Doing Better?

Image via WikipediaDoing Better? Yesterday, after talking on the phone to the nurses about their proposed plan to send my mother to a psychiatric hospital, I talked all this over with a good friend, someone who has cared for an aging mother. This really helped me to put things in perspective. I went back over to the nursing home, and spent about an hour with Mother, and found that she was actually doing better. Not perfectly rational, but better. While I was there, she took some of her meds, responded pleasantly to an aide, discussed which clothes she wanted me to buy for her and bring to her, and put on some makeup. Very good signs. I told the nursing staff that I thought that sending her to a psych hospital might actually turn out to be a setback for her, in part because she gets really disoriented when she is moved to a new place. And I am afraid that they would put her in restraints, if she became agitated again.

Today I'll go over there and take a picnic lunch to Mother. I hope that pretty soon she will start eating in the dining room with everybody else, instead of getting trays in her room. I also arranged for her to get her hair done, on Monday. That should help her begin to feel more normal...