Sunday, May 4, 2008

"Better" Is a Relative Term

I guess you could say things are better here. My grandmother IS feeling better and regaining her strength, finally. We visited her doctor last week. She told him she had fallen recently climbing the steps into her house. He asked her how it happened - BIG mistake! She told him in grand detail how a lady came to visit and sat in her little stationary rocker, leaned back and broke it. Her deacon thought he could repair it, and he had carried it to the car to take home with him. He handed her the cushion to "take back into the house," and she was trying to juggle the cushion and grip the handrail and it all went awry! The kicker to the story is that my grandmother's physician is a hefty guy - maybe 300+ lbs? Anyway, her story started off with the friend sitting in the rocker... "and she is every bit as big as YOU are," she told her doctor! I prayed the floor would open and take me! He never flinched and continued to listen to the story!

A fellow "Deli" member has written me this week to share some thoughts about her experiences caring for her mother, who lived to be almost 101. She experienced troubles with family members over money and the family home and says: "I feel my brother thought he was doing the right thing when he had everything signed over to him. He wanted the money and just didn't want the responsibility. If he would have provided Mom with decent care, I don't think anyone would have challenged him. There was history in our family of a lot of corruption with the brothers so all makes sense when you put the pieces together."

The Nursing Homes in my home state actually are pretty good. I had an issue about the method of acquiring prescribed medication for Mom while she was in the Home but basically, the care of her was outstanding. I visited her once or twice a day and took her out for our wheelchair walks often. That meant I was aware of her care and the Home was aware of my presence.

I just got an email from a friend who left her home to move into her Mom's home to care for her. She and her husband lived in the home for a few years until her Mom died. Then her husband was diagnosed with cancer so she provided all the support and care for him until he died this past winter. She did this while caring for her granddaughter whose Mom can't care for at this time. Now...her email is telling me that she has four lumps and they are all malignant. She will go in for surgery next Thursday. Yet...she is being so positive!! She wants to get it over with because she has an ATV/camp trip planned and her granddaughter will be the 5th or 7th Indian Princess to reign in the family, so there's other travel involved.

Your feedback has been great! Thanks for keeping in touch. Your website is a wonderful site to vent for anyone who is involved in the care, custody and control of their loved one. Hats off to you!

My grandmother is busy planning a "Chicken Foot" domino party at her house for Tuesday of this week - seven women whose median age is 89! They will play, eat chips, dips, cookies and sweets and while away the afternoon. Good fun!

We had killer tornadoes come through our state on Friday. Thankfully Mam-ma didn't try to go to her storm cellar. She made a spot in her closet; however, she told my sister later that she "kept coming out to look at the clouds!" After the storms passed, she swept her garage and driveway, and pressure hosed her front porch! Yep, she is definitely better!

Hope the week is a quiet one in your Deli!

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