Tough love

Oh Good Lord! So at about 6:15 last evening Liz stops by to make sure my mom gets her pills. I listen in on the camera for a couple minutes. Liz was just nicely chatting with her. Asked her if she was ok showering and getting showers (of course she said yes). Liz said most all the residents use a shower chair, she might like one of those to make it easier. Mom said no, she didn't think so. Then Liz got her pill button pushed and gave her the pills to take and said goodbye.

A few minutes later I get a call:

Mom: how much am I paying this lady? I don't need her to remind me to take my medications.

I said, well, I'm sorry but you're going to have to have her. I said she's very reasonably priced at $25/hr and she only charges for the time she's there (ok it's really 15 minute charge, but close enough) so it'll be like $5. 

Mom: Well, I can just do it myself. I can write myself a big note to remind me to take them.

I said mom, we have been trying that for a long time now and it doesn't work for you anymore. You forget to look at the note. I said there is a note taped to your pill machine and a note on your refrigerator. I said your pill machine actually TELLS you when it's time and you still get confused and think it's the phone ringing, or you get the pills out and then set them down and forget to take them.

She still tried to argue with me a bit and I said it's either use her or move into assisted living and assisted living is going to cost you thousands more, not a few hundred more per month! Again she brought up how much she is paying her. Then she says "well, I'll be surprised if that's all she charges me, but I guess I'll see how much when it comes out of my account". LOL!! I wanted to say, the account you have not looked at in 18 months now? LOL.

Then I said I have been having to call to make sure you get them at 6:30 and some evenings I can't always do it at that time and this way it gives me peace of mind that I know Liz was there and you for sure got your pills. I said I'm going to be on vacation next week and won't be able to make sure you got your pills for 2 of the evenings. So, then she said she guesses she will just have to get used to her. I said it's just for a few minutes. I said a lot of the people that live there use her to help them with things like this. "oh I guess so". If she brings up the cost and that she doesn't want to pay for it, then I'm just going to tell mom, well then I'll just have to pay for it!

Then she calls me again shortly after and says "now what time did you say she is coming tomorrow? around 6, I say. Oh, because I wanted to take a shower when I get up (see...Liz had put showering into her head, haha) and didn't want to miss taking my pills when she comes. I said no, 6 in the evening. You take your pills in the evening. She says "oh, I thought I took some in the morning". Boy, the real me wanted to say to her "don't you think the fact the fact that 1) you don't know what time of day you are supposed to take your pills and 2) you don't even know WHAT pills you take is the reason we need someone helping you?! LOL  Then she says again that she wants to take a shower and wash her hair in the morning so she's getting up around 6.

She got up at 7:15 this morning to go to the bathroom and went back to bed - exactly why we need Liz ;) I'll bet if I call her after she has her breakfast (they are delivering meals this week) she will either say "oh yes I did, or say I'm going to do that".

I'm not good at fibbing. Well, I can do it, but I'm not good at thinking of the fib when I wasn't expecting it. After sleeping on it, if mom brings up how much is she having to pay this lady again I'm just going to say it's covered under her insurance. Not that it will make her want someone helping her any more, but it will put the reason out of her "argument" that she doesn't want to spend her money on it.

Dh had texted our retired friend who often stops by, that our pup passed on. He always brought a treat when he comes. He stopped by yesterday for a visit and to say how sorry he was. He has a dog, so dh asked if he'd like our almost 2 bags of kibble and he took it, so that was good to find someone to take all that.

DD just texted and is on her way, so she should be here around 2:30 or so. It's  beautiful sunny day, to be in the mid 80's. I'm going to get the floors mopped while dh will be outside mowing. And get packed. I haven't even thought of packing yet, haha. It's only for a few nights, so really don't need much.

Ready for the long break

I do not have to be back to work until July 6th. Wooo! I am really needing this time off, this time. Dealing with mom has gotten me tired and run down and then with our pup sick and having to be put down, I need some rest and recharge time.

And now our cat has diarrhea. Good grief. He was outside the day before for quite awhile exploring. It's certainly possible he ate something he shouldn't have. He also likes to drink out of the toilets, which I'm guessing is probably the culprit. I'll have to make sure the lids are down. I usually try to keep them down, but sometimes forget and dh isn't good about putting the lid back down either. I do not need another vet bill right now. The pup cost us almost $3000 this past 5 or 6 weeks. He doesn't seem sick otherwise. He's eating and drinking and normal energy.

We seem to have finally gotten summer weather here now. Temps in high 70's and into 90's this next week. 

I am liking my $100 Fire tablet, but still hard to get used to the bigger size. It is really nice for watching movies and shows on. I've downloaded a book, but haven't read too much yet. Just haven't found a good book I'm really interested in lately. I don't really like the cover I got for it. I might invest in a better one at some point. I thought it was going to be like a softer leather type, but it's a harder type of "leather".

Mom's place finally got the maintenance guy up there and I see got her tv working again. I saw on camera last night she was eating her dinner with a tv tray at her recliner and watching tv, so she looked content. Next visit (if it's still working!) I'm going to look at all the cords and see if I can remember where the HDMI is plugged in, etc. Then maybe next time she messes it up, I can fix. If she messes it up again, I'm going to try that basic remote control. The only reason I haven't is that it doesn't have a button for the "guide", which that is how she is used to scrolling through the channels.

Today I'm going to vacuum.....and the selfish side of me is glad this will be the last of vacuuming long black dog hair up. He was a shedder, not to mention how long the fur was. I don't know how many vacuums it's clogged and ruined over the last 11 years. I can typically vacuum one or two rooms and the have to empty out the canister because it's full of his fur. And I will not have to mop the hard flooring all the time. It was constantly covered in drool spots wherever he walked and laid.  

I think our neighbors down at the end of our street are going to take our extra kibble dog food. We have an unopened 40lb bag and our bin in the laundry room is almost a full bag. DD is going to take the frozen fresh food I was trying. Unfortunately his next shipment for 3 weeks worth shipped out the day before we put him down, so now I have 21 packets of that food. So, neighbors down the street....they don't even feed their dog any kind of dog food! Just table scraps. She said he was having trouble eating dog food they tried when he was a puppy so they just started feeding him table scraps. Weird. I can't imagine that he could be getting all the nutrients he needs regularly from that kind of diet. 

After our text chat she sent down the 5 year old to share an otter pop and visit with dh to cheer him up. They sat out on the front porch chatting. He's such a cute talkative little boy. Dh sent him home with some of our dogs tennis balls, to play with his dog.

DD said she woke up yesterday and her throat felt much better and her temp was down to 99. Later in the day it was down to 98. Whew, glad she's feeling ok. She was even able to work all day (she also works from home still).

Finally Friday

I was thinking on our pup. We actually got that first tumor we found removed 14 months ago. Then we had another one removed in January. It's obviously been spreading since then, with the nasal tumor and also another one we found recently on the side of his neck, at about the time the first ER vet visit (5 weeks ago or so?) and it had grown just since then. We showed it to the vet that 2nd visit but she said she was more concerned with his nose. Anyhow, I guess we need to look at it as we got to have our pup around for 14 months since we first found cancer. 

When mom's new caregiver texted me back about getting her up and downstairs for breakfast she said she would start the next day (yesterday). I had slept in until almost 8am, as that was the night we had been at the vets and I didn't get back to bed until 3am. I looked at my camera app and mom was still in bed. What the heck?! Then about 8:10 the camera notification shows the caregiver coming in (so she must have a master key) and walking towards mom's bedroom door (open) and saying hello, it's time to get up. My mom mumbled something and Liz said it's time to get up and go down for breakfast. Mom said "oh, ok". By 8:23 she was dressed and downstairs. I'm guessing that as long as they show up sometime during the breakfast hour, they get served. They don't have to be there right at 8 am.

Mom's doctor emailed me back and said to go ahead and take her off the Aricept and see if that improves the confusion and worry. She also said if it's not showing any improvement for her, might as well stop it. I just need to figure out if I can stop it from my app, or I need to actually be at the machine to stop it from dispensing. I think I should be able to stop it from the app, but I don't want it then to start flashing a message on the machine itself that the button needs to be pushed to remove the pills. I might just wait and do it when I go see her next. Liz's helper has been the one the last 2 evenings to make sure she got her pills taken. She apparently came up with mom (mom is 3rd floor apt) right at 6 and they dispensed them then. A half hour later mom called me saying she was trying to push the button to take her pills, but it was saying it's "locked". I told her she already took them and that C was there with her when she did. I ended up with 4 calls from her that day with things she was worrying about. About half hour later I checked in on the camera and she was walking from her bedroom into her kitchen and talking to herself. The only part I caught was "what I'm paying that lady and she isn't even here!". I'm like what?! LOL. I haven't said a word to mom about paying Liz, nor has mom asked and I doubt she asked Liz, haha. First she doesn't want her help and then is complaining to herself that she's not there. LOL. Not to mention I'm not quite sure what mom would have wanted her there for at that time. It's also not going to surprise me if mom starts trying to blame her caregivers for the things she hides/loses. 

Then Mom's caregiver texted me yesterday afternoon that the senior living place is closing their dining room for 7 days, starting today. I'm assuming lack of help. Way to just confuse mom more, eh?

Then this morning, as I'm having a bunch of trouble getting logged into work remotely and had to call and put in a "ticket" for IT to call me about it, I'm checking my mom cameras and see she is up and dressed and not going downstairs. And then it's like almost 8:30 and still no one has come to tell her to go downstairs....then I finally remember they are bringing up the meals starting today. Too much going on and I haven't finished my one and only cup of coffee yet!

DH just found out that 2 guys he's friends with wives just passed away. One is a guy that used to do welding work for dh's business years ago and the other is our mason guy who did all the stone work on and in our house. Dh has still kept in touch with him via text these past 3 years. So sad. 

And then dd messaged me last night that she wasn't feeling well - cough and chills and a fever of 101. She took a Covid test that so far is negative. She's supposed to be driving over here on Sunday to stay while we go on our trip......

