Yesterday Mom's care center had their Thanksgiving celebration. Everyone's families were invited at lunchtime to enjoy a holiday meal together. Since she has been there, we have really appreciated how hard the folks at her facility try to make life there as good as they can, especially for the holidays. They have an incredibly sweet recreational therapy team who just work their booties off constantly. And yesterday was their best event yet. The food was quite good, and they made every effort to accomodate our big group (four generations of women and our sweet patriarch!) by giving up the center's conference room. Becky put the icing on the cake by bringing in some soft music and autumnal-colored Hershey's Kisses to scatter around the table. (That last part was much appreciated by TCBitWtm, who took great delight in unwrapping -- and eating as many as Mommy would let her! -- "chocolaties.")
One of the ladies who works in the office at the care center came in to welcome us and told us that on such a day of gratitude, they feel themselves grateful that our family and others entrust our loved ones to their care. It is a difficult place for Mom to be, and certainly things do not always run smoothly, but we do appreciate that overall they are doing their best to not just give Mom what she needs, but care for her as a person. That is something for which we give thanks.
(Just as a side note, I did have a family picture from this event I was going to include, but I have always felt uncomfortable posting pictures in this public forum -- open to everyone on the planet -- of TCBitWtm's face. But I am always eager to show her off to friends and family, so if you ever want a glut of my family photos, please go to Facebook and friend me [if you don't know what I mean by that, please ask your kids or grandkids and they can explain and get you set up].)
Friday, November 21, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
...and a Mom update
Since I finally got my lazy butt to post an update on Dad's blog, I figured I'd give y'all the complete rundown on Mom, too.
About a month ago, Mom moved to the long-term care wing of her care center. She stopped receiving therapy in September because they had taken her as far as they could. At this point she is able to walk the few steps from her chair to the bathroom using her walker, but she still needs at least two aides to help her in and out of her chair and is still using a lift to get in and out of bed. The aides are occasionally able to work with her to practice walking down the hall, and they are trying to help her get stronger so she can get in and out of bed on her own. We hope that an assisted living facility is in her future, and possibly home, but that seems pretty far in the distance at this point.
In happier news, since Becky and I both have birthdays in October, Mom was able to get out a couple of times last month so we could have family dinners together for each occasion. And a couple of Sundays ago Mom was able to go to church! For Halloween, her care center invited residents' young family members to come trick-or-treating and Mom smiled so much passing out candy. It's good to see those moments when she's engaged.
We are trying to encourage Mom to seek out some mental health help, but she's pretty much eschewed that since summer. Please, please continue to pray that she will want to take advantage of every opportunity to get better.
About a month ago, Mom moved to the long-term care wing of her care center. She stopped receiving therapy in September because they had taken her as far as they could. At this point she is able to walk the few steps from her chair to the bathroom using her walker, but she still needs at least two aides to help her in and out of her chair and is still using a lift to get in and out of bed. The aides are occasionally able to work with her to practice walking down the hall, and they are trying to help her get stronger so she can get in and out of bed on her own. We hope that an assisted living facility is in her future, and possibly home, but that seems pretty far in the distance at this point.
In happier news, since Becky and I both have birthdays in October, Mom was able to get out a couple of times last month so we could have family dinners together for each occasion. And a couple of Sundays ago Mom was able to go to church! For Halloween, her care center invited residents' young family members to come trick-or-treating and Mom smiled so much passing out candy. It's good to see those moments when she's engaged.
We are trying to encourage Mom to seek out some mental health help, but she's pretty much eschewed that since summer. Please, please continue to pray that she will want to take advantage of every opportunity to get better.
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