Thursday, March 6, 2014
Prayers Needed
Quick entry. Dad has been admitted to the hospital. He has a detached retina and the macula has also detached. He has no vision in his right eye. This all started on Sunday but he wasn't in any pain and while he did call to make an appointment with his Optometrist (which was to be this Saturday) he (Dad) didn't feel it was very urgent. It's too advanced for laser surgery and he was supposed to have surgery today but his blood is too thin so it has been postponed until tomorrow. Please pray for a successful surgery and for his spirits too - he was pretty down when I talked to him this afternoon.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Well we decided on staying home for Christmas... sort of. I ended up surprising my husband Christmas morning and we drove to his parent's for Christmas supper with them and his sister's family. It's a relatively short drive - just over 2 1/2 hours so it went pretty smoothly. We left late afternoon and stayed the night.
Dad is still doing good. We've talked a few times over the phone and FaceTime but the good conversations usually happen through texting. He's not a big phone talker (never has been - would always talk for a few minutes and say, "Well here's your mother."). They had a good Christmas. We did talk Christmas Eve and he was going to Church with mom. Texted after Christmas and I guess he actually stayed at the house for 2 nights. He said it was "like Heaven" and something about how he could actually stand up in the shower. I didn't reply to those comments. I've been to the home, seen his bathroom and the shower didn't really look that different to me... I'll have to take a closer look next time I guess. I'm still waiting for him to start talking about his agenda in the New Year because when he first moved into the home he kept saying that he would stick it out until January. Since then he's mentioned that he has an agenda a few times in our conversations. It kind of worries me but I know I shouldn't worry over something that might not even happen - no point in stressing now. It really does seem like he's accepted the care home but I guess it could still all be an act.
Into the medical stuff for a bit. Mom has Power of Attorney which is the money and such. Then there is also a Personal Directive - which is the medical and healthcare decisions. Mom thought that when she had that drafted by a lawyer that it was in place but it's not... you still need to have 2 physicians sign off that they don't think Dad has the capacity to make decisions for himself medically. The hard thing with LBD (and with any dementia I would think) is that he can be really, really good at times (like now) and then he doesn't think he needs to be in the care home. The first time he was in the hospital he was pretty bad - then after a few weeks they got his medication worked out and it was being monitored/administered regularly by the nurses and he was doing good. When they finally got around to assessing Dad they felt that he had capacity and wouldn't put the PD into place and even though I had been assured by the Social Worker that they were not going to discharge him and it was way too soon to start thinking about care home options... the next day the doctor decided he could be discharged even knowing Dad would be going back to the house by himself with no support. He mixed up his meds within 3 days and was back in the hospital within a week which then led to the big family meeting at the hospital.
I guess one of my biggest fears (yes I'm jumping ahead to something that might not even happen) is that Dad can still decide to leave the care home. He doesn't have access to money and he can't go back to the house but because the Personal Directive is not yet in place, he could leave. All that crap we went through with the hospital and trying to get Dad into a care home would have to start all over again and then we wouldn't be guaranteed that he would be placed at the same care home. They give us a list, we tour them, pick our top three and whatever opens up first is where he goes.
So if you're the praying type... please pray that Dad doesn't make any rash decisions and continues to settle in at the care home. That he will realize this is the best option for him now and especially in the long run.
Dad is still doing good. We've talked a few times over the phone and FaceTime but the good conversations usually happen through texting. He's not a big phone talker (never has been - would always talk for a few minutes and say, "Well here's your mother."). They had a good Christmas. We did talk Christmas Eve and he was going to Church with mom. Texted after Christmas and I guess he actually stayed at the house for 2 nights. He said it was "like Heaven" and something about how he could actually stand up in the shower. I didn't reply to those comments. I've been to the home, seen his bathroom and the shower didn't really look that different to me... I'll have to take a closer look next time I guess. I'm still waiting for him to start talking about his agenda in the New Year because when he first moved into the home he kept saying that he would stick it out until January. Since then he's mentioned that he has an agenda a few times in our conversations. It kind of worries me but I know I shouldn't worry over something that might not even happen - no point in stressing now. It really does seem like he's accepted the care home but I guess it could still all be an act.
Into the medical stuff for a bit. Mom has Power of Attorney which is the money and such. Then there is also a Personal Directive - which is the medical and healthcare decisions. Mom thought that when she had that drafted by a lawyer that it was in place but it's not... you still need to have 2 physicians sign off that they don't think Dad has the capacity to make decisions for himself medically. The hard thing with LBD (and with any dementia I would think) is that he can be really, really good at times (like now) and then he doesn't think he needs to be in the care home. The first time he was in the hospital he was pretty bad - then after a few weeks they got his medication worked out and it was being monitored/administered regularly by the nurses and he was doing good. When they finally got around to assessing Dad they felt that he had capacity and wouldn't put the PD into place and even though I had been assured by the Social Worker that they were not going to discharge him and it was way too soon to start thinking about care home options... the next day the doctor decided he could be discharged even knowing Dad would be going back to the house by himself with no support. He mixed up his meds within 3 days and was back in the hospital within a week which then led to the big family meeting at the hospital.
I guess one of my biggest fears (yes I'm jumping ahead to something that might not even happen) is that Dad can still decide to leave the care home. He doesn't have access to money and he can't go back to the house but because the Personal Directive is not yet in place, he could leave. All that crap we went through with the hospital and trying to get Dad into a care home would have to start all over again and then we wouldn't be guaranteed that he would be placed at the same care home. They give us a list, we tour them, pick our top three and whatever opens up first is where he goes.
So if you're the praying type... please pray that Dad doesn't make any rash decisions and continues to settle in at the care home. That he will realize this is the best option for him now and especially in the long run.
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