Friends and family--I'm sending this widely to save time and fingers. Many
of you have wondered how Peter is doing since his move on May 8th to the
Westover retirement community health Care wing in Hamilton--some 13 miles
from our home. His address, BTW, is:
Westover, Room 309, 855 Stahlheber Rd., Hamilton, OH.
Most of you know that this is a move he chose to make , out of loving
concern for the growing difficulty of caring for him at home, in view of
his frequent falls and increasing dementia. He has a large private room
(formerly a double) overlooking the play yard of the attached preschool,
with many of his things from home.
As PWPs and CGs will understand, the biggest hurdle has been getting his
complex med schedule fitted into the time frame their staff has to work
within. He takes something every 2 or 3 hours, and they "pass meds" every
four hours, with a window of 2 hours for one nurse to serve 40 patients.
After I got pretty vocal and insistent, I had a satisfactory session with
the Asst. Director of Nursing, and she agreed to call both his neuro and
his internist to discuss how his med schedule could be adjusted to make it
possible to give them as he needs them. I also had a nice letter of
apology from the young LPN who had been pretty uncomprehending and
difficult the first evening ! The nursing staff and aides are pleasant,
caring and I think things will go OK now....especially since I told them if
they couldn't handle his meds I'd take him somewhere else ! <G> I'm going
to suggest that they really need to pay detailed attention ahead of time to
a complicated med schedule when admitting patients--
not just say, as I was told, "Oh yes, we can handle whatever the doctor
orders", without really seeing what is involved. Not all PWPs have
someone who can be an advocate for them.
The first day was sad but calm, with a lovely surprise when daughter
Carroll and her husband Bobby came to visit. The next AM when I got there
he was agitated, demanding to go home--would walk back to Oxford if I
wouldn't take him. As he was obviously hallucinating, and a bit paranoid,
and I finally had to just leave. When I returned at supper time, he was
waiting for me, gradually perked up, ate all his meal, and we went (by
wheelchair) to the nearby Ice cream store for a milkshake! Later daughter
Chris came by and he was very chipper. We toured the whole large facility
by wheelchair, meeting the 2 resident cats, friendly and identical, and
enjoying the aviary with lovely birds.
Today, much to my delight, I found him rational and happy, and he had had a
good breakfast. Apparently some of the food, at least, pleases him. I
know there will still be a period of adjustment---for both of us---but we
are over the first hurdle, and I know it will work. On my part, though
lonely, I am experiencing a sense of freedom from being a constant slave to
the clock (as someone on CARE called us CGs) I look forward to doing many
things that have been impossible for years, in part because I know that is
what Peter hopes I will do. This brave and loving man is one in a million,
I can assure you, and the primary reason for accepting his decision to move
is that it is one way he can still feel he's taking care of me, as he has
done so well for nearly 58 years.
P.S. .Mimi-JI, our feline family member, misses him too-- she always
slept by his feet on the bed, and last night still slept there, but without
the feet......
Camilla Flintermann <[log in to unmask]>
on the web at http://www.geocities.com/camillahf/index.html
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"... Meet people where they are now,
not where you hoped they might be........"
--Christine Greenland
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