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in other news
Nov. 1st, 2010 02:44 pmA couple of weeks ago, my grandmother - who will be 91 in January and hasn't really stood, much less walked, in ages on account of really terrible arthritis - fell down trying to get into bed. She called my aunt, a saint, who came and helped her up, and then the next morning she fell and hit her head trying to get out of bed. My aunt reported that the phone rang but by the time she got to it, three rings later, she got a dial tone; she went to the house anyway and found my grandmother holding a cloth to her head in an effort to staunch what was already some impressive bleeding. She didn't think the phone was working, she said, and she couldn't find the emergency call button my mother got her for (frankly) exactly that purpose.
Anyway. My grandmother was in the hospital for about a week and is now in a nursing home undergoing physical and occupational therapy, and my understanding is that she will not be allowed to return to her home until they judge that she is strong enough to get from her wheeled chair (not a wheelchair - she scoots herself around the house in an office chair; we come by the by-god stubbornness honestly, the women in my family) to her bed and back again unassisted. Between you and me and thewall entire internet, I think the odds of this are minimal at best.
My aunt and my cousin are close by and have been sorting through things in the house, specifically removing for safekeeping valuable Family Stuff that everyone thinks it's best not to leave completely unguarded. (Not that a house with an elderly arthritis patient and an aging cat in it is precisely a fortress, but a house with lights on is maybe a fractionally less attractive prospect than one that's been dark for weeks on end.) The six of us (self, my folks, my brother and his wee family) are going up in two weeks to visit her, and I really wish I thought the PT would do a damn bit of good, because I think the sooner my grandmother realizes she can't live alone anymore, the sooner she'll give up entirely.
I concede that this may be contributing almost as much as Other Matters to my recent frazzled emotional state and nasty TMJ flare-up action.
Anyway. My grandmother was in the hospital for about a week and is now in a nursing home undergoing physical and occupational therapy, and my understanding is that she will not be allowed to return to her home until they judge that she is strong enough to get from her wheeled chair (not a wheelchair - she scoots herself around the house in an office chair; we come by the by-god stubbornness honestly, the women in my family) to her bed and back again unassisted. Between you and me and the
My aunt and my cousin are close by and have been sorting through things in the house, specifically removing for safekeeping valuable Family Stuff that everyone thinks it's best not to leave completely unguarded. (Not that a house with an elderly arthritis patient and an aging cat in it is precisely a fortress, but a house with lights on is maybe a fractionally less attractive prospect than one that's been dark for weeks on end.) The six of us (self, my folks, my brother and his wee family) are going up in two weeks to visit her, and I really wish I thought the PT would do a damn bit of good, because I think the sooner my grandmother realizes she can't live alone anymore, the sooner she'll give up entirely.
I concede that this may be contributing almost as much as Other Matters to my recent frazzled emotional state and nasty TMJ flare-up action.
