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Outsprinkles
These are the people whose love and support get us through each day and who we owe so much. They also helped a little producing......
Almost all of the Offsprinkles
These are the people whose love and support get us through each day and who we owe so much. They also helped a little producing......
7 comments:
before there were blogs....
e-mail from Levelle on 11 June....
Hi all -
I thought I would eamil everyone with a roundup of what's going on in Baltimore...
Sunday - Temperature in the high 90's - no air-conditioning. Having stayed with mom for a whole week, Leland left at 1:00. Megan and I mowed the lawn and Megan left around 3:00. Mom was extremely tired and out of it - falling asleep mid sentence and eyes rolling back in her head (like she was at my house after the internment - very creepy to watch). I left around 5:00 and mom had not eaten or drank anything all day. I tried to fix her dinner, but she said she would fix it later (frozen dinner). Her neighbor Kris checked in on her around 7:00. Mom slept in the house alone. She says she woke up around 3:00 am and was looking around the house to see who was sleeping in the other room.
Monday - Temperature reaches 100 - hot and humid - no air-conditioning. Paul picked mom up and took her to church at 6:00. Quinn arrived at 7:30 and was kicked out by 8:30 because mom brought up her driving and independence and Quinn told her that she would not hear of it, she does not want mom to drive.
Quinn and I visited an Assisted Living Facility just to get the ball moving in case we need to move mom somewhere. We visited Brighton Gardens of Towson. http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/community/CommunityHome.do?from_search=1&commid=289
They were very nice and helpful. The place seemed very nice and small enough for mom. There was also transitional care in case her memory issues deteriorate. The only downfall was that it was a studio apartment which means it was only one relatively small room with a bathroom and kitchenette. Three meals a day are served in a dining room if a resident chooses to eat there.
I visited mom around 3:00 with dinner. I then realized that she had not eaten the frozen meal from the night before (meaning the only thing anyone knows for sure that she ate on Sunday was toast). When I found it in the fridge, she said that she had found it on the table this morning and didn't know what it was. I left her with carved turkey breast, microwave-able twice baked potatoes and fruit. Danny checked in on her after work.
Tuesday - Temperature in the 100's - no air-conditioning. Paul arrived as mom was leaving for mass. (I am not sure who drove, but he did go to mass with her) Quinn arrived at 7:30. No fighting ;-) but Quinn really tried to push for mom to drink more water and eat something. (she realized that all of the turkey I left was still there and so were both potatoes) Quinn called Dr. Lavin's office to tell them about dad and to discuss mom's deteriorating condition (confusion, not eating, not bathing, loss of vocabulary). She asked them to call mom and push up her appointment. They said that they could move her blood tests up to this Thursday the 12th and the follow-up doctor appt next Thursday the 19th. She will talk to mom about taking her tomorrow. Tommy Mooney was to arrive around 5:00 to do a basic appraisal of the house. Danny met him and checked on mom.
Stuart has been handling the financials (I will tell you Stuart that mom had the checkbook out yesterday and had written a check to Verizon) and can fill us in on that if necessary.
Megan has flown the coup ;-).
Leland is planning on coming back this weekend with Jim to fix some electrical problems and possible put in wireless internet.
Paul will come again on Wednesday morning for mass and I will check in on mom after work around 3:00.
On Thursday, Quinn and I are visiting Edenwald http://www.edenwald.org/ and Mays Chapel Ridge http://mayschapelridge.com/. Paul will do mass and Quinn will visit early. I will check in around 4:00 if cousin Julie can not. ( Mom has told me how much she did not enjoy Julie's visit the other night. Quinn can you tell her to tone it down and make it a short visit?)
Friday Paul will do mass and Quinn will check in at 7:30. Quinn and I are visiting Mercy Ridge http://www.mercyridge.com/ at 10:30. I will check in later if Leland is not coming until Saturday.
We'll work on next week's schedule as the time gets closer.
That's it in a huge nutshell! Love to all - Levelle
later the same day from Michael....
Dear all,
First, thanks to everyone for all you are doing. I know that compared to the few phone calls I can make from here everyone is doing and has done a million times more than I am. Melanie and I will be in Baltimore from the evening of 3 July to the morning of 14 July so we'll be able to visit, transport, feed, etc. a lot then. Hopefully that will give you all some break.
I spoke to Mom on Sunday around noon and she sounded better to me than she has for months in terms of strength of voice, willingness to talk, hearing and memory. For example, she finally sounded quite clear and lucid talking about Dad's "temporary" burial spot. Maybe practice makes perfect and I realize that is only one small data point compared to what you all see.
The only other thing I can say in the meantime is please remember that Mom values her independence. Also, she reverse-inherited her stubbornness from us. She won't do anything if she feels she is pushed into it, particularly by us. People grieve differently. From Sunday night until Thursday morning, I think I ate about 20% of what I normally would. Strangely, I more than made up for the shortfall since then and I reckon Mom will end up doing the same. She'll figure things out. It's her memory that is failing, not her intelligence.
Finally, I'm off diving again this weekend (working on the boat). Melanie will be at home but just in case, the ship has a satellite phone although I can't find the number at the moment. Whenever I am on the boat though, you should be able to get me through Sharon (65-9100-xxxx) or Vincent (65-9692-xxxx). And for those that have not added my handphone to your contacts list: (65-9730-xxxx).
Hug an off-sprinkle for me.
Peace, love & happiness,
Michael
later the same day from Michael (after a phone call from Stuart - you figure it out)....
Oops. On re-reading this maybe I should clarify that I think everyone is doing their best to help Mom and I am very grateful that you are there doing it. I am also mindful that I am here doing squat in comparison. And I don't think anyone is doing anything un-wise in trying to make sure Mom is in good hands. I just wanted to try and help give some insight if it was useful. No offense was intended if that's what it sounded like.
BTW, Paul's and Frank Sutton's e-mail bounced back so I deleted their names here.
Still later that day from Leland...
Hi Michael,
I’m sure your going crazy there – I feel a little helpless here. I drove with Mom 3 times last week. All 3 times, she couldn’t remember that she had to put the car in park to get the key out. The other scary thing is that she doesn’t remember that she had any problem – just remembers that she drove and we got there.
I’m just afraid that Dad was covering for her more than we know. If she would move in with someone and not drive, she would be fine. I don’t think Paul living with her would be enough because he’s not there at night and sleeps during the day. This isn’t going to be fun, but I agree with you that we have to approach it very carefully. Right now, Quinn is playing Bad Cop, which she has to do. Paul’s her fav. Who’d a thought?
We’ll keep you posted, Lel
from Levelle, amazingly on the same day....
No offense taken. Since there are so many of us doing so many different things, I thought it would be good to put everything in one spot. Don't think that just because Quinn and I are looking into these Assisted Living Facilities that we are just going to drop her off there one day.
Love, Levelle
finally from Levelle at the end of a busy day....
I started a blog so that we could make our communications easier and not fill up email inboxes. :-)http://sprinklesandoffsprinkles.blogspot.com/
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Love always, Levelle
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