Home Sweet Home!

Well, mom was released last Friday back to her apartment.  YAY!  She was a little nervous going back to her apartment and hoping that she'd be ok living on her own once again and I was confident, just needed to get her to believe she could do it.   It's so cliche, but so true- if you believe it, it can happen - but as soon as you implement negative thoughts and words, you are setting yourself up to fail.  Once she was all settled, I went home, but I have been over to see her everyday to take care of bandage changes and each day she does a little bit more.

She has had very warm welcomes from other residents and workers who missed her and that really lifted her spirits.  Part of returning "home" was hoping that people would remember her.   Things have been going pretty well for her so far.   The Physical Therapist came on Monday and basically said if all her patients were like mom, she's be out of a job.  She was very impressed with everything mom was able to do for herself.  

Mom has had three Doctor Appointments in the last week.  First to meet her new primary care Physician and we both really like him.  He seems pretty real and very thorough.  It was a nice long "getting to know you" first visit.   Thursday we saw her Vascular Doctor and she is very pleased with the progress on the leg wounds- so that is coming along very nicely.  Monday we saw her eye Doctor and everything remained status quo.   So a few great visits.  We have three appointments for Friday: check up with the cardiologist,  weekly appointment with the Vascular Doctor and then an appointment with her new ENT to try to figure out why her hearing has been impaired the last 6 weeks.  In doing a bit of research online today, by mom's request- it could very well be a side effect to the vancomycin medication she's been taking.  She has had this hearing issue several times this year and we attributed it to "white noise" in hospitals and rehab facilities, but now maybe it has to do with the constant antibiotic she's been on and off of.   It'll be nice to get to the bottom of that issue and put it behind us.  I don't believe her hearing is lost, I do believe this is a temporary thing.

I have received so many compliments from the Doctors and the PT this past week about how wonderfully organized I am with regard to mom's medical history and health care.  Her PCP asked me if I was an Engineer because of my attention to detail and lists and spreadsheets.  Of course, I told him I was a Travel Engineer!  HA!   It's very flattering, but on the other side of things- do they really not come into contact with people like me who actually take care of their parents that often?  It makes me sad.   My mom has often talked about being a burden, but I reassure her that she is not a burden and that she raised me right- I wouldn't be her daughter if I didn't do this.   She raised me and now is my time to payback to her for everything she has done for me.  We remain the best of friends.

We have a fun day planned tomorrow.  She wants to buy some new seat cushions for her kitchen chairs to make them a bit safer and would also like to find a new chair with arms for a bit of ease in getting out of the chair she sits in most of the time.  So we're going to shop for that and then stop by Safeway to get the groceries on her list.  It'll be nice to get her out for something other than a Doctor appointment.  

She is enjoying her view from her apartment. She has mentioned multiple times that she is very happy her trees are still green and have leaves.  I have no idea which trees shed their leaves and which keep them, but I think if her trees outside her window were going to shed, they would have by now.  It's really a pretty view.  She also now has her holiday windsocks hanging, so she gets a kick out of her Turkey windsock blowing around.

It's funny how it's so much easier to visit her at her apartment than it is at a hospital or rehab facility. I guess it's the comfort level, it's being in a colorful, happy place with happy things all around.  Facilities are all white and bland and boring.  They are not comfortable.  Now to just keep her "home"...

Yesterday she said to me, "you're right, I need to overcome my fear."  Something I've told her over and over again because I truly believe that once she had her fall at Lytton Gardens she was gun shy to do things.  Then she says to me, "I used the toilet".  I looked at her with a smile and said "ummm ok- well you do that all the time" and then she says, "no, I used THE toilet" - the one that she was unable to get up from on 10/3- the day she was then taken to the ER.   She has been afraid of getting stuck on the toilet seat ever since and I think she finally realized that it wasn't that the seat is lower than she's like- it was that she was sick, she was weak, she was dehydrated and was unable to pull herself up.  She is much stronger now, stronger again.

I have always said that what she has needed most from me and the family is for us to be her "cheerleaders" and reassure her that she can do this, that she can have a fulfilling life, that she can enjoy her new home and people that surround her.  Hoping to get her out into her new city soon so that we can scope out coffee shops that she will feel comfortable "hanging out" in a few times a week so she can meet and socialize with non-senior citizens.

I can say that she sounds so much better now that she is home.  Just a level of happiness in her voice that I have not heard in weeks...now we just have to keep this momentum going in the positive, upward direction!