On the elderly parents care front, this year we lost a couple of family members. My uncle, 77 who I wrote about in 'Having lunch with an uncle', passed this summer after a 7 year battle with cancer. My father-in-law, 94 who I also posted about in 'Heart, kidney, & liver problems', died in the late summer from kidney and liver failure. Both declined quickly but we were able to say our good-bys. Now we have my mother-in-law, 93, who my husband and his siblings are taking care of. Although they use one local agency, Child and Family Services, they are trying to take advantage of their many services. This I hope to explore more of and share with you soon. While you would think that lining up services to help take care of her since she still is in her own home (with a family member living there) would take up most of the time, it seems that dealing with behaviors is what takes the most time. She misses her husband so some of it may be dealing with grief but other times it is the forgetfulness, the repeating questions about events coming up, who came to visit, or unfortunately thinking that people are stealing from her that has everyone questioning her state of mind.
So we enter the new year trying to get a psychological evaluation done and her primary care physician (PCP) has prescribed some medication to level her moods off. I had a geriatric psych evaluation done on my mother a few years ago while she was in the hospital and it was good to know where she stood mentally so we would know how to handle things. I hope to keep people in the know with the services decided upon and information that have.
For now a Happy New Year to all. Also one full of health and peace!
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