It has been forever since I last updated this blasted thing, I know, but time flies when you are having fun. Actually not much is happening, and I don't feel very funny, so I just didn't update.
December was crazy with preparations for Christmas, and vacation, and working to get my Grandmother's Medicaid application complete and approved.
For Christmas, I made a video for the family out of all of the old pictures I found in my Grandmother's apartment when I cleaned it out. Added music, special effects, and had the premiere at my house Christmas Eve. Not a dry eye I tell you, and it was neat that my Grandmother, who doesn't communicate much anymore, looked at the screen and told us the story of one picture when someone asked where the shot was taken. An Ellis Grey moment of lucidity.Remember I told you she fell BEFORE THANKSGIVING - look at her face - still all bruised.
This is the full size Boop quilt the kids made her for Christmas. She loves how toasty it makes her feel - she has it on her bed in the nursing home.
December ended with fun and merriment and vacation at Vero Beach.
January started off with a bang. We returned from Vacation on the 1st (really the 2nd by the time we got back in the house), and Katie and I left again on the 5th for her job at Disney. Tax Season started in earnest as soon as I got home, and FINALLY on the 26th, I found out that the Medicaid application had been approved. Baseball registrations, tryouts, basketball games and cheerleading competitions...leave little time for much else.
My Grandmother's health continues to fail, and the nursing home was sold to the outfit that owns the one Tom's dad is in. Hopefully a move for the better. A new doctor came in, and took her off some of her medications. One was an antidepressant, which caused her to sleep all the time. What replaced the sleep is a dementia related paranoia. She is a mess, and we began fighting to get her back on the medication.
What is happening to my grandmother is incredibly sad. She is lost in a world where we can't reach her. When we visit, she tells us she has to tell us something, but just cant, and begins to cry. It happens every visit. I can no longer bring the children, it's too frightening for them to hear her. Something happened to her a long time ago. Something that she would never discuss, and when you suggested it, she would become furious. It happened to her sisters, it happened to her nieces, and we all know what it is. She refuses to admit it to us or her psychologist (who is a childhood friend of mine and who has full authority to tell me what she says).
Or else it never did happen, and she is dealing with some sort of issue where, in a warped way, she wonders why she wasn't good enough for him.
February was a blur with work and work and basketball and baseball and cheerleading and more work. I missed Katie more than I imagined I would, and although she is having a great time, and living large, I haven't reached the place in my life where I am used to the chicks being out of the nest. I figure I have 5 1/2 years to get my shit together.I ended the month with a visit to Katie. And waited for March.
So March is here, and yes, it came in like a lion. Not the weather mind you, but the storm is brewing.
In a 24 hour period starting March 1, the following things happened:
- The nursing home called and let me know that my grandmother has lost her ability to swallow. I know what this means, I went through this with Tom's mom. Some appointments next week will let us know if this is something medical, or a progression in her deterioration. I am working to make sure all her directives are carried out.
- Katie's car died. She called me, we called a tow, and it is at Gateway Ford in Kissimmee and hopefully they can look at it on Monday. She has all breakfast shifts scheduled, and she has to be to work before the first bus runs.
- Maggie missed making the Honor society by .o32. Yup - you need a 92 average, and she got 91.968. No rounding.
- Katie got hurt at work. Some big guy wrapped his arm around Mickey, and BAM, got it caught on his ear, and pulled him down, and the little person inside ended up with a wrenched shoulder. She is out of costume for a week, so at least the breakfast shift/car issue is gone. Busy work for the next week.
And you wonder why I don't update...but I will post some pics :)
