2024 Life Logs, Day 312: A Full Day of Appointments
Date: Friday, November 8, 2024
Weather in Mooresville: Partly Cloudy: High Temp 76, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home with my Sister at Terra Bella, Mooresville, NC
At the end of the day yesterday, I was exhausted from sitting in an airport all day. Tonight, I am exhausted from a full day of appointments. I was on the move all day. It started at 4:30 am when I woke up startled to see my sister sitting in the twin recliner next to the one where I was sleeping. She had gotten out of bed and negotiated her way into the living room from the bedroom … something she has been told repeatedly not to do because of the fall risk. We ‘met’ for a few minutes with me trying to explain why she just cannot get up during the night without calling for help. Then I got her back into bed and then we both slept for another two hours.
The real appointments began at 7:45 am when I met with her PT’s supervisor doing a 30 day review. OT and PT will continue for another 30 days and then there will probably be an additional 30 day extension. The supervisor explained this to me and then helped me take her to breakfast. I got her settled in and left to run to the grocery store to get granola and yogurt to have for my breakfast. Appointment number two was with the Executive Director and Director of Health of this senior residence where many of my questions about her care were answered. But, unfortunately, just as many new questions were generated. I toured the Memory Care unit with the Director of Health as she will be moved there at some point as her dementia progresses. All I can say about the Memory Care Unit is that I sincerely hope she doesn’t have to make that move. In the meeting, I also raised the possibility that she might have a urinary tract infection that is causing some of her erratic behavior. The Executive Director called her doctor’s nursing assistant and asked if I could bring over a urine sample to be tested. Holly, the assistant, said she would love to meet me, so we set an appointment for me to deliver the sample and talk with Holly about Patsy’s care.
By the time the Terra Bella meeting was over, I only had an hour to visit with Patsy and then take her to the dining room for lunch before I headed to meet with Holly. She suggested we hire overnight help to make sure she doesn’t get up during the night and a security system with live cameras be installed in her apartment so I can actually monitor her activities from home. These are ideas I will have to think about. I went from there directly to an appointment at another assisted living facility in Mooresville and on from there to another assisted living facility further south in Huntersville where our nephew Tommy lives. While visiting here I wanted to see if there was a place better suited to Patsy’s situation. The assisted living in Mooresville that I looked at is much smaller than Terra Bella and would be perfect for her, but making another move would be very hard on her. More to think about.
I had hoped to have time to go back to spend some time with Patsy before dinner, but everything took much longer than I expected. So, I went directly to pick up one of Patsy’s companions to take her out to dinner. This companion is with her every Tuesday and Thursday and does most of the shopping for Patsy and takes her to her medical appointments. Since I missed seeing her yesterday because of my flight delay, I invited her to dinner. And after dinner, I marranged to meet my nephew Tommy to have a beer and talk over Patsy’s situation. We met in a bar across the street from the restaurant where I had dinner and spent more time talking about the election than we did Patsy. Still, it was good to have the time together. When we were getting ready to leave, a woman that was sitting on the bar stool next to Tommy introduced herself. She had overheard our discussion about caring for elderly family members and our political discussion and wanted to add to our ideas of how we deal with “the plate we have been handed” in both situations. She is from a long line of Mississippi Irish Catholics and since Tommy once lived in Mississippi, they hit it off right away. She has a Doctorate in Macromolecular Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and has spent her life to this point working in what she called a family business that started as Cryopac, but is now Sealed Air. She heads up the innovative engineering division working to make plastic packaging more sustainable. At 43, she is unmarried and plans to stay that way. And never having had children, she is fully dedicated to helping young people, especially young women, navigate a male dominated world. Quite an interesting conversation with a very interesting woman.
I didn’t get back to Terra Bella until almost 8:30 pm, much later than I had planned. But for the weekend, there are no more appointments. I can spend full time visiting with my sister and trying to figure out how to best deal with her current situation.
