Howdy

I just realized that it's been a while since I posted last. It was definitely not intentional. The thing about holiday weeks is that you get two days off etc. BUT you have to do five days worth of work in three days usually.

I'm in Columbia, Missouri right now. We celebrated Thanksgiving with hubby's mother, aunt and collection of relatives in Kansas. It was a nice event. No drama until we took his mom home. The Alzheimer's and dementia is getting worse. She wanted to leave right after she ate. We told her that we were going to visit before driving her home (another town). So we included her in activities with the little ones and kept her busy.

We compromised and left much earlier than we would have liked. It wasn't early enough. Imagine a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum -- but it's an 83+ year old. It was hard for my husband. When we got to the facility where she lives, she didn't even want us to walk her in. My husband did anyway, and she gave him a tongue lashing once inside telling him she never wanted to see him again etc.

The rest of us have experienced that, and I've gone through some of that with my dad. But hubby never had. It was devastating to him.

Friday wasn't much better. The "Home Place" care has gone downhill since a new administrator came in a few months ago. They are getting residents who belong in a skilled nursing facility. They don't have enough nurses. Brother in law and wife were more aware of this than we were, and have been raising cain. The administrator was trying to tell us that mom had to start using insulin and would immediately have to be moved. We refused, and thank God, we called the brother in law et. al, because we found out everything that had happened in the past month. I was so furious that this administrator (now known as Jezebel among other names) was trying to play us for fools. She's aware that hubby and brother in law arent' really close and was hoping to use that. Divide and conquer was her method. I wanted to scream at her, but hubby wisely didn't let me.

We have joined the "raising cain" campaign with corporate and the Department of Aging. I'm furious and now we've started a campaign to get family and relatives who live closer than we do to do the unexpected "drop-in" visits regularly.

We're stopping by in early on Sunday on our way home. We wish we could pick mom-in-law up and just move her closer to us, but this little town is her home. She doesn't want to leave and we're trying to abide by her wishes.

Getting old is not for wimps.