Reality Shift
I’ve spent the past few days getting my mother over a bad case of – well, for no other term, diaper rash. There’s nothing wrong with the hospital she’s in, but they just don’t have time to spend hours with one patient making sure they’re clean, they get to the bathroom regularly, they get their depends changed, etc. I finally brought in some diaper rash creme that I used with my kids and it’s working very well, which is a tremendous mercy because although a rash isn’t a life-affecting condition, it really affects a person’s frame of mind!
My mom seems better since I’ve been here, but she had a fall the night before last so instead of coming home she’s moving into a different rehab facility. She didn’t break anything, but it was a shock and she bruised herself. She was trying to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night and slipped. The rehab ward that she’s in is closing on 5/18, so they’re pushing to get everyone out, out, out. She has kind of a drill sargent of a physical therapist who, when mom said she couldn’t do the therapy after she’d fallen, told one of the nurses, Patient REFUSES therapy.
I think she will be much better off at the nursing home facility. They have a rehab wing so she can be there until she’s on her feet again, they have a lot of activities and it’s a really lovely space. I don’t really think she was well enough to come home even before the fall – and definitely not well enough to deal with a long flight of stairs (her bedroom is upstairs and my sister in law doesn’t want to turn one of the downstairs rooms into a bedroom for mom – it would be quite a production and mom would still have to climb stairs to go to the bathroom!)
But as nice as the facility is, it’s a nursing home and she’s always wanted to avoid that. But she’s 85, can’t manage stairs and can’t control her bodily functions. It sucks. One very good thing is that the nursing home is literally 1 mile from Karen’s house, so visits will be frequent and convenient. There’s a chance that mom may be coming home after a few weeks there, or not…
When mom was my age she was pregnant for me, which is why now at 42 I’m dealing with an 85 year old mom. Not that I’d be more equipped to deal with this in 10 years. I don’t mean to sound annoyed – I’m just frustrated at the pain she has to go through and at the fact that I can’t be here longer. The good news is that next week my cousin and her sister in law will be arriving to fill any void left by me, so they can be with her all day while Karen’s at work.
I think I’ll be leaving here on Saturday to drive back home. I haven’t been here nearly as long as I feel I should have, but I have to get home to take care of my own family stuff, business stuff, book sales, etc. I promised my mom that I’d come back out in July with both kids.
I’m going to take my time driving back because I really exhausted myself on the drive out – lots of driving. I stopped today and got some CoEnzyme Q10 to help with my exhaustion and some Glucosamine and Chondroitin for my joints, which are troubling me. I think it’s all that time in the car with my knees bent.
Maybe it’s just sympathy pain…