Dad Improves His Mind

Dad likes his National Geographic magazine. So when the latest one arrived last week I took it to him. Up until today he showed no interest in it; today Curtis asked him if he wanted to look at it and he did!

(Photo by Curtis)

This morning Curtis & I met with Remy, Arceli, & Kirsten to talk about Dad's long-term care in his first Care Conference; Remy covered the medical care, Arceli talked about the activities portion, and Kirsten handled the social work aspects. This updates the 2-week care conference that I had with Remy in the first couple of days that Dad was here. For the most part we are satisfied with the care that Dad is receiving; the RNs and CNAs have been great! We have requested an assessment by the PTs/OTs to see if we can have Dad receiving PT &/or OT since he has much less pain and is now also helping more with his transitions. We also requested he be moved to a bed by a window if one comes available on either side and on any floor; we shall see what happens. As for activities, we told them Dad likes to sit alone but we have noticed that the ukulele sessions are good for him as well as the Namaste & Music, and he likes going out to visit Popokilani; he could care less about the rest of the activities. We also told them the CNAs Venus & Jessa are great with him during the day and that CNA Dennis from the evening shift engages Dad in talking about fishing & cats. The next regular Care Conference will be in about 3 months, but if needed we could ask for one earlier.

After the conference we took Dad out to the lanai next to the 2nd floor dining room for lunch. He was sitting with Mr. Ihrig and Mrs. Honjo, both are very good eaters with a little assistance. The CNAs helping them kept encouraging Dad to eat. He ended up eating most of a half peanut butter & jelly sandwich and all of his Breeze. After that he fell asleep at the table, but he wasn't the only one!

Nap time!

Curtis & I went to Chili's for lunch. He had a bowl of chili and the Southwestern Egg Rolls; I had the Bacon, Avocado & Chicken Sandwich with a side of onion rings. The egg rolls were excellent! The sandwich kept trying to deconstruct itself every time I took a bite. Although good tasting, the bowl of chili was on the small side.

Chili'c Chili. (Photo by Curtis)

Southwestern Egg Rolls.

Bacon, Cheese, Avocado, & Chicken Sandwich.

While at lunch we discussed The Roommates. I told Curtis I will teach them how to cook and how to do minor home repairs. I am also teaching them how to take care of the regular maintenance items like garbage day and paying Tony the lawn guy. Since their original purpose was to help with Dad and that is no longer necessary, I will be putting them to work doing other things. A big one is sorting through all the things in the house, figuring out what to toss, what to sell, and what to keep. We started when we changed the carpet in the living room and had to unload the shelves of all of Mom's knickknacks, but there's still a lot to do; they've collected stuff in this house for 48 years!

After I got back to Maunalani, I met Yuki & her handler Chris. They come by to visit with residents who like dogs. Unfortunately Dad was asleep when they came by.

Chris & his therapy dog Yuki.

I have usually been walking at around 3 pm since that is shift change time and a lot of people are around if Dad needs anything during the 15 minutes or so that I am gone. I decided to do it a little later today since I returned from lunch at 2:30; I went around 4 instead. Bad idea. The walk down was sort of okay, but I could feel that my stomach really hadn't emptied that much. I took the walk back slower, but I still felt like puking all the way back up the hill. Note to self: make lunch very, very light or much earlier in the day before walking. I can't figure out how we used to do this on field work days. Perhaps since we were working so hard before lunch we digested lunch quicker than I do when I am just sitting in a chair. Whatever, no heavy lunch before walking!!! (Or wait until a lot later.)

Dad just picked at his dinner. He ate about half of the Boston Cream Cake and all of his chocolate Boost Plus, but nothing else. At the Care Conference this morning, they did say that dementia patients sometimes forget to eat and drink, so we'll have to do our best to encourage him to eat and drink.


My LifeProof case is breaking again. This one is only 8 months old, the previous one lasted 2 years. They have a great warranty, I called, they will be sending me another case; this will be the 3rd one I am getting for my initial investment of $80. Eric the customer service rep said as long as they have the cases in stock, I can call to get it replaced! For free! Amazing! This applies to OtterBox cases which they also make.

Happy Birthday to Xander! He is 16 years old. Although he isn't the oldest cat in the house, he acts like he is. He's grumpy when the other cats try to get him to play with them. And he won't play by himself either. He never goes racing around the house on his own, he just slowly saunters along.

Happy Birthday also to Noel, Fred, & Shoji!