Steps Forward, Steps Back

Well, I leave for Kansas City tomorrow. I've spent most of the last couple of days on the phone with people here touching base, with my sister and Dad, with Dad's friend who visits Mom....It appears that Dad is open to putting Mom on diapers all the time and probably putting her on a sleeping pill. And he's open to talking about the other issues.

I've been warned that Mom's in really bad shape. She doesn't make sense when she talks, has lots of accidents, probably won't recognize me at all, doesn't have much of an attention span, and has trouble following even basic directions of how to go to the bathroom.

The Sunrise facility where she lives has gone WAAAAAAAAAAAY downhill. I'm going to talk to the director of the facility and tell her that while I know that there's no use complaining a lot because no one cares - not at the facility, not the Sunrise corporate offices, not the state people, and I don't want to make things worse for Mom....BUT I am taking notes of what happens there and intend to write about it after she passes. By then, I'll be a PhD and a professor at some university, and my word will mean something. So, I hope she'll take that into consideration. Plus, have some freaking humanity!!!

Dad said that for like the 5th time in the last couple of months, he's seen her without her pad on, having had an accident in her pants. There were no staff to be found at all last night on the floor, even when he called out "is anybody working here?" He spoke with the floor coordinator the next day, who didn't seem like she thought this was a problem. They were short staffed. Even though it was barely past 6pm, all the staff were busy putting people to bed.

Mom's lost weight and they're putting her on ensure which is bs. She's can eat fine, as long as she gets reminders to keep eating. But they're always short staffed, and clearly they're not doing this. It seems like I went through that whole process at the other Sunrise (see blog anytime last year) and moved her for NOTHING.

I have a very big road ahead of myself the next two weeks. I had a migraine yesterday and so didn't get to finish my paper. So, I'll have to be doing schoolwork, visiting Mom, dealing with family issues, etc etc etc. Wish me luck!