Genevieve's Care Corner

 We head to Mom's place right after lunch. Mom's barefoot and getting ready to start setting her hair. Jim goes out to the backyard and gardens. After she sets her hair she immediately goes out to see what Jim's up to, rather than sit in the Living Room and talk with me. When she comes back into the house I ask her if she is walking differently today.  She agrees and says something about not being stable on her feet and placing her foot down firmly feels better. So I ask if she shouldn't be wearing some shoes.  But she says she feels more sure footed being barefoot.  Then she mentions that she can't really feel her toes.  I ask her if she's mentioned this to Dr. Rodriquez. She says that 'Yes, she's told him'.  I remind her that I was at her last appointment and I certainly don't recall her ever mentioning it.  Her response was "Well he knows! I had gout and this is caused by that!"  I tell her that numb toes are not caused by gout, ...

12:00 noon - We called Mom after doing our grocery shopping in the morning. She said she'd gone out to the garage to start the car, but once again it isn't starting!  That remark quickly lead to her complaining that she hasn't received her license tabs renewal yet.  Jim reminded her that they'd filled out the License Tabs Renewal forms for that the same day she'd received it.  She mentioned that the paperwork she has says that she could check the status on their website but that when she got on the "thing's" (couldn't remember the word laptop) Facebook & Tik-Tok page it wouldn't let her see the Secretary of State website.  She had no idea how to get from there to the website!  'Everything is supposed to be Facebook' and 'she doesn't know what this TikTok thing is about!' She was obsessing about it and kept repeating herself on the phone, so I asked her how the pajama bottoms that I'd taken the waist in on fit her.  S...

Today was Mom's 87th birthday ! Charlie & Evelyn had arranged for the family to gather at  Antonio's Italian Cuisine  in Sterling Heights for her birthday dinner.  They also got a big, beautiful (and delicious) cake for dessert!  It was a great time. We picked Mom up at her place and arrived around 2:30.  Dinner was at 4:00, so we had plenty of time.  She was excited to go, and asked us for our opinion and help picking out jewelry to wear with her outfit.  (Jim's a big help in that dept.  Me? -not so much). In the excitement of getting to the restaurant, we overlooked the marque on the sign out front.  Apparently, Evelyn & Charlie had arranged for a personalized birthday message for Mom.  How cool!  After we finished dinner, we grabbed a picture of it with Mom, Charlie, Penny & Jim in front.  (Unfortunately, Greg & Katie had just left, a few minutes earlier).   For more pictures of the event, see Penny...

12:30 pm> Jim calls Mom with “Duo” and has a good conversation with her and tells her that he’s making her a sandwich for lunch that we’re bringing over.   She mentions that she was feeling a little out of sorts this morning.  (If she’d been drinking, then we’re not surprised). The visit went well, and Mom didn’t seem to be too badly off balance, and had no evidence of poor speech.  Jim picked up more twigs and branches in the yard, while Mom and I chatted and put together a grocery list for Jim to use when he shops for her tomorrow.

3:00 pm> Charlie & Evelyn text us that they have Mom, and take her out for dinner.  Later, around 7:45 Jim calls her to see how her visit went.  She is talking with slurred speech again and seems distracted.  Says she’s watching TV which helps explain some of the distraction, but not the slurred, soft speech.  Jim finally is blunt with her and asks, “Did you have something to drink at dinner?”  and she he- hums and then finally admits to having had “only 1 drink”.  Based on how slurred her speech was, I suspect she had more than just 1 drink.  But we really don’t know if the problem, which occurred a week ago, is reoccurring or if it’s just due to a dinner drink or two.  We let her get back to her TV show and say good night.

Jim and I head to Mom’s house with the weed wacker and tree trimming tools.   The trees in the backyard at Mom’s are in bad need on trimming of all the low hanging branches and dead limbs.  Twigs are everywhere on the lawn!  We work on this all afternoon and Mom came out of the house and tried to help pick up twigs for about a half an hour.  Afterwards, she complained about a sore back/hip.  Jim and I didn’t stay for dinner as we were hot and dirty.  So we headed home, got cleaned up, ate a little dinner and watched some TV downstairs.  Mom tried to Duo call Jim at 7:30 pm, then she tried again by using our house# at 8:00 pm.  We came upstairs for another coffee, and Jim found her call attempts and returned her Duo call around 8:15 pm. She is still sore with back & hip pain.

Jim was taking advantage of the cooler mornings to get outside and mow the lawn today.  He caught me while taking a quick break to cool down after finishing the front lawn, before starting the back.  While sitting on the patio, I asked Jim if he had plans to visit Mom today, or if he was going to try and avoid it today as this was one of the 2 days a week Jim had wanted to call his own upon retirement (Thursdays & Fridays).  Jim gave me a look that showed he'd not completely ruled out a visit.  He picked up his phone and started up the video conferencing tool, "Duo" to call Mom.  There was no answer.  He tried again.  Still none.   I mentioned that perhaps she'd just left her cellphone in the bedroom and it would be better to try her house phone.  With that, she answered on the 1st ring:  "My cellphone's in my purse.  I was just getting ready to leave. What's up?"   Jim asked where are you going?  "Ummm.....