 

A sad goodbye

Sadly, we had to take our pup back into the ER vet late last night and have him put to sleep. He was just getting worse. Zero energy and was really having trouble breathing last night. His stomach also seemed bloated. It was time. At this point we felt keeping him alive longer was just for us and not his well being.

This vets office was so caring and compassionate. It was nothing like when we had to put our other dog down, at that vet out in the country. We had never had a dog put down before, so didn't know what to expect. For that dog it was just one injection and he was instantly gone.

This vet had a separate room for this procedure. They put out a big soft blanket on the floor and the tech took him back for a few minutes to have an IV port put in his leg. Then the vet came in. She was so sweet and caring the whole procedure. It was 3 injections. A slower process but a much better way to say goodbye. The tech even took my credit card while we were waiting for the vet to come in and got the payment taken care of, so I didn't have to check out after. They even had a door from that room to go back out to the parking lot. Pups tummy also seemed bloated and the vet said it felt like it was his spleen. Just too many issues going on, it was time.

It will sure seem strange not having a dog in the house anymore. Hard to get used to. He was a great dog and there wasn't a person who met him who didn't think he was the sweetest and best behaved.

Mostly good things

Blogger is now not letting me reply to any of the comments so accept my apologies. It keeps showing I am not signed in and shows me as anonymous. I am not meaning to ignore you! This is frustrating.

To continue a bit with the hiring of the caregiver for mom...She is very reasonably priced at $25/hr and she bills in 15 minute increments. She said most of the larger caregiver services have like a 2 hour min, charge, but since she is there at mom's senior living place all day, bouncing from one resident to another, she just keeps track in 15 minute increments and says she will bill once a month. I'm guessing maybe this will cost mom around $800 a month, including laundry. WAY cheaper than the extra couple thousand (or probably more) to live in assisted living. The part about the assisted living place I toured (and another one I found some unit pricing on) is why are their apartment rent, just for the apartment, so much higher than where she's living. I get that they charge thousands more for the actual care, but why are the apartments themselves $1000+ more a month? The "alcove" studio type I looked at is almost $1000 more a month than my mom's 1 bedroom apartment where she is at and that still includes meals and housekeeping. I guess because they can, LOL.

I received my new Fire HD Tablet. It's so much bigger (and heavier) than my ipad mini. That will take some getting used to, but if I had gotten a new ipad, I was going to get the regular ipad that is same size as this and not the mini (because the mini is now so high priced). It has a nice display. I spent most of the evening getting my apps on there. I haven't downloaded an ebook yet to try reading, but I did watch a bit of a show on Netflix. It's different then the ipad/apple system, so will take a little to adjust. Just not quite as intuitive as using the ipad, but I'm getting it figured out. One app I really wanted was YouTube TV. I thought it was available to put on there, but apparently it's only available on the Firestick and Fire tv, not the Fire tablet. How stupid is that?! I found a hack online to install the Google Play store and was then able to add the Youtube TV app. The instructions (written and video) were a bit long and overwhelming at first, but I watched the video a couple of times and same for reading it. Then I went through the steps, pausing the video at each step and it all went smoothly. I guess I still have a little bit of tech geek in me.

The new cat food bowl arrived and it's super cute and so far appears to be "un-tippable" LOL. It's not for lack of trying though!

My work changed our VPN log in to a new system that went into effect last night. Of course no one can get on this morning, LOL. So, I'm waiting to hear when it's fixed. Ok, right after I typed this they got it working. Only an hour and 15 minute late start to work. Seems to be working ok now.

Another thing I finally got accomplished is getting my mom's IRA investment account transferred to the company we are changing to. What a headache! They were basically just dragging their feet to hold on as long as possible to the money, from the sounds of it. Just using an excuse and then when we'd supply that response required they'd come up with a new one. I am POA on mom's account. There is no reason they need her verbal approval, plus they already had a written letter, signed by her, instructing them to transfer the account to the new company. Finally, her investment guy's office went over the head of the branch office and went to the regional guy to find out why they are not releasing this. Then they tried to say they called and left mom a message about it. Nope - because her landline doesn't have voicemail set up! I called the regional guy this morning and left a message telling him I have POA on her account and they have that on file and what do we need to do to get this transfer done? When he called back, if he gave me any sort of run around, at this point, I was just going to tell him I'll be contacting my mom's attorney to handle it. But, he called back, was nice, asked for me to verify the new company account # it will be transferred to and then said it's all cleared and I could go ahead and call the office where I am transferring it to and let them know it's now ok to put in the transfer funds request again. I called investment guys assistant lady and she was happy and relieved to hear that and kept apologizing it was such a hassle with the old company (the one they left).

Last night at about 6:10 the caregiver's other lady that works for her stopped at mom's apartment to remind her to take her pills. Mom was all good with her (she was only there a couple of minutes) but she told mom why she was there and said show me where your pills are kept and mom showed her the dispenser on her desk (the lady said oh neat, that's a fancy one) and then the lady asked mom which button she presses and mom said this big one and she pressed it and out came the pills and then she went and got her water at the sink and took them and the lady said goodbye. It was great! 

But I don't know what is going on this morning.....mom was up and dressed by 7ish yesterday morning and went down early. This morning it is already 7:45 and she's still not dressed and just now got up out of her recliner. I'm not sure what time she got up (I forgot to set my app to motion detection when I went to bed because I am worried about our dog). But, it certainly doesn't appear Liz or her helper have stopped by to check on mom and make sure she's getting ready. I'm just going to watch and see how this goes. They'll know when she isn't down for breakfast and we'll see what happens.

I can't figure out how to reply to anyone from yesterday, unless I do it anonymously. Anyone else having this issue? It keeps showing that I'm not signed in, but when I click on "sign in" it shows I'm signed in.

Caregiver hired

The caregiver called me back. Oh boy! I am so glad I called her. You can tell she is totally on top of everything going on where mom lives. She is there daily and she very much already knows who my mom is and what is going on with her. She also has noticed the recent decline and has even helped mom a bit with a few things. She was able to tell me some things she's noticed with mom, that I would have no way to know. Like she will get downstairs early to a meal and sit with her "group" (which she said is also mostly 5-6 women, also with memory problems) in the sitting area and then when it's time to go into the dining room to get their table, they will walk into the dining room and mom starts wandering off to the elevator, and so Liz will re-direct her into the dining room. She said she will also sometimes come down with her purse and is confused, not sure if it's her purse or not (Liz said we all know her purse, LOL). Or she'll have a magazine with her that she said "someone" left in her apartment and she's worried people are coming into her apartment when she's not there, type of stuff.

I told her I had toured the assisted place across the parking lot. She asked how I liked it and what made me decide to look there. I said it seemed fine and well, there aren't a lot of choices for assisted living and figured I'd start looking there, since it was closest. She said well, between you and me I wouldn't move anyone there. She has worked in and around all these facilities the past 20 or so years. She said it's just not the best care there and you typically end up paying way more than the "level" of care they assess you at. The residents wear a button to push (the guy told me that) and every time it's pushed is an extra charge and she said can you imagine how many times someone with memory issues ends up pushing that button?! I said, ohhhh! that's good to know. I asked well, then where, what type of place would you recommend when I do have to move her. She said definitely a home care setting. She will get better care and not just be a "number" to take care of and the cost will be the same each month.

I explained the few issues going on with mom that she needs help with. She does this exact help for many of the residents there. Some need more than others. Some just need a knock on their door to remind them it's meal time. Some need reminders to take their meds and make sure they took them. Some need hygiene help. Some all of the above. I asked if these are things she can assist my mom with and allow her to stay there longer, rather than being moved, and she said most definitely. She said my mom is familiar with who she is, since she is there every day and has talked to my mom often, as well. That is a plus. She said hopefully mom will be agreeable to having help, some aren't, especially the one's in denial. I said mom is starting to realize her memory isn't working, where previously she was just had no clue it wasn't working. 

Liz said she would chat with my mom yesterday afternoon and see how receptive she is to her offering to help. I said feel free to use me as wanting her to have help. She also said she can start right away with that evenings pills. Oh yes! Please! We both agreed that the thing we possibly will have to work through with mom is getting her comfortable having help come in her apartment, as she is kind of paranoid about people coming. When I was there Saturday she was doing her usual stuff about people might come in or have come in and taken stuff. I said "who" might come in and take stuff? She said "I don't know, some man maybe".

Then just after lunch I get a text from Liz (and I love that she texts!) "well, that didn't go very well. (smiley face). I'll try again this evening". I asked her what did she say to you? She said mom told her she didn't need any help, takes care of herself and her meds. LOL. I told her I'll call her this afternoon and talk with her more about it. So, I did. I told mom there is a lady that works there and helps a lot of the other residents with things they need help with. She says "oh, I'm not sure I need that". I said yes, you are starting to forget more and more and we need her to start helping you with something things like taking your pills and making sure you get down for breakfast each morning. She said her usual "well, if I just make myself a big note I can take my pills". I said no, we've already tried that. Then I said that Liz just talked to her after lunch and said you weren't very receptive to her helping. She said "I wasn't? well, maybe I just didn't realize who she was". I so wanted to say just the very fact that you do not remember talking with her about this not 30 minutes ago proves you need help! I told her Liz will be stopping by after dinner to visit with her.  An hour later she calls and says "now when did you say this lady was coming by?". So we went over the reasons again. That she can stay living there, where she's comfortable and knows everyone and not have to move someplace new. She seemed to understand, so it will be really interesting to see how it goes this evening. 

Then I texted Liz back that I forgot to ask her - what other types of care/services does she do? as I'm sure as mom progresses she'll need more help. She said she also does laundry. I screamed back YES PLEASE!. This lady doesn't miss anything. She replied back that she has never seen my mom in the laundry room doing laundry. I said because I've been doing it for her the past year and a half.

I messaged all this info to dd and she's like "We love Liz already" LOL. 

