I saw this post on Face Book yesterday: Strength of character isnt always about how much you can handle before you break, its also about how much you can handle after youve broken. Oh boy, is that true for me and Frances right now!
Frances and I had an assessment meeting at Brian Center yesterday afternoon to see how dad was doing and what our goals for him are. From there I stopped to pick up me some take out and headed over to Creekside to spend the night with mom. I took a vacation day to spend the morning with mom, take her to the bank and out to lunch then to a doctor appointment.
Dad also had an appointment this morning. Brian Center transported him and Frances met him over there. It was not good news, as we expected. Between his failing heart and kidneys there is not much more can be done for dad except keep him comfortable. They did some blood work and gave us some options which we need to discuss. The doctor called me back this afternoon to let me know dad has another UTI and his potassium count was high. He phoned that report into the Brian Center since they are now handling his medications.
For some reason they did not find the clean clothing he had in his closet and instead had dressed him for his doctor appointment in some extra, clean clothing they keep for spare. While mom and I were out between lunch and doctor we stopped at the Hanes Outlet Store and picked him up three more sets of lounging pants and t-shirts.
After mom’s appointment I dropped her off back at Creekside. Her helper was waiting for her at the front door and I came home. Bob climbed up on the ladder to brush as much of the seed mess from the porch roof gullies as he could without getting up on the roof. I raked as many as I could off the natural areas, watered the plants I put out Saturday, and cleaned up that project. In the meantime Bob had been over at Creekside earlier this afternoon to get dad’s dirty clothing. He was not back from his doctor visit yet so he left after calling to tell me why dad was wearing the reported strange clothing Frances had told me about earlier.
I finished up outside, put on a dry t-shirt, and Bob and I took off back to the Brian Center to deliver dad’s clean and new clothing. I put one of his new t-shirts on him and the nurse put a pair of his new pants on him. He was pretty tired from his doctor outing so we left after I put all his cloths in the closet and drawers. We stopped at Coppola’s for dinner on the way home.
Mom is doing pretty good considering she just came home from the hospital on Monday. She gets around good and did find last night. I don’t think she needs someone all day but instead perhaps a couple hours a few days a week to help with daily chores in the apartment. She will have to get over her fear of being there alone at night again. She did it once before, I know she can do it again.