I should be blogging, but I just don’t know WHAT to blog about. The absolutely crazy winter weather? Ed, who was ill yesterday? The incredible sale I found at Bath and Body. Elegant Mother’s dislike of the nursing home?
There’s not a lot of news in my corner of the world. I took lunch to EM on Monday and you’d think it was the best meal she had ever eaten. Unfortunately, she can’t remember the LOBSTER that my brother took to her on Friday night. My offering was a simple tuna sandwich, fresh raspberries and part of a clementine. She ate all that, and was too full to eat the salad that came with it. Probably what she liked the best was a small iced coffee from Starbucks. I can see that she both wants and needs to drink more, and the iced coffee might have been the part of the meal she enjoyed the most.
EM has been in a nursing home about three weeks, and they lost her bottom teeth (temporarily), her shoes ( for a couple of days…and in the meantime, someone has given her a pair of embroidered felt slippers….we haven’t a clue who they belong to),and now her glasses. I had to take her prescription sunglasses to her because she had been without glasses from some time on Saturday until lunch on Monday. We have informed the administration that they are missing, but no one seems to know anything about them. I’m going to print out a sign that says….Does EM have her glasses, her teeth and her shoes on this morning? to remind the aides to check for what seems obvious to us.
I’ll be vising EM again today, and I’ll take French onion soup, maybe half a sandwich, and something sweet to finish the meal. And, you can be sure I’ll take her more iced coffee! The Empty Nester Ladies will be visiting this morning at 11:00, so she should have a nice day.
I think it’s okay to say that I am TIRED OF THE COLD! I’m ready for spring. I want to be browsing the plant catalogs and planning what will go in our gardens. I doubt that I will have help with them this year, so I want to plant things that will make it with a minimum of assistance. Don’t you get that green-thumb syndrome this time of year, too?
I suppose I should cut this short so that I can get ready for exercise this morning. I’m trying not to miss any of the sessions, because it’s so hard to get back into the traces after being away several days. My exercise session, compared to what my younger sister does, is a laugh, but I can tell you that it makes a significant difference in my life. so I go. I don’t like it….but I go! *G*
I hope you all have a good Wednesday!
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
How in the heck could they lose her teeth Buffy? For that matter how could they lose her shoes or glasses either? Lose them? My mother had a few items of clothing missing only to be found mixed up in someone else’s laundry, but she shared a room with someone else. Does your mother share a room with anyone? Nevertheless, someone has to be accountable for that. Teeth and eyeglasses are items that EM needs to use to function with every day. They really need to figure out what happened to them….now.
Just for the record – younger sister doesn’t do CRAP in the way of exercise at the moment. This is the time of day I WAS walking/jogging the stairs at school, but alas I’m grading – too close to a midterm for much else.
I wonder what kind of care EM would get if they treated her like their own mother.
Joy, EM’s bottom teeth are rather loose, and she probably pushed them out at night while she was sleeping. Her aide, remade the bed (without first checking the sheets, which needed to be changed) and the teeth were in the bed. My second sister found the teeth, and asked why they hadn’t looked for teeth to CLEAN them as a part of the morning ritual of dressing. We STILL haven’t found the glasses, and I’ll have to order a new pair on Monday.
We hope that ALL nursing homes are not run this badly. Having someone look sympathetic and nod their head is NOT what I consider an adequate response to a situation like this.
Frankie may not be exercising at the moment, but when she does, she puts me to shame. I don’t do stairs well now, even slowly, and she’s running up three flights…running across the building, and running back down three flights. She’s not a kid…and she works HARD at this exercise. I doubt I will ever exercise like that again.
It really IS frustrating that things disappear in a skilled nursing home–to the family, and to the staff. You both (family and staff) have your work cut out for you. I’m sure that most family understand the enormity of the task. In most cases, were it an easy task to care for the family member, the family member would be at home with their loved ones.
The staff in the skilled nursing home with which I am most familiar, are chronically short-handed and short of time, but long on love for their charges, the residents. There are, in our state, minimuma that apply to the number of staff required, based on the number of residents. Only the facilities that cater to the well-off can afford to exceed the meager minima. Obviously, and thankfully, your EM has financial means beyond those of the average resident in our local facility. But, still, these things happen.
Hugs to you and EM.
“minimuma” is what happens when the mind is thinking “minima” and the fingers are hell bent for leather on “minimums”!