete can't do this with one hand but needs lace up shoes in order to use the ankle brace, as the laces support a hook. In the same catalogue were elastic laces which, effectively, turn a lace up shoe into a slip on shoe as they don't need to be undone to get shoes on and off as they stretch. Again, sounds ideal - worth a try at the very least.
So, those two items have been ordered.
The other problem is carrying a cup of tea from the kitchen to the sitting room. Pete could sit in the kitchen to drink it but that isn't very relaxing. So, probably, I think the answer will be to put a kettle on the coffee table in the sitting room. He can put tea and sugar in the cup in the kitchen and carry it through like that and the milk is easily carried as it is in plastic bottles with handles. Alternatively I could fill a thermos with boiling water but that is never quite the same. Not an insurmountable problem though.
So, there it is, I think I have thought of the main problems and addressed them. No doubt more will occur to me as time goes on!!