Tuesday, January 2, 2018

5 months, 22 days

It's the second day of 2018. Mother has been living in WB Acres for 5 months and 22 days. She has gotten used to being there it seems but has good and bad days. Her cognitive state is pretty much the same. Short term memory is affected but she remembers things from her childhood. She recognizes everyone but has no real concept of time. Her Macular Degeneration appears to be holding steady so we are able to go 9 weeks between injections this time around. It's challenging though to get her to focus on keeping her eyes open and her head back for the numbing drops. Her focus is fleeting at best.

It was our first time celebrating the holidays with her not at home and I was quite anxious about how it would go. Thanksgiving didn't go so well. She really wanted to go home and it turned out we had to leave since she was just getting more and more upset at us. Christmas went better with us bringing goodies and dinner from home to share with about 5 of us privately in the facility conference room. She was the center of attention and got all the gifts we'd brought her. I had shutterfly make a book of many of our family members so that she could look at it when feeling lonely. She likes to look at pictures and seemed to enjoy the book. Dad bought her the most beautiful wool cardigan from Ireland that was especially warm and cozy. She looked lovely in it. Until the facility washed and DRIED it. It shrunk so badly she cannot even wear it. Needless to say we were not happy about this but what are you going to do. He went out and got her some less expensive cardigans instead that are washable but it's such a shame resident cannot have anything really nice without someone losing it, stealing it or destroying it. It's not just at this facility either that this is the case. We should have told them not to launder the sweater but it was an expensive lesson on our part at this point. I did buy her an inexpensive ring she can wear instead of her wedding rings just in case she lost them. So far it's still there!

I don't know what 2018 will bring in terms of her care or how things will go since we are still navigating one day at a time. I pray that whatever it is will keep her safe and my Dad can continue to be healthy enough to visit her 4 times a week. That is the only thing that truly makes her happy.

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