Update on Joe

I had seen Joe to take him to dentist last Thursday, then Saturday went to see him as he was finishing his dinner and stayed until after 7:00. I like to go at various and different times, and gives me a good idea of what he does, how he is, and what is going on at the home. I am never totally happy with the weekend care, and the weekday care is the best. It is very hard for the owners to find people just to work weekends. This past weekend it was one girl I have known since we started there, and one brand new girl. It was her first day.

After hearing many horrible accounts of various nursing homes at the last Alzheimer meeting I attended 2 weeks ago, I am very happy with Joe's home. None of the stuff I heard has ever happened at his home. There are good ones and bad ones, and one of the best thing about Alzheimer meetings is learning which ones they are.
Anyway, all was fine on Saturday except they were giving him his two eye drops too close together, so got that straightened out.

Today I stayed a couple hours and also ate lunch with the group at the home. That is how I get to know them all and have good rapport with everyone there. We had soup, bacon sandwiches and jello. I also had ice tea. I eat with them every now and then.
After lunch, I trimmed Joe's toe nails. Then Andy, from Hospice arrived to shower and shave Joe, and also, do his finger nails. Andy is a wonderful young black man who works for Hospice and is great. He showers and shaves Joe every Tuesday and Friday. I am so thankful for Hospice of the Valley!

Leonore, who is the weekday manager and wonderful, told me Joe seems worse daily to her. He was really "out of it" today. It is very sad. I had to help him with lunch and he gets so confused about everything. It does seem worse every week, even to me, and I don't see it all.

I observed before lunch when Deena, who comes to do activities with them, had them play for awhile with a word bingo game. All you have to do is spin the wheel and the word it lands on, if you have it, you can cover that word with a disc. First one to get all covered wins. Well, that never happens. Joe could not even spin the spinner. Even when you showed him how, he could not do it. He had no idea what they were doing, but I will say this for him, he always participates anyway. When I first got there she was having them do simple chair exercises. I sat down with them and did the exercises too. (lifting your leg, lifting your arm) Joe could not even do that. He got mad at me when I tried to show him how to lift his leg.

Leonore says he is refusing sometimes to eat and won't let anyone feed him. He also refuses to let them brush his teeth. So no wonder the dentist had a talk with me about it. But what he does not realize is that sometimes Joe just refuses to have any of it done at all.

That's the way it is today. Joe still wants to answer the door every time the doorbell rings. So no matter what he is doing, he gets up and goes to the door. His balance is getting worse also. Leonore said she has noticed he has trouble walking sometimes. He also fell out of bed a couple nights ago. The State will not allow rails on the bed. It is so stupid! I took rails there and had to take them home.
They say people have died from the rails. I say, what about dying from a fall?
Anyway, he cut his lip a bit and it bled. Must have happened when he fell out of bed. Someone cannot be there every second though.
Everyone does the best that they can, and sometimes it is not enough, but that is how it is.