Sometime either after I left Saturday or yesterday mom laid her "Alzheimer's clock" face down on top of her cabinet. I know she refers it all the time. I'll see her sitting in her recliner with her schedule and look over at the clock to see what the date time is. Plus I know she uses it to know when to go down for activities and meals. Last night I tried to get her to get it set back upright. There is a flap in the back that opens at an angle to set it down, like a picture frame. Well, I was watching her on camera this afternoon and she was at her desk looking at a schedule she has sitting there (right next to the downed clock) and I hear I say, I don't even know what day it is. So, I called and talked her through again trying to get that clock set upright so she can see it. Finally she found the flap and I got her to set it down (only because I could see what she was doing). She was like "oh, this is great! You are so smart. You're as smart as I used to be!" LOL. OMG, we both laughed good at that one.

So, mom got back from dinner about 6:10ish. At 6:15 (before her med dispenser notifies her) she, on her own, pressed her button and dispensed the pills (of course! LOL). I just happened to catch it on the camera feed. Then she walked over to sink and started to get a glass. All at the same time dh was talking to me and then the camera stopped because it only goes so many seconds before I got to click "continue" and by the time I got it going again she was walking away from the sink, so I wasn't sure if she took or not. I texted Liz that she appears to have taken them, but I'm not 100%. Liz said she was on her way to her apt in a couple minutes. Somehow in that 2 minutes mom left her apt! Liz texts me, she's not here. Liz did look around and did not see any pills on her desk or next to her sink, so we figure she took them. Not 2 minutes after Liz left, mom returned. Who knows where she went. My guess is she went to her guy friends apt to see if he wanted to watch tv and either he said no or wasn't there. So, she did not get to talk to Liz again last night. She was up on her own again this morning.

Mom has made 2 strange comments the last 2 evenings after getting back from dinner. She will tell me "oh it's been a crazy day. I had to go downstairs, for something, I don't even know what it was or how to describe it, but it was so long and I didn't like it". I'm thinking what in the heck?  So, last night I said, well, you just came back from dinner...she said "I did?" I said yes, you just had dinner down in the dining room and were there for about an hour or so. She said "I don't think so. I didn't have any dinner or if I did it wasn't much". So, she is totally confused and seems to be imagining things. I'm starting to wonder if this Aricept medication is making her worse. She's been on it 2 weeks now and honestly, she seems more confused to me.

Current neighbors, old neighbors and phone calls

We had a quiet Sunday/Father's Day. DD called dh after they got off their 5 hour or so plane ride home and they were on their way home. I was wondering why it was so quiet (for a little while) next door and then realized their son's car was gone, so it appears they all went somewhere for the day. Then of course the 5 dogs barked off and on all day. It doesn't take much to set them off (a chipmunk, a bird), but hey, who cares about your neighbors, right?

Speaking of neighbors, we found out that our old drug dealing neighbors (one out of the 3) who had the walk up window for drug purchases, sold their place. They lived there for probably 35 or more years. DH saw on Zillow it sold last January. I said I'll bet the guy (dad to the drug dealers) died. Zillow has the link to the county website for the parcel and then I clicked on a link to "Sale excise tax affadavit" and it just lists the wife's name as the seller and says " "her name", a single person". The I googled the guys name and he died in 2020 (age 69). Not surprised he died young, he was an alcoholic, at a minimum. Looks like she had to do quite a bit of fixing up inside, that's for sure and from the pics some of the rooms she was still in the process. Google also showed she now lives in North Carolina. Sorry to anyone who lives in NC! Hopefully she isn't the piece of SH$t neighbor she was to our neighborhood!! Doesn't everyone let their adult sons deal meth and heroin out of your house for years and years?

I may have opened a can of worms, haha. When I installed the landline for my mom I programmed in my # and uncle's #. Only apparently I didn't get his entered correctly so she would push the button and get a recording that this # is not valid. She never told me this. I just kept seeing this strange number on her call log as an outgoing call and couldn't figure out where she was getting it. A couple of recent visits I tried to fix it, but I didn't have the instructions and couldn't figure it out. Finally at my visit a week ago, I had gotten the instructions to fix it. Well, now she's calling him all the time. She called him 3 times yesterday, because of course she doesn't remember she already called him. I told him this probably wasn't a good thing for me to fix! I told him to let me know if the calls are getting too much and I'll just remove his number. He calls her pretty regularly, so that would probably just be easier for him than dealing with her repeated calling. Plus, if he doesn't answer she will keep trying. I was outside working in the yard for about an hour yesterday (I had already talked to her before lunch) and she tried calling me 5 times. I saw the notification on the 2nd try and she left a voicemail that all was good, she was just calling to say hi, call her when I can. Then she called 3 more times in the next hour. 

I called the caregiver this morning and left a message, so hopefully she will call back soon.

Simple Sunday

The weather wasn't very nice yesterday, but most of my running here and there it was just cloudy and no need for a jacket or sweater. But about 20 minutes before I was to leave my mom's the thunder started. Then it started pouring rain. By the time I finished talking to the office lady the thunder had at least stopped but I had to make a dash for my car and got pretty wet. Of course, being a brand new car I had parked as far out as I could away from other cars. Not to mention their parking spots are really small and narrow so it's just easier to go park farther out and not try to squeeze in between 2 other cars. Today is only supposed to get to 62.

Mom was up on her own this morning. She did call me back yesterday morning at 8:10 to tell me she was going down for breakfast, so that was good. She probably forgot she wasn't feeling well, haha. When I was at her apartment (before I talked to the office lady on my way out) she mentioned her memory and she even said maybe she needs more help. So, I used that to mention the place across the parking lot and she was very open to the idea. If hiring the outside help doesn't work, I think it won't be too much trouble (well, other than just the move and coordinating it) to move her. I also hesitate on this place, because while they assist pretty far with the dementia, they do not do the "end stage" memory care. So that would mean another move at some point. There is another place that does both. They have assisted part and then a memory care unit, that they get transferred to once assisted living isn't enough. I'm kind of hoping hiring this Liz might work for her next level she's in now, where she needs assistance. Keeping her where she's at is best, if possible, as it's where mom is comfortable and knows the place and her apartment and routines there. If I can keep her there, with hired help, until she actually needs memory care then there would only have to be one more move for her. 

It's interesting how she can still have a phone conversation and "wing it". I happened to catch on camera when my uncle called her the other evening. She just chats away a couple minutes and if you weren't around her regularly or talked to her regularly, you probably wouldn't think much is wrong.

DD and her dh fly back home this morning. Then she will be over here next Sunday to stay and dog/cat/chicken/house sit while we go on our little trip. I am looking forward to that week. I have the week off, plus the 4th and 5th are work holidays, so I'll have 10 days. I'm ready!

I'm just kind of doing this and that today. I got my kitchen cleaned from the dishes I left in the sink last night, made some hummingbird nectar, took a shower, made the bed, gave dh a haircut. And it's only 10:15 LOL. Waiting for my hair to dry a bit and then I'll go outside and water my hanging flowers at the front patio. I also need to add some potting soil around the daylilies we planted along the front fence.

When I was at Target yesterday I had some time so I looked at their t shirts and managed to find 3 to buy. As usual most of all the colors I like they are out of all the medium sized, but I did manage to get a rust colored one, a dusty green, and a gray. Plus I only like v-neck so that limits my choices, too. I wanted to find some shorts, something like a bermuda type. Nothing like that. They were all really short. I'll have to look online.

We also need to replace a shrub that died. Typical for us. Seems like about 1/3 of whatever we plant dies. I bought 2 of this azalea type last summer. One on one side of front walkway, one of the other. One looks great and is growing. The other died. Why? so frustrating. The only thing dh can think of is that with how the underground sprinkler/watering system is it seems that side gets more water. I'm going to do some research and see what might be good to get that can take a lot of water. There are some different trees we planted like 3 years ago. Three of them. They are all still basically the same size. The two 6' maple trees we planted never did make it.

The tour and the new info

I got to the the UPS store and was in and out in about 5 minutes with my notarized document. They had an outgoing mail slot just outside, so I dropped it in the mail and that was done. Then I stopped at Walgreens for a few things and then to the assisted living place. A guy who handles the meds was my tour guide and showed me around and an "alcove" room. Which is basically a little bigger than a studio. The whole place was nice and had all been freshly painted inside.

I stopped in Petsmart and omg. they had the cutest kittens that look just like my cat. They were so playful. I didn't find what I was there for, but the kitties were a cute distraction. Then I went to Target and they are remodeling/rearranging that whole store. It took me twice as long to find the food items I wanted, plus the aisles were barely wide enough for one cart. Hopefully it's just temporary like that.

I got to mom's at noon and she was down for lunch so I checked in and went up to her apartment. Dang, only one washer was free and she had so much stuff I'm not sure why, usually she doesn't have that much, but I have a feeling she took a bunch of tops out of her closet or changed a lot, LOL. Then I started looking for her keys. No luck in her dresser drawers. Then there was an empty kleenex box on her nightstand so I put it in the garbage can I was filling with stuff and lifted up a thin notepad of paper and there were the dang keys! I got a bowl from her kitchen and taped my "put keys here" sign on it and set it on the table with the keys in it. Then I tried and tried to get her tv to work. It kept saying "HDMI 1" and then I'd move the cable to HDMI 1 on the back of her tv and nothing. I'd turn it back on and it would then say HDMI 3. Nothing I tried worked. I got the 2nd load in the washing machine before she got back. The power strip box/cover I bought wasn't big enough for the big black rectangle plugs her devices have. Bummer. I ended up not putting the outlet cover on behind the tv. Figured I couldn't get the tv working and if I'm moving her.....mostly I was dying of heat (then I turned the a/c on) and getting tired and exhausted. I did manage to fill up 2 kitchen sized garbage bags of "stuff" and dumped them in the big bin in the laundry room, so a little progress. 

