As I write this I can hear my sweet, nearly-14-year-old collie Lily as she yips plaintively in the other room. There is nothing in particular the matter–she has begun doing this at various times of the day and night. We visited her vet this past Thursday and I asked her if dogs could suffer from… Continue reading Lassie, get help! / December 2, 2006
I’ve been doing a little research and here are a few facts: According to the MetLife Mature Market Institute: The 2006 average daily rate for a private room in a nursing home is $206 ($75,190 annually), a $3 or 1.5% increase over the 2005 rate of $203. In 2004 the rate was $192 daily. (from the… Continue reading Voices in the wilderness, part 2 / November 26, 2006
I’m doing better since my last post, which is interesting to me, since nothing external has changed. Except, maybe, my hormones–which I know are internal but I think fueled my anxiety last weekend. So the medical researchers out there who are looking for a way to use that extra NIH grant money might consider studying… Continue reading Voices in the wilderness, part 1 / November 26
I was just over at the Alzheimer’s Association Caregiver Forum where someone had posted a message about the caregiver’s stages. I think I passed from one stage to the next on Sunday night, in a matter of minutes. I had a meltdown right in front of my mother (which I had tried never to do)… Continue reading Meltdown / November 20, 2006
Just an update on my Aid & Attendance application: I mailed it–certified mail with a signature receipt–about 3 weeks ago. Within a week of mailing I received a letter from the regional VA Office here in Providence telling me that the VA does NOT accept applications based on Power of Attorney. They claim that POA… Continue reading Aid & Attendance, part 3, and Medicare Part D / November 17, 2006
Today I miss having my own life. I miss it badly. I must be running on reserve tank today but I’m thoroughly tired of answering my mother’s questions about her hair. Her hair is in dire need of a shampoo, a cut, and maybe a perm–that was always her regimen in the past. She has… Continue reading Allow me to vent / November 11, 2006
Here we are a week later, and very little has actually changed from our pre-hospital routine, aside from a new morning battle with the anti-embolism stockings. I was right in suspecting that a layer of delerium had been added to the mix in the nursing home, and now that it has disappeared my mother has… Continue reading The elephant in the room / November 11, 2006
My sister and I brought my mother home from the nursing home yesterday. Within two hours of her arrival she was fast asleep, and stayed that way, more or less, for the next 16 hours. I woke her up for her pills at one point but that was it. I probably should not have let… Continue reading Home again / November 4, 2006
I wonder how long my mother will be this angry at me. When I arrived today she began immediately: I have no money, This is awful, Why are you doing this to me? I tried to remember not to argue, not to reason–which is so much harder than I imagined. I’d arrived shortly before the time that… Continue reading Again / October 28, 2006
I don’t particularly enjoy visiting with my mother in the nursing home, but I dislike NOT seeing her even more. I worried for awhile that my presence was having a negative effect on her behavior, until I realized that there is no resolution to that particular worry. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t–in the end… Continue reading Visits / October 22, 2006
