Friday, May 27, 2016

My sweet, always gallant husband...

Alzheimer's may have taken his short term memory but he is still the gallant man who loves to help.  He is the one who charges ahead to open doors for those with walkers or wheel chairs or move a chair in the dining room to assist.
Once again more dining room humor:  A dear 95 yr old woman joined He-Who, another resident and me at a table for four.  She mouthed "I can't hear anything" and pointed to her ears.  Oh dear, the other three of us are thinking.  It seemed she couldn't talk above a whisper if she can't hear...strange.  The more she indicated that she couldn't hear, the more concerned the rest of us, especially He-Who.  She kept mouthing how quiet it was but she managed to order lunch and ate well.  I wrote on a napkin that perhaps she should contact her daughter and that we would help her do that.  "No, no," she mouthed.  "My daughter is coming.  I am fine."  She finished her lunch and left leaving the three of us debating what to do and with questions like "did she have a TIA (mini-stroke), should we go with her, should we contact the nursing staff?"  He-Who insisted we go down and report it so the nurse would go by and check on her.
That evening I went to play Mexican Train Dominoes with friends and mentioned the incident.  "Oh, she does that all the time.  She forgot her hearing aids again."  Whew!  Good grief!
End of story of life on the funny farm.

Monday, May 23, 2016

And in the Dining Room...

Geez, you just never know and it is bizarre how one makes the adjustment to life's fragility.  People appear and disappear around here so often.  Yesterday a woman at the table next to us became distressed with dizziness and shaking.  The EMTs were called and our chef stood by until they arrived, put the BP cuff on her and wheeled her out to wait for the ambulance.  She's okay, just dehydrated.  But on reflection the whole scene was pretty funny.  No one looked up and everyone just kept on eating and talking like nothing was going on around them.  We did as well...whether we are all just numbed by the frequency of these emergencies or not wanting to embarrass the woman by staring, who knows but with my weird sense of humor, I now find it funny.

The weekend menus around here are questionable and yet predictable.  Saturday, not being much of a beef eater, I took one look at the slab of roast beef and the weak group of previously frozen veggies and just couldn't eat it.  He-Who-Sleeps-Alot noted it and I just said I didn't care for it, no big deal.  So the next day on the way to the Dining Room, He-Who showed me a note pad and said he was going to write down all the things I don't like to eat.  "So what are you going to do with the list?" I asked.  "I'm just going to keep track." he answered.  "Okay, so are you going to write down all the things I like?"  "Nope, just the ones you don't like."  So off we go.  Our menus always offer a soup or salad as the first course.  Our darling waitress gave me the "don't go for the soup" sign so I declined.  He-who ordered the soup, pulled out his pad and wrote down "no soup".  I ate my lunch and later back in our apartment found the note folded up on the floor, never mentioned again.  ???? Ya just never know.

Playing catch up here, my get away to Colorado was wonderful!  My niece and her wife pampered us with delicious, incredible dinners, two trips to the wonderful Brown Shoe Store in Ft. Collins and a dinner theatre.  Granddaughter came and stayed with He-Who and they both had a great time.  She even got him out on the dance floor at the Happy Hour.  My fabulous sister-in-law suggested that we put me in a wheel chair at the airports and we whizzed through security at Hobby leaving and in Denver, more difficult on the way home at Hobby but it was made better by our nephew and his significant picking us up with bouquets and taking us to Mother's Day lunch.
Then last week we were off to San Antonio to be part of our youngest granddaughter's Senior Prom weekend which was such fun.  She looked beautiful, her date, a handsome accomplished saxophonist.  AND we visited the office of the under-construction Watercrest at the Dominion independent living facility just minutes from our son's home and put down a deposit on a corner 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with a utility room with a washer and dryer and a wrap-around balcony with a view. And continuing care and a memory unit. Occupancy the end of September or October which is great!  I am terrified in a way about leaving family and friends in Houston after all these years but I think this is a wise decision...to go before we have a crisis and have to take what is available.  Change is coming, better get used to it.