She returned at 1. Oh ya, since she hasn't had her keys she's actually been remembering to NOT lock her door so she can get back in. She's mentioned a couple time the past couple days that the office was going to make her a new set but she didn't have them yet. We visited until 2 and I got her laundry all done. On my way out I stopped at the office (different lady this time) and told her I found the keys again. She said they just told her they would get her another set....but they weren't, LOL. I said I had a feeling that was probably what the deal was. Then I mentioned I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep her there. Then she said that the lady from the assisted place across the way had called her to say I was coming to look! I said yes, I just did. She said honestly, I don't think your mom needs to go there yet... have you tried calling "Liz" to see about getting her to help your mom? I'm like who is Liz? Liz and an employee she has basically work there for many of the other residents, doing exactly the sort of stuff my mom needs help with! She said they are there all day. Help people get ready in the mornings, help with showers, help with meds. She said it's much cheaper to hire her than living at the other place. I said I'll bet it is! She gave me Liz's phone number and I will be calling her Monday!! I told the office gal thank you so much! She made my day! I am at least going to give this Liz a try. I guess between her and her employee one of them is there all day from the sounds of it, going around taking care of their various clients/residents. I so hope this will work! It's definitely worth a try before moving her.

I found a cute new show on Netflix to watch. "God's Favorite Idiot" with Melissa McCarthy. 

A busy day ahead

Pretty much whenever I go to the city, I end up having numerous stops. Today is really filled up, too. I need to get a power of attorney form notarized that the new investment company we switched mom's money to. In addition to my DPOA, they require one filled out (the other investment company was the same way) and it has to be notarized. I found out that the UPS Stores in the city do notary, so online, I scheduled an appointment for 10:00 this morning. They schedule them in 1/2 hour increments. Well, it's just a one page thing. Really should not take more than 5 minutes. My plan is to just leave here at 9am and I'll probably be there by 9:45 or 9:50. If they can get me done a little early, all the better. Then at 10:30 I have the tour for the assisted living place scheduled. She said it usually takes about 45 minutes. 

If I got straight to mom's right after, it will be just before 11:30 and her lunch downstairs in the dining room is at noon. If I get there before I know it will be repeat repeat repeat that she just needs to go down for lunch and I'll stay up in her apartment and do her laundry. It will just be a constant question every 2 mintues, so, I think what I'm going to do is once I'm done with the tour, I'm going to run to the nearby store and pick up the snacks she is out of. Then I am going to watch her camera and make sure she went down to the dining room and at noon I'm heading up to her apartment "on the sly" so I can have that hour to get her laundry in the washing machine. Then while I'm waiting for it to wash I'll be in her apartment and starting to see what things I can just throw away! At a minimum I want to fill up a garbage bag. There is a big garbage can in the laundry room I can put it in. If I can do 2 bags, I will. I have learned to just put her wash on the machine's "quick" cycle and it takes 30 minutes. Drying usually takes about 50 minutes. I also need to install the outlet and powerstrip covers that came yesterday. When she gets back to her apartment about 1pm I'll let her know I just arrived a little early, so I went ahead and let myself in, LOL. This way I can be done with her laundry by about 1:30 and I'm hoping to get out of there around 1:45 and home by 2:30. Still a long tiring day, in my book. I'm hoping when she gets back from lunch I can then talk her into taking a shower while I'm there.

Yesterday I finally cancelled my mom's cell phone account. Never did find her phone. I had put it on "suspend" for 3 months at $10/mo and that is over and phone not found and even if I did find it, there's no way she could use it without problems, so it was time to cancel and save that $32/mo. Plus I just got email that Verizon is upping their monthly fee by $6/mo. 

And she's hidden her keys again, so I'll be looking for those, too. I'm going to take one of her bowls and make a sign to tape upright to the back of it that says "KEYS" and maybe that will trigger her to start just leaving them in the bowl instead of trying to hide them. I doubt it though. She's just been focused on her purse, wallet, money, and keys the past 2 days. Hard to get her to "re-direct" when they get like that.

This morning is the first morning in almost a week that she isn't getting herself ready to go down for breakfast. She got up, but has been in her recliner. I just called and she said she wasn't feeling that good this morning so she thinks she'll just stay in her apartment and have cereal. I told her she doesn't have any cereal or milk! I will also pick her up some to have on hand again. She hasn't mentioned getting that at the store in a long time.

It's very unpeaceful here again, with all the loudness next door. It's so strange. They have this huge 2 story house with a huge backyard facing the river. They have a huge patio on the lower level that goes the width of the house and an upper deck that does the same. Where do they all spend their time? Sitting in lawn chairs in their driveway! Oh and spent all afternoon/dinner time running their quad back and forth in front of our place. It all makes dh just on edge and then he's not at all enjoyable to be around. No clue how long they are all staying this time.

Kids on vacation

DD and her dh are on a vacation this week in North Carolina. It sounds like they are really enjoying themselves. When you purchase a Ford Explorer ST, they offer this "ST Experience" either in Asheville, NC or Park City, UT. You get a free night in the hotel, a group dinner that first night and then the next day is an all day driving experience to learn about the car and show all what it can do. Also a driving course you get timed on, type of stuff. They opted to go to the NC one and we are going to the UT one at the end of this month.

After the "experience" class yesterday was over they were given free tickets to tour The Biltmore estate, which they really enjoyed. They have been messaging us pictures during their trip, so it's been fun to see the pictures. A very beautiful area. Today they went to a falconry exhibit/show. You can also pay more and purchase tickets for a "hands on" experience, to hold the birds on your arm, but those tickets were all sold out, so they just had to watch. One of the birds was an owl. DD loves owls. She got this from her great grandma "GG". GG loved owls. DD was lucky enough to have her GG in her life until she was 17, as my grandma lived to 95 and we lived in the same town, so we saw her all the time. Later, when dd got her 2nd tattoo, she put a little owl down near her ankle.

Then dd messaged me a picture and said "I got to hold an owl!!". I guess the assistant noticed dd's little tattoo and when the show was done they whispered to dd and her dh to hang on a bit and after everyone leaves they can hold the owl. She was so excited. I asked her if she told them about her GG and owls and she said yes, that the assistant mentioned she saw her tattoo and dd told her why she got it. They are going to Charlotte to stay a few more nights and do some sights there, lots of Nascar stuff for her dh, LOL.

I'm sure we'll have a good time when we go to the "experience" in Park City in a couple of weeks. Not to mention we got that upgraded hotel suite, so I'm sure it will be really nice, LOL. DH had planned us to return home via part of Yellowstone, but that road is closed now. We'll have to do some checking into doing something else for a day or two. I have the whole week off and dd will be at our house pet sitting and working remotely for the week.

Pup puked at 4am yesterday morning. A little bit of grass in it. Dh said he was trying eat grass outside the day before. Plus, the new food company said it's common to throw up while they are trying to transition to the fresh food. Yesterday was the start of 50/50 new/old food and again today.  

I finally decided to get a new tablet! Geez, I've only been wanting a new one for at least a year, but just could never get myself to pay $300 or more for a new ipad. I was on Amazon and happened to see that their Fire HD tablets were on sale $50 off, for $99. They are the same size as the ipad I was looking at for $309. It showed you could put all the popular apps on it, via the Amazon app store. I did some more research to make sure a couple more apps I use would be available on this device too, and they are. One is the "Overdrive" app I use (which is most what I use the table for) to borrow and read ebooks from the library. The other app is YouTubeTV and they say that is available too. I also ordered a basic cover for it, that was on sale for $15. Of course I can put mom's Blink camera system app on it, as that is made by Amazon. So, I should be good to go for $115. Hopefully it lasts quite a few years, like my ipad did.

By afternoon, mom's confusion was back. Back to her trying to find her wallet and worrying the phone wasn't working...it's working you just called me with it....I think I got her calmed down and then it was almost dinner, so I was hoping that would distract her and get her off the purse/wallet obsession and it seemed to. She wasn't looking for it after she got back from dinner. She finally did go push her medication button (at least she figured that on her own) but then after the pills dropped in the cup, she took out the cup, looked at the pills in it and then set in on her desk and went back and sat in her recliner, LOL. So, I called and got the job finished. But, this morning again, she was up and went to breakfast, so I'm really happy this has been happening on her own.

Well dang. My cute birdie lamp on my desk (the one I waited like 6 months to get) just died! Partway down the cord is one of those roller type switches to turn it off and on. It hangs down on the side of the desk. All of a sudden there was a little "Pop" noise and a spark! Now it's dead :( I can't get to the plug in behind this heavy desk, without dh helping me pull out the desk, so will have to have him do that after he gets up. I don't want to leave it plugged in.

Lamp update: well, apparently it was just the bulb burning out that made it spark down at the switch! I put in a new bulb and it's working fine. Whew!

A good day

You may have heard on the news Yellowstone Park is closed to do flooding and roads washed out, etc. It's a mess. Of course lots of people who had vacations planned are having to cancel.

One of those who had a vacation planned to go there is our Mrs. Neighbor! Last Thursday her daughter and granddaughter flew up (I think they live in Texas). They were to go to Yellowstone (not sure when they were leaving for Yellowstone, yesterday maybe?) as a "girls trip". Well, of course there is no way to go now. Mrs. called their hotel reservations and cancelled. Well, I guess her daughter is now throwing an absolute fit about it! Saying she couldn't afford to come up here in the first place and now the trip is canceled and there's nothing to do here for the rest of their stay, etc. Mr. was outside telling dh about it - he said "it's a war zone in the house (she's actually his step daughter), so that's why I'm out here". What in the heck?! It's an act of mother nature, it is what it is. Enjoy the rest of your time here visiting your parents and going to do some other sight seeing. Do some online searching and find a bed and breakfast place they would go spend a few days at. Or just go take a drive up north and across the state and stop at hotels to stay the night. Or just go home then, if you are going to be that much of a bitch, is what I'd say! At least though, since the daughter and granddaughter have been here for almost a week, so far, they are very quiet guests. You don't even know they are there, unlike their son and his family.

