It’s funny how life can throw things at you. The older you get the less surprised you become, or at least I thought.
I just got in from Pensacola last week. I had gone to Pensacola to visit my family, mainly to see my mom, age 86. Moms’ mental and physical health has not been very good lately and she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer and possibly Parkinson’s Disease. Mom needs more attention and physical help than she is able to get with family and caregivers. It was time to make that dreaded decision to place her into a skilled nursing facility.
Welcome to being a Generation Jones baby because most of the Baby Boomers have already gone through this with their parents.
My siblings and I found the perfect facility and it came highly recommended by friends, doctors and professionals in the field of Geriatrics. The facility is clean with employees in abundance and on the work floor instead of hiding in an office. I am very pleased with this facility. Upon checking Mom in, my big brother was taking care of paper work; I stayed with Mom in her new room. Mom was sleepy and not talkative at all. As a matter of fact, Mom quit breathing altogether. I called the nurses and after several minutes of health care workers rushing in and out of Moms’ room, I was told that she was now breathing.
Like we needed this extra stress…
Mom was taken to a local hospital and kept for two days. Seems as if the new Parkinson medicine was the culprit in making Mom stop breathing. So Mom is now in her new room with a bunch of great people. However, mom is very miserable and mad with us that we placed her in a facility. My big brother and little sister are getting the brunt of this because they live there. We were told that this is part of Alzheimer. I’m not so sure. I know that my big brother and I have serious heart issues and my little sister is going through some rough times while her husband is laid off of work.
There is a lot of stress involved in this kind of a decision and there are many things that must be done in preparing for this kind of a move.
It isn’t over yet.
Now my wife’s mother, age 72, has fallen in her home. While she did not break anything, she is in the hospital. There seems to be several issues with Mom. The main issue is arthritis has eaten away at her knees and back and she has no muscle to speak of. Mom will have to go through serious rehab to get her muscle built so she can be evaluated for knee replacement, which she should have had more than 10 years ago. As of now, it looks like Mom will be going to a residential rehab center for a few weeks. Here comes the list of things to do again. I will admit, it is all out of love though.
Wow…….
