Parents getting old

[B]

My mom is totally burned out not coping well with my stepdad’s advancing Parkinson’s, to the point where she just orders him around and gets on him about stuff that he can’t help, like being forgetful. I’m going to try to talk to her about therapy and/or medication today as a starting point, because I think she’s totally depressed and overwhelmed at this point.

You didn't ask for help, but things that helped my dad were joining a dementia caregivers support group, or she can look into Visiting Angels to get some respite each week. That'll let her go out and run errands or just have a cup of coffee with friends.

Those are things that helped my dad keep mom at home for a longer time.

Thanks, B. So is it like spot home health care when you need a night out?

I don't know how Angels works specifically. My dad hired a woman who was working for a friend. She had 2 regular 4hr visits. He could ask her to take extra hours for appointments or an evening if he wanted.

[Bammer]

Got what appears to be a final copy if my dad’s will today, along with all his medical (do not resuscitate, no feeding tube, etc.) wishes.

Damn man. Mortality.

[spike]

I guess since I left this past Wednesday (when he fell twice), my stepdad’s only gotten worse. Delusions and can’t stay upright unless using his walker. Spoke to my mom and sister separately yesterday; sounds like my mom is partially in denial about all this because she’s
been dragging her feet about getting him to the doctor, so my sister came over this morning and took him to the ER (she lives nearby, I am not local). He’s there now having all the scans and fluids and stuff, so we’ll get a better idea of what happening this go-round.

[Peeps]

sorry to hear youre going through this spike

[spike]

Ugh, stepdad with Parkinson’s is on like day three of falling a bunch again. Since he left rehab, things had been going well with meds adjustments for his low blood pressure etc.

We have a home health aide coming into the house a few times a week to relieve my mom for a few hours, which has helped her keep her sanity, but when we get into a string of several bad days like this, I get concerned. May have to head up there today or tomorrow to get a better sense of what’s happening. Could mean another hospital visit for the stepdad, etc.

[Monkey_Driven]

Ugh, stepdad with Parkinson’s is on like day three of falling a bunch again. Since he left rehab, things had been going well with meds adjustments for his low blood pressure etc.

We have a home health aide coming into the house a few times a week to relieve my mom for a few hours, which has helped her keep her sanity, but when we get into a string of several bad days like this, I get concerned. May have to head up there today or tomorrow to get a better sense of what’s happening. Could mean another hospital visit for the stepdad, etc.

Do they live pretty close?

[spike]

Ugh, stepdad with Parkinson’s is on like day three of falling a bunch again. Since he left rehab, things had been going well with meds adjustments for his low blood pressure etc.

We have a home health aide coming into the house a few times a week to relieve my mom for a few hours, which has helped her keep her sanity, but when we get into a string of several bad days like this, I get concerned. May have to head up there today or tomorrow to get a better sense of what’s happening. Could mean another hospital visit for the stepdad, etc.

Do they live pretty close?

About an hour and a half away. My sister lives close though.

[spike]

My sister’s taking my stepdad to the ER. His BP is very low; we spoke to his cardiologist’s office and they’re concerned it could be internal bleeding related to one of his many recent falls. I’m going to head up that way tomorrow morning… canceled our weekend getaway to Nashville.

[tragabigzanda]

There is a wolf in me . . . fangs pointed for tearing gashes . . . a red tongue for raw meat . . . and the hot lapping of blood—I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fox in me . . . a silver-gray fox . . . I sniff and guess . . . I pick things out of the wind and air . . . I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers . . . I circle and loop and double-cross.

There is a hog in me . . . a snout and a belly . . . a machinery for eating and grunting . . . a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun—I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fish in me . . . I know I came from salt-blue water-gates . . . I scurried with shoals of herring . . . I blew waterspouts with porpoises . . . before land was . . . before the water went down . . . before Noah . . . before the first chapter of Genesis.

There is a baboon in me . . . clambering-clawed . . . dog-faced . . . yawping a galoot's hunger . . . hairy under the armpits . . . here are the hawk-eyed hankering men . . . here are the blonde and blue-eyed women . . . here they hide curled asleep waiting . . . ready to snarl and kill . . . ready to sing and give milk . . . waiting—I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so.

There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird . . . and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want . . . and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes—And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.

O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.

[Chris_H_2]

nothing but the best spike. hope all turns out well.

[BurtReynolds]

Sucks, dude. How old is he?

[doug rr]

sorry buddy

[wease]

Sorry to hear Spike. Hope he comes thru ok.

[spike]

Sucks, dude. How old is he?

He’s 80, diagnosed with PD about five years ago. It’s really started to accelerate the past 6-8 months.

[dad]

sorry, spike.

[spike]

Thanks, pals. In and out of the hospital may just be how it goes for awhile.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

Hugs

[Ello Sailor]

That's brutal, Spike. The silent generation sure can be stubborn with these things. You're a good son for going the extra mile.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

My mom has been coughing and not really able to talk for 5 or so weeks. The terrible late summer/fall hip and femur fracture and this have made for a suck *ss time.

[dad]

My mom has been coughing and not really able to talk for 5 or so weeks. The terrible late summer/fall hip and femur fracture and this have made for a suck *ss time.

sorry, buddy.