I had a good call with the gal at the assisted living place. She is the same person I talked to 2 years ago, when I was trying to decide where to move mom. She still had notes on my call. I said, yes, I'm sure I did call back then! I'm also impressed that she still works there. People seem to change jobs so often and places have turnover, so it must be a good place to work. I just explained to her the point mom is at and she said it definitely sounds like she would benefit from assisted living, especially since I am having to assist her (with the calls) on a daily basis. I am going to do a tour when I go in Saturday morning. She said they do have alcove apartments available. Once a $500 deposit is put to hold it, they can then have their head nurse do her assessment to see what level of care she would require (ie more money LOL). She said that I can either bring mom there to do the assessment or since they are right next door, the nurse can also go to mom's current apartment and do it there. I'll decide which way I think would be best, after I've done the tour and made a decision. Since there isn't a waiting list, I'm leaning towards around August 1st. She did tell me, (I had not looked it up or asked her place yet) her current place does require a 30 day move out notice, so that is also good to know. She said the 2 facilities are very similar in layout and activities, so mom would probably adjust pretty quickly. She said they also do all their laundry weekly, so that would also be a big help to me. 

If I decide to move her to this place, I'm thinking August. We are on vacation at the end of this month and then I have that trip mid July to the office meeting. I'll just have to start wrapping my brain around getting a move coordinated. Hire movers, get everything packed. Just figure out the timing of it all. Figure out how to get rid of the stuff I'm not moving to a new place.  I don't think packing would really take me too long. When I got to her previous senior living apartment 2 years ago to move her, she had hardly packed at all. I had it all packed up in 2-3 hours, if I recall. I could also hire the moving company to pack it all up, too. That may be the best way to go. I also found online a charity in the city that will pick up donations, so they could pick up her desk, filing cabinets and tv stand and anything else I don't move. One step at a time.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that mom was up and to breakfast all on her own. It got even better. She got back from dinner a little after 6. I have her med dispenser set to chime at 6:30, but the button can be pushed up to a half hour before that. At 6:15 I'm watching her come out of her bedroom/bathroom area and she walks over to the dispenser, pushes the button to dispense the pills, pours the pills out of the little cup in her hand AND then she put the cup back! AND then she walked right over to the sink and took them! What?! I was floored. I was also happy to have gotten a break from calling her about breakfast and pills yesterday.

Then this morning she is up and to breakfast on her own again!

Oh, and last night at 10pm neighbor's annoying son and family showed up. No clue how long they are staying, but I assume a week or two. Ugh.... but it's supposed to be crappy rainy weather yet again this weekend, so maybe that will keep them inside.

 

Plug-ins pulled out

After we did dh's doctor appointment dh dropped me off at mom's place to check into her plug-ins. I sent him off over to Lowe's to pick up 2 more bags of lawn grub killer he needed. We had just been there last Thursday, so he knew where the stuff was. I figured that would save me at least 20 minutes, as I wasn't taking the day off work and wanted to get back as soon as I could.

Mom was downstairs at lunch when I got there at noon, so I just went on up to her apartment (I have my own set of keys) and tried to figure out what she did. First thing I see is on the wall plug in below her tv, both the tv and cable box are unplugged. The HDMI cable is also unplugged again from the back of the tv and the back of the cable box. I get it all plugged in, thinking this still doesn't explain the phone being out. I started looking around the phone and under her desk. Finally I see that she unplugged the power cord from the back of the phone. Ok, phone working now. I turn on the tv and same issue as I had a week and a half ago when I couldn't get her tv to work again. Finally I notice that while I plugged the cable box power cord back in the wall, it was also unplugged from the back of the cable box. Everything is black and hard to see. The shelves are black, the cords are black. Got that plugged in and then the tv worked. I found her remote control on her bedroom nightstand, so I put that back next to her recliner. Her clock on her desk (that she uses ALL the time) was still plugged in but laying face down. The clock on her nightstand was unplugged from the wall and laying face down. I did a quick search through her dresser drawers, just in case her apartment keys were missing again (I don't think they are, I saw them on her table on the camera yesterday) and didn't find them. I did find the calendar I had gotten her for Christmas though, LOL. Still wrapped in the plastic, underneath clothes. I also finally had gotten the directions on how to fix uncles speed dial ph# in her telephone. Apparently I didn't get it put in right to begin with, so that is the weird (inactive) # that shows up on her call list as trying to call. Hopefully she can hold the fort until I go back again on Saturday to spend some time with her, do her laundry AND get the plug-in covers installed.

Right as I was getting done, dh texted that he was back parked in the parking lot, no hurry. I checked out and we were on our way to pick up groceries. What a crabby curbside guy we got this time. Then we went thru the Wendy's drive through and got lunch. We decided to try a different car wash on the way home. The one we have always used, where you have to drive the tires into their tracks, apparently won't work with our new car and how it works to put it neutral, it's a big no no. So, we tried one where you drive in and the sprayers move around the car and then you drive out. I told him to get out and look it over after we pulled out, rather than after the 45 mile drive home. To see how clean it gets its. He was not as impressed, unfortunately, but said it will be a good one to use in the winter to spray the dirt and road chemicals off.

Here is what I just ordered to try to block the unplugging obsession:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000046S3W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CL2Z1XM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

they are supposed to be here on Friday, so I can take them with me when I go to see her on Saturday.

When I was listening in the other evening to the conversation with her neighbor lady, mom mentioned something about the lady could just call her to check on her if she wants and the lady said "oh, I don't have a phone". Gosh, that seems strange! How would family get a hold of her or check on her? She doesn't have memory issues, so seems odd that she wouldn't have a phone. I know my mom mentioned her a few times after she first moved in, she had chatted with her quite a bit. She has a daughter, but the daughter hardly ever sees her. And also that paying for this apartment (she has a studio) is hard for her. One time not too long ago we were going back to mom's apt and she came out her door and we chatted. She was complaining she couldn't sleep at night because there is a red flashing light from outside that flashes in between her blinds. I suggested she put up some curtains. She said "well, I'm not paying for it!". But, I can't imagine not having a phone. What does she do to make doctors appointments and such? Maybe the apartment place has a phone the residents can use to make calls.

Being back "online" with mom is a relief. Since I've had the camera's it's made knowing what is going on with her so much easier. She can be quick sometimes, LOL. I have her med set to notify her starting at 6:30pm. She's been getting back from dinner around 6:20 then heads straight for her bathroom, which can take 5 or so minutes. It was like 1 minute before 6:30 and she had come out of the bathroom and I'm watching, waiting for the med dispenser to chime, and then her to call me and say did you just try to call me? Only she disappeared from view. Did she just leave again? LOL. Yep. She walked out 30 seconds before her med dispenser would chime. More often, again, she's been going to watch tv with her guy friend after dinner, but she is usually back around 7:15. I kept watching and waiting, so I could get her pills taken and done. Finally at 8pm she got back. I called her right then and got her to take them. She said she was there longer because they were watching a ball game.

I've had to tweak the pill taking process a bit now, too. Once I got the cameras I was letting her hang up the phone before taking them because I could watch her go to her sink and take them. But, now, after a few times of her getting distracted by the time she hangs up and gets to the sink (and I have to call again) and also she takes the little dispenser cup and then it doesn't get put back most often, so the next evening we spend 5 minutes getting her to find the cup to put under it. So, last night I had her take them while still on the phone (I can still watch her at the sink) and then when she came back to the phone I had her put the cup back.

The new fresh dog food arrived and thankfully it was still cold enough to be ok. I put all but 2 packs in the freezer. He got to start with a 25% ratio of it this yesterday morning, 75% regular food. He scarfed it right down and apparently it's so good the cat came through after he was done and licked the dog food bowl clean, LOL. Pup came up to my office to say hello (ie get at treat) 3 times yesterday. He has barely come upstairs in months, let alone 3 times in one day. He already came up this morning, too. The instructions recommend doing another 25/75 today and then starting tomorrow 50/50 ratio for 2 days, then 75/25 for 2 days and then 100% on the 7th day.

The good news this morning is that mom was up on her own and got ready to go down to breakfast without me having to call her. She was also not up at all last night. No camera notifications. Usually it will show her up a couple times. Either going to the bathroom or coming out to adjust her heat or see what time it is. I got an email back from the assisted living place and the lady is going to call me sometime today to get more info. She said some apartments types have a wait, but didn't say which ones. 

Here we go again

Good morning! Here I am!

I'll give you one guess why.....yep, you guessed it. Mom! She has apparently unplugged things again. It appears she has unplugged her modem and or router. Nothing is working. The cameras don't work, the medication app doesn't work, her telephone doesn't work. 

I had talked to her, getting her to take her meds, last evening and we hung up at 6:45. About 20 minutes or so later I checked in on her. Then again just before 8pm and the cameras showed offline. At first I was just hoping it was maybe her internet service was down. Then the medication app showed offline. Then my uncle texted me that he was trying to call her and it wouldn't go through. I tried to call and same thing. I texted him back that I think she has unplugged stuff again! I checked with her provider with her account online and there were no outages reported, it was just showing her router and modem as "disconnected".

So, I couldn't call to wake her up for breakfast this morning. Dh and I have to go into the city in a couple hours for his prostate check up appointment, so after I will stop at her place and see what is going on. His doctors office is only like one block from her apartment. It will end up being during the lunch hour, which is probably good. That means she will be down in the dining room eating, while I'm in her apt trying to see what is going on/fixing. She won't be there constantly asking me what I'm doing, can she help, etc. I said to dh last night - they need to make locked boxes for power strips! Well, they sort of do. I got online and Amazon sells these child proof boxes that power strips go inside. One reviewer even said they used it for their elderly parent with dementia who constantly unplugs everything. So, if unplugging is the culprit (because you know she didn't do it!) I am going to order one of those and a couple of the outlet covers that go over the plugin on the wall. They are both inexpensive and hopefully will save me tearing my hair out with her again.

