End of the year

As the year closes, I look back not knowing where the time went. Even though I have not been posting as I want (many times 'life' has gotten me side-tracked), I try to keep in mind what we have been going through with those in our lives who need the help. Willie has gotten accustomed to his program, enjoying the time out in the community be it

shopping, lunches, movies, whatever. We have been through another SIS (Support Intensity Scale) evaluation (see 'Getting Closer to 21' ) and then a yearly evaluation at his center. We have had meetings regarding his community support person (the person who takes him out after his day program - out for walks, shopping, haircuts, snacks, etc). His wanting to experience more of a work environment hasn't come as quickly as I had hoped but the staff at his program continues to get him to do a variety of tasks there hoping something will pop out as a good fit. Personally I think he should be a professional traveler who critiques hamburgers and pizza wherever he goes!


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!