Mom was back to her "usual" self today. I went over early in the day, in order to be there when Maria showed up for Mom's weekly bath. Maria showed up a few minutes after me, with a nice Christmas cheesecake in hand as a gift to Mom and Dad.
After filling Maria in on what had happened last night, Mom and Maria retreated to the bathroom, which left Dad and me some rare time to talk in private. We discussed some of our conclusions and impressions from last night's events, as well as discussed some of my concerns about what would happen if he became incapacitated or dies before Mom. This was when he filled me on having an appointment for tomorrow morning with an attorney to fill out and sign a Financial Power of Attorney contract, one of the three legal things that should be done in this situation. The other two, which I think are "end of life" and "power of attorney"(I think?) are already settled.
Mom will have to go to the lawyer with him tomorrow morning and make a signature in her very shaky handwriting.
After her bath and Maria left, she practically begged me to read to her from "The Secret Garden." As you can imagine, I was a bit nervous about it, but I started back on the chapter I started last night, and she was engaged until I finished, about three or four chapters later. During this time, Dad drove down town to buy a few staples, and when he came back, I ran home and jumped in the Jeep to go down town myself and get a little last minute Christmas shopping done and shop for tonight's dinner. I told Mom what I had to do, and she accepted it, not without a little bit of pouting.
I zipped back over there about three forty in the afternoon, just when "crazy time" sets in (ha ha, really, "sundowners"), and she and Dad were just finishing up a John Wayne movie on TCM. After the movie, she asked me if I would read to her some more, but I said I was too tired and that I wanted to save the book a little longer. She agreed to that, but I could see her begin to get a little bit anxious again. Dad did a few things while I sat with her, and then I explained to her I had to go. She was cool enough. I kept watching her to make sure she didn't fall back into another episode, but thankfully, this did not happen, at least not while I was there. I think she'll be okay for tonight.
Maria gave us the name of a mild sedative we could get prescribed from their doctor, and it is even available in a cream, so I'm very anxious to get that if we can. Because of the holidays, though, it may be tricky to get it right away.. I'd really like to have that on hand for the next intense episode. We could have really used a mild sedative for her last night!
Maria also told us Mom was dehydrated again, and I suspected that might be the case, but after Maria told us a lot of stuff made sense to me. At the ER last night, when they rolled Mom in her bed to the CT room, she complained of feeling dizzy.. a classic symptom of dehydration.
Today, we made her drink a lot of water, and from now on we will remember to be more vigilant about keeping her hydrated. I know it's probably wrong, but I was surely tempted to mildly "threaten" her that she needed to drink the water so she wouldn't have to go back into the hospital... what else can I do?
So, another day done for me. Meanwhile, Dad is ever so patiently handling the rest. Feeding her, amusing her, answering her endless questions, undressing her for bed, giving her her night time pills, tucking her in. It's a lot, and he's doing such an amazing job.
Tomorrow the fun begins. They go to the attorney, my younger brother and his wife arrive for Christmas, and my partner and I have a gig at night. Friday, my sister, brother in law, older brother and nephew arrive, and we will attempt to get Mom and as many of the gang that can stand to go to the Christmas Eve church service at their church. Saturday is Christmas, Sunday they all go home.
Let the fun begin... (fingers crossed.)
No comments:
Post a Comment