Wish me luck today.

 

Where is spring?

We've never had so much rain in the time we have lived here. And the temps are so low compared to normal. I was thinking yesterday we haven't even been able to sit out on our front or back porch in the evenings. I am about to have my first lilac blooms. And you can even smell them a little bit now

I can't get logged into work this morning (an issue on company end) so have a bit of free time until they fix it. This fix is taking awhile, apparently.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I did not get up in time to call mom so she could get up and get herself down for breakfast, like I had the past 8 mornings in a row. All those mornings that she got breakfast, I had thought to myself it's got to help some with her brain. Cognition, memory, just basic alertness through out the day. Mostly (from watching the camera off and on during the days) I just noticed she was in a more "alert" state. The rest, as far as her memory goes, kind of seemed the same, though. She still "lost" her keys again, stuff like that.

I continued to watch her off and on throughout the morning yesterday. She didn't even get up and out of bed until 9:30. She got dressed at 10 (it can take her like 15 to 20 minutes to get dressed). She did go down to lunch and after that I didn't really check in until just before dinner, which she went down. Then I set the camera back to "armed" so it will notify me when she gets back from dinner, so then I watch to see if she will take her pills on her own or I need to call. She returned from dinner at 6:20 and before her med dispenser could alert her at 6:30 she turned around and left again (she went to watch tv with her guy friend). She was back at 7:15. Again, she thought the med dispenser chiming was the phone ringing so she then calls me to ask if I just called. She seemed ok/normal. It wasn't too long after that that she went and changed into her nightgown.

Just before 8pm I happened to check in and she had a knock on her door. It was her neighbor lady across the hall. So, I listened in on the conversation. Neighbor said she just wanted to check in on her to make sure she was ok because mom had seemed very confused at dinner. Mom was kine of like "I was?". Lady said yes, you had your purse with you and seemed confused and then after dinner you were confused and asking some people how to get back to your apartment. Mom seemed to have no recollection of it and said oh...well, I think I'm starting to have that happen sometimes, unfortunately. I think the lady did say something like well maybe your daughter will have to check into living where there is more help and mom said yes, she probably would. This lady is one that will keep talking so the conversation just kind of kept on and on with pretty much saying same things. She did say maybe you should tell your daughter and give her a call tomorrow. 

So, did missing breakfast cause this extra confusion yesterday? It wouldn't surprise me. The lady did tell mom she was going to knock on her door and check in on her in the morning to make sure she was doing ok. She didn't say before or after breakfast...(I was hoping she'd be specific and say I'll knock before breakfast so you can come down with me). Then breakfast got brought up and mom was like "now what time is that? what time do you go down?" and then mom was even more confused as to where it's even at. The lady was like it's in the dining room...downstairs on the main floor...The lady just goes on and on, saying something about tomorrow and mom says "oh I don't plan on doing much tomorrow....I just have some paperwork to do". What?! LOL.

Again, I overslept just a bit this morning (I guess I have to start setting my alarm. I hate alarms LOL). It was 7:18 (I try to call her by 7:15 so she has time to get ready), so I checked my phone and the live camera showed she was out of bed, but again, asleep in her recliner, so I quickly called and reminded her about breakfast and she did get ready and went down to eat. She still is missing her keys, but seems to forget every time she needs her keys that she has lost them and she starts looking for them. When she gets back I will call her to see if I can't get her to locate them again.

It is time to get this moving process started. I am going to see if the assisted living place I got the information on can give me a tour next Saturday morning and I can get the ball rolling on that. I have put in an email in to the marketing director to see about scheduling it. I also asked if there is a waiting list for apartments. I also have a feeling Anne B is right. After I get her moved in I'm going to see an even more decline.

Work connection is still down. Sounds like some internet area outage there. Today UPS is supposed to deliver that fresh dog food 2 week trial I ordered. Since UPS doesn't usually come until evening, I won't be able to start it until tomorrow. I'm sure pup will love it. He gets really excited for the chicken and rice I've been giving him. The nose bleed drops have also subsided. I haven't seen any now in the past couple of days, so that is great. Also, after he's done eating (morning and later afternoon) he will have this big sneezing fit (but no more blood) every time. But, this morning was the first he didn't have the sneezing fit after eating. Another good sign. Maybe this pill the vet prescribed is helping. At a minimum it's supposed to reduce the inflammation of it all. I also have not been able to give him that herbal pill that the ER vet gave me since Saturday, as I ran out. That is also supposed to help with the bleeding. I think that my order for that is supposed to come FedEx today so I can get him back on that daily, too. I am excited to try out the fresh food for him. Of course ads for it are now showing up in my Facebook feed for the food company. I sometimes click on the comments to see what people say. One lady commented that her 14 year old dog loves it. Now he runs and plays and before he wasn't. Another commented to her comment and said "same here". I'm hoping it gives him more energy, too.

Sunday morning coffee chat

I was working on my budget and setting up a couple of payments to get done next Wednesday (payday) and noticed that the credit card my electric bill went to was charged twice for $186 on the same day and also has the same confirmation code. Weird. I logged into my electric company account and it shows only one payment posted. I can call them Monday, but most likely they are going to say they only received one payment and I'll have to contact the cc company. Especially with it having the same confirmation code. I selected dispute option with the cc and reported it as a duplicate payment with Wells Fargo so we'll see if they get it resolved without me having to do more. Boy, you just gotta be on top of everything, don't you? This was back on 5/20 and honestly I probably only noticed it because I haven't been using the card for much of anything, so the double charge stood out to me in the transactions.

I woke up my normal 6:50 Saturday morning. Looked at my phone and saw from camera notifications mom had been up since around 6:20. Ok good, she'll go down for breakfast and I won't need to call her. Nope. The video clips showed she wandered around her apartment for 40 minutes and then went and sat in her recliner, still in her nightgown. I ended up calling at 7:15 to get her going again and she did get dressed and went down.

Had a total moment of clarity with her Friday that was a surprise. She had called me around 1:50 in the afternoon. Said she was tired and going to take a nap, but didn't want to sleep past 4:30, to go down for dinner, so could I call her at 4:30 to make sure she was up? Sure, no problem. I thought it was good/different that she actually thought of this. She has never done this before. Then 50 minutes later she calls me back and says "I'm up, so you don't need to call me later". I can't believe she actually remembered this! Typically she can call me and call me 5 minutes later and not remember she just talked to me already. 

The cat keeps tipping his food/water bowl over. He's driving me nuts. I can't put water in it anymore and the food just ends up on the carpet in my office. I decided to order this different type of sturdy/heavy food and water bowl that he supposedly won't be able to tip over. He's still on kitten chow, as it said for first year. I'm guessing he will be a year old around the end of July. I have about a half a big bag of kitten chow left so next order I will order adult cat food. 

All is seems to do most days is rain around here. The grass is growing so fast and getting long in between mows because he hardly gets an opportunity to mow it with all the wet and rain. Mr. Neighbor is grumbling about not getting to mow either. Plus, when you have to mow when it gets so long, it takes longer.

I rarely ever sleep past 7am, maybe 7:10, usually I'm up before 7. But for whatever reason this morning it was 7:30 when I got up. Another 5 minutes later before I could grab my phone to see if mom was up. She was up at 6:50 to 7 and then she went back to bed.. So, today will just have to be a day she misses breakfast I guess. I just don't get how she knows to watch and see what time it is for lunch and dinners. She never misses those. So, how does she not be up for awhile, I can see her stopping to look at the clock, and not think ok, I'm up, it's time get ready for breakfast. Well, at least she's had breakfast every day now for 8 days in a row. I guess on weekends I'll start setting my alarm to make sure I'm up so I can call her by 7:15.

I really need to mop the floors today. I was hoping it would be dry enough outside so dh could be out mowing while I mopped. Or just be out LOL. I need a break from him, haha.

 

HSA and other numbers

I came across an article online awhile back that I filed in the back of my head. Kind of forgot about it until I was picking up the prescription at the pharmacy for our dog and the receipt says "FSA, etc eligible". So, while a pet prescription isn't eligible, it did remind me about that article I read on HSA and that I was going to look more into what the article said.

I've only had my HSA for a year. While I knew the contributions accumulate and do not need to be used up each year (like an FSA) what I didn't realize is that you can save eligible medical receipts and submit them for reimbursement any time in the future. You do not have to claim them in the same year they were incurred. 

Here is a link to the article, if you are so inclined to read it https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertberger/2016/12/02/14-surprising-facts-about-health-savings-accounts-hsa/?sh=557ce8583e9e

An HSA is a great savings and retirement savings tool that has more benefits than I realized.

From the article:

An HSA offers triple tax benefits: An HSA is the crown jewel of tax deferred accounts. It combines the advantages of both a traditional and Roth retirement account. Contributions to an HSA are not taxed. Funds in an HSA grow tax-free. And distributions for qualified medical expenses are not taxed. It's the closest thing a free lunch you'll find anywhere.

Once my HSA reaches a certain dollar amount (in the case of the HSA I have, it's $2000) you can opt in to start investing the balance, to try to earn extra. Basically works like a 401k, being invested.

You can opt to pay your out of pocket medical expenses each year and not get reimbursed from your HSA. Save all your receipts and track them and at some point down the road you can submit for reimbursement, tax free. So, if you can, let your HSA earn from being invested, so it can grow more and hold off submitting your receipts until a later date in the future.

After you reach 65 you can also withdraw from it for any reason and just pay tax on it, as you would a 401k or IRA. 

For the HSA I have my company contributes $75 a month, which is a nice benefit.

Another thing I just compared the numbers on: So adding dh to my work health insurance was going to cost me $90 more a month than what I was paying for his plan on the ACA marketplace. Well, I just saw my paycheck detail, where they withhold half the premium each paycheck (we are paid twice a month) but what I didn't know is that health insurance premiums are pre-tax. I've never had any health insurance premiums come out of my paycheck before, so I didn't know this. So, while my health insurance cost went up $90 a month, my payroll taxes are going down $144 a month!

