Whew, what a day...

Okay, so much happened today so I'm just going to put them in bullet points:

• Mom drove herself to mass.
• Quinn arrived to take her to her doctor's appointment only to have mom insist on driving (one missed stop sign and one left turn from the middle lane of Osler Drive in front of a truck who was turning left using the turn lane). When they got to the appt, the Nurse Practitioner told Quinn that mom had come in the day before (one day early) and they just took her blood and did a urine test. When asked whether she had been there the day before, mom responded that she didn't know. (she drove there herself, she should know) The NP suggested that she seemed to have a UTI and be dehydrated and told her to drink and eat more. Mom drove home with only one small dent in the house ;-) - not quite, but real close. God help her neighbors if she turns the wheel slightly to the left and she goes down the hill into their yard/house.
• Quinn gets her in the house and goes into the bathroom only to find the alarm clock submerged in the bathroom trashcan in water. This is how she got it to stop that un-Godly noise. (luckily it was not still plugged in, but she wanted to plug it in so that Quinn could hear how horrible the sound was) She couldn't believe that we were all able to sleep through it.
• Quinn and I visited Mays Chapel Ridge and Edenwald retirement communities. It was clear that mom would not be accepted into Edenwald because they only accept independent living residents who have to pass a rigorous mental and physical exam. They have the ability to have residents in assisted living, but they have to come in under the independent living care. Mays Chapel Ridge was similar to Brighton Gardens but a little bit bigger and a little bit more sterile. (in my opinion) The woman that we spoke with was wonderful and caring of our situation. We learned that we are not alone in this, so many other children/spouses have had to make this difficult decision. We also learned that most assisted living facilities only offer studio apartments because they want to make sure that the residents eat, so all meals are served in the dining room. She told us that the smaller rooms often gives peace to the resident because they no longer have too much (in their mind) to worry about concerning cleaning, losing items etc. She also reiterated what we have heard at the other places that sooner is better rather than later when they have dug in and think they are taking care of things when in reality the family members are running ragged trying to cover care/food/appts/house maintenance not to mention their own lives. Not many people are excited to enter a facility. They think that they are giving up independence. In reality they are providing a safe, alternative form on independence where the resident still has options, just fewer of them.
• Danny called Quinn around 9:00 to say that he was talking to mom and she was worried that she couldn't remember when dad's funeral was going to be. She was also saying how mother and Sugar were telling her to rest. Quinn rushed over and could see through the front window that mom sitting at the dining room table just staring into space. Quinn called to her to come open the door. Unfortunately the screen door slammed behind Quinn and mom told her to be quite so as not to wake dad. She then realized what she had said and told Quinn that she really didn't mean that.
• Quinn calmed her down and told her how exhausted she looked. She tried to get her to bed but mom was so worried about the thank you notes. Quinn told her that she would take care of that for her and mom let her. Eventually mom went to bed and Paul was heading over by 11:00 to spend the night.

So....a very eventful day. I say we try to meet this Saturday morning to go over what we know about this week and how we are going to tackle next week - daily coverage, doctor's appt, lawyer visit, the big talk maybe?

Love, Levelle