Posted 12/16/18
Visited mom at the geriatric behavioral health hospital yesterday and today. She was less anxious this afternoon. It is certainly not enriching in the most generous definition, but she is safe and they are working on her meds. We sincerely hope to have her back where she was before Christmas.
She said (between many word salad/ BBB sessions) a couple things today that I almost felt able to interpret or at least relate to. One was something like: “I just saw the room and it was small but is kind of bigger now.” There were extra words too, but that is the Cliff’s Notes. Maybe that means that her environment stress wasn’t as bad? I want badly for that to be true.
She also got her new glasses that are waaaaay better. She saw an animal 100 yards away across the street in a front yard that she thought was a chicken, but turned out to be a cute little Chihuahua. Hey, with her old glasses and pre-eye surgery she wouldn’t have been able to see the house, needless to say the Taco Bell spokesdog, so that was a win.
She seems to have practically no socialization nor much on entertainment there, but she is, all things considered, safe and ok. The exception to the mundane atmosphere is her drawing and little craft that are the pictures on this post. Her drawings and doodles have made for some of my earliest memories of mom. We can’t take in phones or pretty much anything, so these crafts will have to do…but they are awesome! She still has her craft brain even with other parts fading away. 🙂
The facility is a mixed gender, mixed mental health arrangement, but their staff seems solid and they watch everyone closely. Their nurses are pleasant if somewhat generally clinical.
I look very forward to the care meeting in the morning. We need to get a game plan, because this place needs to be behind her as soon as humanly possible.
#EndALZ