How's this for being scatterbrained?! - as much as I hate clutter, I am AWFUL at my desk with papers! Always have been. So, I am getting my wallet out of my purse and see the folded piece of paper that is my receipt for pup's nose scope. Ok, I need to put that in my "pets" folder. Where is my pets folder? I had rearranged some things before friends came to visit, in an attempt to clean up my office (I am out of room in my filing cabinets). It's not where I keep other folders. I'm pulling open another door to a small cabinet section in my desk and also pulling out the tray that pulls out, where I have some papers and notebooks kept. That led to my big stack of half folded pieces of paper that I always use to make notes on all day when I am working. I scribble all over them, fill it up, turn it over, repeat. I had a stack of probably 20 or more. I skimmed through them and threw them in my garbage can. That led me to start going through all the other loose papers in my desk and under this tray that slides out. So, here I am tossing and organizing. Refiling. Finally towards the end I see the stack of folders I set on top of the box back in the corner under my desk. Ok, one of them is the "pet" folder. Ok....now where is that receipt I want to put in there?? Nope, nowhere to be found now! It has to be here, I didn't even leave my desk. I still have new piles I have made of things to still take care of. I look through all of them. I look between the folders. It must have thrown it away with the garbage can full of papers I just filled. So, one by one I go through all the papers in the office garbage can. Still no vet receipt. I have no idea what I did with it! That's what I get for trying to be more organized. I lose things.

TGIF for sure

I'm a day behind posting this one, since I was busy with the vet appointment yesterday.

After mom got back from breakfast Wednesday I gave her a call again to suggest she look for her lost keys in her dresser drawers and told her to make sure she digs down under the socks and items in the drawers because they are probably underneath. She said "oh, I think my keys are on my table, but let me check". I watched her on camera go to the table (no keys) so then she went into her room (I can't see much in there, just a bit inside her doorway) and pretty quickly she came back to the phone and found her keys! Whew. But she is now convinced she needs to hide them so no one comes in and takes them. She said "so, where should I put them, then?" I said just leave them on your table. Then you always see they are there. That's where you have had them for over 2 years with no problems! She said she was worried someone might come in and take them. I said if they are already in your apartment, then they don't need your keys! She said well I guess you are right about that, LOL. She put them on her table. We'll see how long that lasts.

I decided to finally get a new set of hair clippers for cutting dh's hair. We have had this Wahl clippers for I don't know how long now. 12 years, maybe longer. I have been cutting his hair a long time. The part where you can switch the blade back and forth to a shorter trim has worn out. I have to hold my finger on it, if I want it on the longer setting. Plus, the blades are just wearing out. I think I paid like $35 for this at Walmart way back when. I decided to get another Wahl brand one but ordered one that is cordless and has self sharpening blades. Plus it doesn't have all the different length attachments. With is hair (what is left of it) kept so short now, there is no need for all that. This one was $60 but should now last us for the rest of time, LOL. 

I just can't do the Facebook friends that will share every post/page/picture/meme they come across. I just don't get it? Why? I must have "snoozed" a co-worker awhile back for this reason and the snooze time must be up because suddenly that's all I'm seeing come through my feed is post after post by her. In 3 hours last evening she did over 50! Does she not realize these show up on her friends feeds? Just click like on them, if you enjoy them. Why put every single one on your own wall? It was classic cars, cats, flowers, meme's, etc. Well, this morning she went to "unfollow" status, LOL. Gosh, I don't mind a few a day, but not 50 a day. Plus she never posts anything personal to share. 

Not to sound whiny (but I am, LOL) but this added having to call my mom every morning at 7:15 and then call her at 6:15 for her meds is getting tiring. I have now had to call her every morning this week to get her out of bed. I can watch her come out into her living room to answer the phone. I say "Good morning! I'm just calling to make sure you are up to go down for breakfast at 8am". Then there is this few seconds of silence from her....then.."oh...ok, I guess so". Then I have to repeat she needs to get her breakfast now. This morning I woke up with a headache, I'm trying to get myself going this morning, not to mention it's payroll processing day. I cheated and just called her number, saw her get up and make her way to the phone and I hung up. Then I watched, hoping she didn't go back to bed. She probably just stood there for at least a minute just looking at her clock next to her phone, trying to figure out what she is supposed to do. Then she went back into her bedroom and I saw her head towards her bathroom and saw that light come on. Now I see she's dressed.

Wednesday nights pills turned into a 40 minute ordeal! She actually called me at 6:20 to say hi. So, since I had her on the phone I said go ahead and dispense your pills (it will let her up to 30 minutes before the notification time). Ok, yep, it's 5 pills you need to take (same thing I have to say every evening). I see her pour them from the cup into her hand. (again, the video quality isn't the best, sometimes it's hard to see detail or the video only records for 30 second intervals and if I don't click on "continue?" soon enough I have to start it over and miss a few seconds). So, we hang up and I watch her just sit there and look at the pills in her hand. For like 3 minutes. In my head I'm screaming "just get up and take the pills! It's the same pills every day!". Finally she gets up and heads towards sink and I switch view to the other camera. I can tell the way she is holding her left hand, she has the pills in her hand. Instead of getting a glass of water, she starts opening cupboards and drawers and the fridge. She repeated this probably 6 times. I was like what in the world is she looking for/doing?! By this point it doesn't look like she has the pills in her hand. She the goes into her bedroom/bath and I can't see what she's doing. She then comes back out (the whole time I'm like just take the pills!". She goes back over to her desk where the med dispenser is and stares at it, then starts trying to dispense pills again (it won't). Finally I decide to call and say "hey, your pill machine is telling me you are trying to get pills out again, but we already just did that about 15 minutes ago". I said I don't think you've taken them yet. Get her to go look for them and she says she can't find them. Did she end up taking them and I missed it? I had her look around one more time. Then she says (she's back at her desk where phone is) well, there's the cup here but there's just the one little white pill in it. I said oh you must have missed pouring that one out. Ok, well let's get that one taken and she did. Still not sure about the other 4 pills, but nothing I can do about them at this point. We hang up. A few minutes later she calls me back. She found the 4 pills wrapped up in a kleenex! I stayed on the phone to make sure she took them. By then it was 7pm. Exhausting.

She was also up 3 times last night, for about 15 minutes each time, which isn't usual. She got up at 11:30 (she went to bed at 9). Then again at 2:30 and she seemed to wander around her apartment for 15 minutes. And then she did the same thing again just before 5am. Still dark out. At one point I saw her peek out her blinds so she could see if it was dark or light out. She has now been on this new medication since Sunday. It doesn't seem to be having any side effects, so far. If it's doing anything, I guess it will just be that she stays at this level of dementia and slower to get worse. We'll see. I plan to go see her next weekend to do laundry, etc, so I am going to also see if I can do a tour of the other place while I'm there. It's just a short walk across the parking lot.

TGIF! And it's our Mrs. Neighbors last day of work. She is not at all excited about retirement. Again, I find that so sad that at 72 years old she can't find enjoyment in NOT working! DH has his "happy retirement" "sign" all ready to set up today, LOL. We have one of those huge Minion Christmas blow ups. They are holding a sign that says "Ugly sweater contest". We wrapped it with brown wrapping paper that dh had drawn flowers and written "Happy Retirement!!". LOL. He's going to put it on the very side of our yard where she pulls her car up to then back into her garage. I'm sure she'll see it. It's huge, LOL.

Pupdate

As we expected, pup has a nasal tumor. He will be 11 next month. The specialist did the scope and found the tumor blocking his left nasal passageway. He said nasal tumors are not operable. Depending on the type of cancer/tumor, some can be removed with radiation. He said chemo doesn't work well for nasal tumors. We'll know in about a week what the biopsy shows. He also said that dogs can typically live a year or so more with a tumor in their nose. He said it's usually the owners that give up, because of dealing with the blood.

He's putting him on a prescription medication called Piroxicam. It will help with the inflammation and if he's having any pain and also, in some cases it has shown to reduce cancer cells in dogs with nose tumors. He also said to give the Yunnan Baiyao herb capsules, to help with bleeding. I said the ER vet gave us those and they seem to help, so I will get more. They didn't have any at this vet, but he said you can buy them online.

So, that is what we will do for now. If the biopsy shows he could do radiation, we will discuss that at the time. If not, hopefully between his new healthy fresh diet and the medication he can extend his life a little longer. He's still eating well (loves to eat, LOL) and wagging his tail, so we'll take that.

It was a pretty quick procedure. They use gas anesthesia and explained it lets them come out of it quick. We did have time to run to Lowes for some yard stuff and had just gone through the Wendy's drive thru when they called us back that they were done and to come on back and the dr will show us the scope video and explain what he found. After we met again with the vet they brought pup out and he was good to go. Not groggy or anything. 

We stopped in our town pharmacy to fill the prescription for him, but they didn't have any in stock so I will have to go back tomorrow to pick it up. She said it would be about $30 and that is for a 60 day supply. 

We got back home around 1:30. Dh chatted with his Texas buddy on the phone awhile and I took a nap with the cat, LOL. Now it's dinner time and dh is taking a nap. Hopefully he won't want too much to eat since we got Wendy's for lunch.

Struggled morning

Monday evening the lady from our HVAC company texted me to ask if we'll be home in the morning. Their install/repair guy wanted to stop by to replace a switch. I'm like sure we'll be here, but we're clueless about this? are you sure it's for us? LOL. She said yes, it was something they put in, but didn't have the exact switch or something and now had the right part and he was going to be out in our area. Okie dokie, LOL. The funny part is I had been texting with her a few months ago, when we needed stop and pick up our filters. She said they were at the HVAC trade show in Vegas, but would get someone to leave us the filters with their next door company. Anyhow, that whole time I thought I was texting with the owner's wife (she works in the office, too, and they look a lot alike) but yesterday realized it was their office lady I had been texting with that whole time, LOL. Dh hadn't chatted with the hvac repair guy (not the owner) in awhile but when he was here putting in our whole system, dh really liked him. Turns out they have both been following our local murder mystery, so they had lots of notes to compare and theories. He's even been listening/watching the same podcasts about it dh has.

