Friday, March 23, 2018

November 2017: The New Chapter

Well, in November the day before Thanksgiving, Marie was admitted to the Nursing Home here in Stockton.
She had not fractured her knee, but it was in a brace as well as her wrist. In other words, she was a mess!
She said it wasn't the first time she had been away from home for Thanksgiving, in fact it was the third time. Once before in the Nursing Home and once in the hospital many years before.
While Marie was rehabbing, Fran and I went to work on her home. She had formerly kicked people out of her house from bath aides to Meals On Wheels, to housekeepers. She informed Fran more than once she was not dead yet!!
So he took doors off for easier entrance, we bought new devices that were smaller and easier to maneuver, and we rented a hospital bed.
Fran painted, I had my housekeeper help me clean cupboards and scrub walls and dishes etc.
When Marie came home, it was not finished, but much better. At that time Fran and I decided for sure that I was the one to take care of her mother.
I want to point out that not only because of her advanced age, but also because she is deaf and blind in one eye and poor vision in the other she needed full time care during the day.
I had been in long term care positions from A-Z, but had never done the actual care, even though I did teach some CNA classes for their certification. You have to realize that was over 30 years ago. I am almost 74 now and taking care of a 102 year old disabled woman who has very definite opinions on what should and should not happen in her home.
Therapy was discontinued after three weeks due to her not being able to stand on her feet. Many falls occurred to the risk of not only Marie, but to Fran and myself as well.
Knowing some of the Medicare laws and not knowing the newer Medicare laws that had been changed in those 30 years I plowed through a bunch of red tape and secured no hospital bed because she had no diagnosis to tell the Red Tape People (Marie's words.) Just old age. I did however, get a Hoyer Lift which enabled her to go to the living room and eat her meals and sit in her chair and watch television.
Without the lift she would have been not only housebound, but also bed bound.
Along the way, she became non-verbal. She now whispers, moves her lips, or shouts at me when I make her angry! I know, I don't understand either, but that's the way it is.
At a point about three weeks ago she wanted no food or fluids. It looked to us as the beginning of the end. Then going without water hurt her and I explained it was going to get worse. She is now eating two acceptable meals a day and drinking about a litre of water and other fluids a day. Her meals are tiny and are not big enough to gain back the weight that she has lost.
I am able to now go to my home across the road at night because she does not need assist at night time.
So, what to do with my time, hmmm. I know I will open up my blogs again and start a new one. I am having so much fun "talking." I love to talk and Marie doesn't talk and my husband tends to zone in on his television and computer games and he does spend several hours here at Marie's house.
She had no internet!!! She does now and that makes everybody happy. Like the old saying goes, "When Mama ain't happy nobody is happy" The same holds true with when " Mama is happy most everybody else is happy."
I have lots of things to look forward to this year. I can't wait to tell you all about them.
See you tomorrow!

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