Free as a bird in the Catskill Mountains, ca 1984

Today I spent several hours on the phone. I spoke to the case manager at the rehab and spilled the beans about some of my observations. (Refer to previous post). My decision: my mother should come home, rehabilitation is not an option with a person who gets dizzy upon standing and who is so malnourished she can barely function.

I left a message for the admissions office to please check the status of my mother’s request to dis-enroll from Humana and get on straight Medicare.

I finally was able to get a message through to the attending physician who was kind and compassionate and who labelled my mother’s condition as “failure to thrive.” She is looking into hospice care. A telling comment: she just may reach her ninety-fifth birthday, her goal, and then expire. That’s what I have been thinking. A birthday as a final hurrah.

I spoke to the nurse at the assisted living where up until now my mother has been living independently. We will make arrangements for her to come home.

Today my mother was taken to the doctor, the gastroenterologist, and the aide called me to say he was taking away some medication and looking into discharge. Mind you, my mother’s arm is fractured and her arm and hand are not usable.

And I think: it is an arm that cradled two children years ago. It is a hand that is slowly letting go.

[This series is linked: see “continued here.” Also, below the line there will be links for the previous post and the next.]

continued here

The series starts here