I called yesterday morning to see if the health insurance got dh added on and they did. She said a card was put in the mail Monday, but I could also go online, create his account, and print one. But, it wouldn't let me create his account. Kept saying I was entering invalid info. So, I had to call again. I was on hold quite a while and then she finally came back and said it was because they had just added him Monday and it takes 48 hours before the account can be created. Then she told me his ID # was the same exact# as mine and I can just show my card to the medical provider and also she gave me the ph# they can call to verify his eligibility. So, I ended up going into town with dh to get his blood drawn at the hospital lab, so I could make sure they got this new insurance set up for him. The lady that check us in was a HOOT! She was so funny. Then life flight helicopter landed (pretty common here, since this hospital can't really do much) and we were stuck inside there for a good 20 minutes longer, because it's right next to the parking lot and they won't let people out there until the helicopter takes back off. Anyway, we had lots of laughs chatting with her, LOL.

Then I got online with my mail order pharmacy to order my prescription refills and it said my plan benefit had ended. Huh? I have same insurance (it all just renewed 6/1), same id#, etc. Did they change mail order pharmacies? Looked online and it's still the same one. I then clicked on a link via my health insurance's website to "sync" my health insurance with the mail order pharmacy and it took me to my account with the pharmacy but still the same message. So, I had to call again. A half hour a 2 transfers later, it appears that the insurance company has just today gotten the mail order pharmacy the updates on everyone's eligibility, so it's going to be 24 hours before it will again show I have prescription insurance and then I should be able to order my refills. 

Pup is about the same. No worse, no better. Our appointment with the specialist is tomorrow, to do the nose scope. Hopefully we will find out more then and not just some more "we don't know" answer. His nose was dripping blood a little more yesterday than it had been, but I didn't find any from where he was sleeping last night. I took him outside after dinner last night and he spied a chipmunk down in the wood pile and trotted off to investigate for a few minutes, so that was good. I'm still waiting on the new food to try. It doesn't even appear they have shipped it yet. I'm still feeding him rice and chicken. The day before I added some scrambled egg to it. Yesterday I remembered I had some pumpkin puree, so I added some of that to his dinner last night.

UGHHH. My mom has "lost" her keys again. I can see/hear her this morning getting ready to go down for breakfast (that I had to call her again) and she's looking for her keys. I heard her say "where's my keys?". Well, I guess since we will be in the city tomorrow for the dog, I can stop in and find her keys again. But, I can't be running in every other day to find her keys. I called that assisted living place yesterday and left a voicemail with the asst. director to mail me the info. It doesn't appear it will be in today's mail either. I'm watching her on the camera. Now it's almost 8am. She should be downstairs and seated. I guess I'm going to have to call her again. I feel like I'm spying or calling so much, but then I reminded myself she will have no memory that I just called at 7:15 to wake her up.

Oh boy. So I just called her (she had been in bathroom I guess) and told her I was just making her sure gets down for breakfast as it starts in a few minutes. She said she was just finishing going to the bathroom and was going down. I asked did you lose your keys again? She said "oh...I don't think so. They should be on my table". Ok....well if you can't find them, just leave your door unlocked when you go down and I call you later about finding them. She was literally just 5 minutes before looking for her keys. Now it's 8:02 and she's wandering around her apt looking for her keys, so most likely she's going to miss breakfast. I just called again. I told her she needs to get down to breakfast and she said "I can't find my keys" I again said just leave your apt door unlocked and go down and when you get back I'll call you to give you some ideas of where to look for them. I think she has now finally went downstairs. I doubt I'll be able to get her to find her keys, but at least she's gotten her breakfast today again.

She also seemed a bit confused last night when it was time to take her pills at 6:30. She had just gotten back from being down since dinner, so even a little later than normal. She was going on about something she just got back from. A few of them in this room having to look over papers and she didn't want to be there? I said well, dinner just finished up not too long ago? She said No, there wasn't dinner. I said ?? you didn't get dinner (I know she went down at least a half hour before dinner). She said, well they had a little food there. I kept trying to ask her what she was doing but she couldn't really think of any words to tell me, so I gave up. Finally, I just kept "redirecting" her from talking about it, and would say, ok, it's time to take your pills when we hang up (she had them in her hand). We hang up and then I watch her just sit there and look at the pills in her hand not knowing what to do. Then she starts picking up pieces of paper on her desk, like maybe on of those will tell her what to do. I sat and watched for at least a few minutes, in my head screaming "just get up and go to the sink and take the pills!".  Then she mumbled something about if she was supposed to take these pills in her hand or not. I called again to keep saying "ok, go ahead and take the pills in your hand, those are for tonight". Then she wanted to know how she gets tomorrow's pills then? Finally, after we hung up, this time she walked over to the sink and took them.

Back to the office

Well, after over 2 years now I am finally getting to go back to the office for a company meeting! I'm actually now really excited about it. Last month I got a couple emails about some mid week/afternoon "Family Fair" our company is having in the middle of July. I've just been ignoring it. Like I'm not going 500 miles for that, just to hang out with a bunch of peoples families, LOL.

This morning my boss emailed that there is also the company mid year meeting that morning at 11am and then the family thing in the afternoon, if I want to come over for it. She said she is flying several remote employees to come in for it. I said sure, I'll come....but I lost track of company policy(s) on Covid, LOL. I'm not vaccinated...she said no restrictions and no masks required. I said I wasn't sure if I wanted fly over or just drive so that I would have transportation to get to dd's house after. Boss said they'd rent me a car, too. So, I opted to fly (I can do the 7 hour drive myself, but it is tiring now). And said if dd can come, she's welcome to the family thing in the afternoon. I messaged dd about the whole thing and she said yes, she can drive down for the family event that will start at 2pm. She starts work early mornings anyway and can just work through lunch and still get most of her 8 hour day in. Then I told boss, hey, don't worry about renting a car. Since dd is coming down, she will be my transportation to her house and back to the airport. I can just taxi/uber from airport to the office. But, of course, boss said she'll just pick me up at the airport. Our office is only about 15 minutes from the airport.

So, I will fly in that morning and get in about 8:30am. The company meeting is at 11am. Then the "family fair" at 2pm. There are so many new people that I have not met in not being back there in over 2 years! It will be really nice to see everyone and meet the new folks. I am staying until Saturday afternoon, so will have a few days with dd, too. Boy, flights are expensive now! It's over double what it typically costs to fly there and back. Usually with booking this early, I could have gotten it for under $200. Now it's over $700 (company paid). But, they don't have to rent me a car now, nor book a hotel, since I'll be staying with dd. In the back of my mind has been that at some point I'll have to go back for a meeting and was like ugh...so now I'm kind of surprised at how excited I am, LOL. It will be good. The co-worker I emailed to rsvp for the family part was excited to hear I'm coming over. 

So, part of what I was wondering when I was at my mom's last was are they cleaning her apartment each week? A few months ago my mom mentioned she had told them she didn't want the service as she didn't feel comfortable having the lady in her room. I talked to one of the office ladies on the phone and told her, no, she needs her apartment cleaned! The lady said that if my mom can certainly stay in her apt to watch, if she wants to. I thought it was taken care of. Then the past few weeks with the camera system, I have been wondering if her apt is getting cleaned. But, I don't typically leave her "motion detection" on during the day, so I could easily have missed them being there as I'm sure they zip in and out in probably 15 minutes, I'll bet. The day I was there on a Tuesday to do her laundry and take her to dr. appt. I saw a cleaning lady in the hall with her cart, but pretty sure my mom's apt didn't get cleaned while we were gone. No signs of it. Then when I was there this last Sunday. She was almost out of TP, the 2 shelves under her tv are all dusty. She's not a messy person, so she could go awhile but now I was wondering has she not had it being done?? I asked the 2 ladies in the office when I was down there returning the key they gave her to use and pretty much sounded like she was one of the residents they had as "no cleaning". I said no. I want her apt. cleaned! The one woman said I don't know why, but we have several residents like that and then the family member has to override them and we just tell the resident "your son/daughter said it has to be cleaned!". 

So, yesterday I just happened to check live about 10:30am. Since she's on that new med I just want to check in on her more until I know she's ok with it. There was a knock on her door and the cleaning lady asked if she wanted service this week? I couldn't hear the discussion, but finally she came in and got it all cleaned! Bed linen changed too. Bathroom cleaned, vacuuming, dusting, cleaned kitchen floor. Ok, now I feel better. I told the ladies at the office if she gives them any more trouble about it, call me and I'll tell mom it has to be done!

Now, I'm not sure if she's "lost" her keys again. Ugh! She definitely did yesterday afternoon. The videos show she came in from lunch. Hurried straight into her room to where she has her purse "hidden" down next to her bed. Then came back out and was looking around a bit. Then stood at her table and was checking in her pants and sweater pockets and I heard her say something about keys. But, since then when she has come back from dinner and then breakfast this morning I can't tell. Usually the video clip you can see her drop the keys and hear them clink. She set something down or moved it, but I can't tell if it's her keys or not. The video quality isn't that good. 

She was up at 6:30 again this morning (and slept thru the whole night), but then when I checked in on her at 7:15 she was sleeping in her recliner, so I had to call to get her going to go down for breakfast, but she did. Now she's back from breakfast and sitting in her recliner. Their "activity calendar" is printed out on this really large sheet of paper and she will sit and look at that thing for an hour or so most days. She did figure out how to turn her tv on to a channel last night, so that was good. I am going to check into getting her an easier remote control if I can figure out how it gets set up to work with her cable and tv. The only thing it doesn't have is access to the guide, so I'm not sure if she'd miss having that to see what is on? I did talk to her a couple of times yesterday and she was very chipper.