The Aunt Saga - Day 60

[bluefirebird]

I think we're at day 60, but it's close enough.

After all but 2 months in hospital we, today, installed my aunt in a care home about a mile from where my folks live. (That's still 30 miles from where I live and I still can't see my Mum managing to see her more than once a week! My Dad, her brother, is highly unlikely to visit unless he is taken there by someone.)

So firebirdblue removals service was busy today ably asssisted by my significant other. For once in my life we timed it to perfection, arriving at the home with her bed just as the ambulance delivery service arrived with her from the hospital and she was pleased to see a friendly face as "no one has told me what on earth is going on" (Well not in the last 2 minutes anyway!!!!) There were also mentions of feeling like a parcel.

Trouble is, the world is a frightening place when you remember so little from one moment to the next that almost every experience, no matter how familiar, is "new and exciting".

It is interesting that she does still recognise me as family - although she keeps thinking I am my father or failing that the short hair, jeans and T-shirt stop her from recognising that I am her niece (we seem to keep going with nephew...) Oh and I really will have to tell her that it's rude to tell someone they are getting fat!!

Anyway we fitted in two more journeys transporting her CRT TV, favourite chair, several radios and other odds, and then her dressing table and an old tea chest that is used as a stool with a fancy cover. Not to mention a couple of suitcases of freshly washed and pressed clothes and bedding from my Mum's. And - of course - Mum had to fit in a quick trip to the bank to hastily pay a due bill which would have been sooooo much easier to pay online. *sigh*

The aunt has just come from an open ward of six beds at the geriatric hospital and has had virtually no possessions and very little storage space for the last 2 months - so what does she worry about in her new room? "Where's my wardrobe?" "Where do I put my clothes?"
She now has way more clothes than for the last 2 months and they are all pressed and neatly folded in the draws of her dresser...

She claims not to have missed the TV while she's been at the hospital but spent the afternoon glued to her own TV in her new room.

And although she's disconcerted and unsettled - and can't remember why she's there for more than a few minutes - a good meal seems to solve pretty much everything. Who'd have thought it.

Right, I've made it past half past nine. I'm off to crash.

Comments

[chirugal.livejournal.com]

Aww, bless her. It's so lovely that you're taking care of family the way you are. *hug*

And 'firebirdblue removals service' - *lol!*

[bluefirebird.livejournal.com]

I did toy with the idea of trying to buy bigger place and moving her in with me (which to be honest I have no idea if I could have handled!) but it needed to happen too quick to manage that even if it would have worked.
Besides that would mean I'd have to cook for her and although I have learned to cook (hey, I like eating) I am not disciplined enough to cook for me on a regular basis. Yesterday's breakfast was half a tin of Heinz carrot and lentil soup straight out the pan with some cheese and a couple of biscuits and then dinner when I came in was the remainder of the tin and that only came out the saucepan because I can't put the saucepan in the microwave and it was only heated up because I fancied some melted cheese on the top...

I've been calling it the "familyname" removals service, but since I didn't want to write that on the open internet we ended up with firebirdblue (or it could have been bluefirebird!)

I half wish my old boss would ring again with more contract work so I can escape back to the real world, but I know really that even if he did I'd need to negotiate less days in the office.

[chirugal.livejournal.com]

Eeek, are you unemployed at the moment? That must be worrying. :/

And yes. Your food routine sounds a lot like mine. :p

[bluefirebird.livejournal.com]

I think the term is actually "economically inactive" as I am not looking for work currently and therefore not signing on.

But as most of the world understands it I have been unemployed since October. Strangely, though, I don't seem to have much free time...

I have also now realised that with 3 OAPs to look after (4 if you count the SI) I'm not really in a position to look for work at the moment. Especially as, from what I can see, most of the electronics jobs seem to be in Europe or the US at the moment.

[chirugal.livejournal.com]

Yikes... could you apply for a carer grant?

[ncis-love.livejournal.com]

Well I'm glad shes somewhere safe. It's never easy to have to move someone, esp. when they can't remember why they are moving. I hope things settle down for you, and that she settles into her new home nicely.

[bluefirebird.livejournal.com]

The bit I seriously missed out of this story was the day the social workers met us back at her flat with her to assess what help she needed to return home.

She barely recognised her home of 40 years, and got quite agitated when she thought that she was being left there to fend for herself (I assume the purpose of the visit had been explained but it - like everything else - went unremembered). That was when it became obvious to all of us that she couldn't go home.

She seems to have been happy at the hospital - half the time thinking that she was on holiday (though what sort of holiday she has ever been on, with dormitory accomodation, I don't know - I'm pretty sure she has never been youth hostelling.)

In theory this should work: she now has more privacy and autonomy than at the hospital - and her TV back! - (the room will have it's own private "bathroom" with toilet and basin, unfortunately the room has been/is being completely redecorated for her and the bathroom isn't quite finished) but with all the benefits of being looked after and fed that came with the hospital.

Fingers crossed.