We take advantage of a lovely day to make use of our new "TheHenryFord" Membership and go to Greenfield Village in Dearborn before the heat of the day sets in. Fortunately, the village had few visitors due to school having just started up for the kids. We love it! This is the first day-trip type outing we've had since the pandemic started more than a year ago. Jim makes a Duo call to Mom at 3:15 pm to check-in with her and let her know that we'll be bringing some dinner over and will visit this evening. We pick up Chinese food and head to Mom’s to have dinner with her around 5:30 pm.

Jim makes a video (Duo) call to Mom at 11:15 AM and we head over to mom’s place with Jim’s gardening tools/trimmers.  When we get there, she’s moved the coffee table out of the living room.  I congratulate her on the good idea of getting the table out of the way to ease the use of the walker and that it even makes the room look bigger!  Jim’s already headed into the backyard to begin trimming & cleanup.  Meanwhile, I visit with Mom a bit and clean up the kitchen sink & counter.  When Jim comes in about an hour later, mom says she wants the multi-colored area rug rolled up and put away.  She has to reason why she wants this done, she just does.  So we roll it up and move it into the garage.  Then we see that mom’s shoes have mud caked under them from when she was out in the yard with Jim which has been tracked on the carpet.  So Jim grabs the Shark vacuum and begins a through cleaning of the living room, kitchen and hallway.   We ...

After spending the night with mom again, I text Jim at 9:00 AM to say 'Good Morning' and to get more info, I call him at 9:45 to see how they're doing.  Jim reports that he sees more improvement but that she's still have some balance issues. At around 12:45 Jim texts his siblings that he’s left Mom’s place and that she’s feeling better but still a little doppy on her feet.  Asks for someone to call or check in on her, but that he’d be calling her later today either way.   Apparently, while he was there, she wanted to drive to the Dollar Tree to get more piss pads and wanted him to move his car out of the way.  Jim told her that he didn’t want her driving anywhere right now, period!  He texted his siblings that: “One of you guys may have to tell her she can’t drive and I may need to take the keys.” At 1:15 pm Penny texted that she’s going to call Mom later in the day.  But no one has yet acknowledged or discussed Jim’s idea about telling Mom that she ca...

After Jim spending the night with mom, I text Jim at 9:30 AM.  He says Mom is doing better than yesterday, and that he’s making her use her walker because she’s still a little doppy on her feet.  He also says that she feels her eyesight is better today.  Thank goodness!  To get a better feel for how they’re doing, I Duo (video) call Jim & Mom about 45 minutes later. Mom’s doing some better, but still doppy on her feet.  Jim comes home around 1:00 pm and we go grocery shopping for some stuff Mom needs.  Penny texts Jim at 2:15 to ask how Mom’s doing.  He tells her that she’s still a little doppy on her feet but that her vision is better.  She’s using the walker, but taking a nap when he left.  Jim heads back to Mom’s, and I follow to join them for dinner.  Jim decides he needs to stay another night with Mom and I leave around 9:15 PM to head home.  By 10:00 PM Jim texts me that Mom’s already in bed and he’s heading there too.

Around 2:15 PM Jim gets a phone call from Charlie that Mom’s slurring her words and dizzy.  We suggest contacting Penny, and Jim & I hop in the car and head toward’s Mom’s house around 3:00 pm.  Once we get there, we find that Charlie & Evelyn and Penny are already there, sitting on the couch with Mom in her overstuffed chair.  Football’s on the television.  Everybody is talking and Penny is snacking on some Costco chicken that C&E brought with them. The conversation is casual chat with Mom trying to participate, but saying vague phrases that are not at her usual decibel level and somewhat slurred. We keep asking her to repeat what she said, but she seems slightly off, almost as if intoxicated. When she attempts to walk she cannot balance herself and walk straight and complains about seeing double. Charlie and Evelyn leave about an hour after we arrive. Penny stays for another 45 minutes or so and we discuss with Mom how she's feeling, take her tempe...

Purpose The intention of this blog is to provide a way to document the ongoing saga and tribulations of caring for our aging mom, Genevieve.  We've found that this can be challenging to say the least.  My husband, Jim, is the primary caregiver in her life, and often finds the task frustrating and leaves her home upset.  This blog will hopefully provide an objective outlet for some of our frustrations and a way to discuss the challenges we face.  We hope others will join the conversation and help provide solutions that perhaps we haven't thought of. A Little About Genevieve Mom's going to be 87 in a few short weeks.  She is an independent person by nature, socially outgoing, and lives in her own little home.  She is strong willed, and needs things done her way.  Until done, she tends to obsess over the smallest of items and expects the help others.  Of course, she loves her family: two girls (oldest & youngest) and two boys (my husband, Jim, be...