Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Mom's Big Island Visit, Day #6

When we woke up on 12/18 it was raining. A lot. Mom had originally wanted to go to the cemetery for one last visit but decided she did not want to do it in the rain. I continued working on packing up the dishes, pots, and pans in the cabinets. I also moved things out of the drawers.

Mom wanted to help but was unable to do anything. She isn't stable enough on her feet to stand up on the step stool to move dishes off the upper cabinet shelves. She can't get down to get pots & pans out of the lower cabinets because she has trouble breathing when she bends over and can't stand up when she squats. She needs her cane to walk from the cabinet to the boxes so she can't carry anything. (Due to the size of boxes I had available, the boxes would be too heavy to carry so I packed them in place.)

Although Mom was cold, she did not want to get in to bed with the heating pad to stay warm. She just wanted to complain about the weather, so she sat on the couch, every so often saying, "It's so cold." And she kept rereading the same edition of the Hawaii Tribune Herald newspaper that was not being used for packing material, one of the benefits of the dementia! 

Since I had to check us in for the flight tomorrow, I needed to find a wi-fi hook up. I dropped Mom off to visit with Uncle Kazu about 3 pm and went to the Kohala Coffee Mill. The flight was at 4 so I couldn't check-in until then but I needed to do it by 5 pm since that's when the Kava Bar closed and I would need to leave. When I returned, Uncle Kazu was sitting out in the Day Room by himself. It turns out Mom was in Akimi's room talking with her. I went to let Mom know I was back and asked if she wanted to leave since she had been there for 2 hours, she said she wanted to stay longer to talk to Akimi. I went to talk with Uncle Kazu. An hour or so later one of the nurses said Mom was looking for me. When I got to Akimi's room she was angry at me for leaving her there so long, she did not remember that I had returned and she had wanted to stay longer.

Mom was very tired today which makes her grumpier. It is also one of the signs that she is due for a transfusion.

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