Documenting Life: Aging in Place
With Mom moving in this past October it seems natural that my blog will start to reflect this new life. I've decided to take a documentary approach to our life with an aging, ill parent, living in our home; mostly pictures, but in posts too. These posts can be found together with the tag "Aging in Place".
As I was prepping meds for Mom this morning, with the spring sunlight streaming in, I was struck by the image of it.
Sunday Mornings with Mom
This is usually how I start my Sunday, every two weeks. One of her heart medications is taken every other day, so having a two week "set" makes it work best.
This picture represents one of those milestones for an aging person. The point where this becomes difficult to self-manage is a point where phrases like "Assisted Living" and "Adult Foster Care" begin to be heard. It was one of the reasons we moved Mom in, just helping with this task, along with making sure she's taken the meds, already has helped with her falls and lucidity.
We're trying to help Mom to mostly Age in Place, she no longer can be completely independent, but staying with us keeps in with her community, even if that community largely is just CK and I, well and our herd of animal companions. We're planning to investigate some more community resources for helping us to help Mom.
March 17th, 2013 - 11:09
That’s a tough job. On the bright side, you still have your mom. I know things are getting very tough for my grandmother’s care taker and I wonder what my mom would have been like as an old lady. Besides, stubborn that is. 🙂
March 17th, 2013 - 11:12
It is tough, especially since Mom and I have a lot of baggage. It took us a good chunk of last year figuring how to make it happen, but I love my Mom and didn’t want to live with seeing her in adult foster care when a lot of her care is things like appointments, meds, and diabetes management. Mind you, these are BIG issues and they really take a lot of time for both CK and I, but we both wanted to be able to have her age at home, not in a home.
March 17th, 2013 - 11:29
Since I deal with things on the edge of this in my work I have often suggested to people looking into home health nursing to help with some of this makes things easier in family situations. look for senior centers and see if they have some activities during the day time and see if they do rides for people that can no longer get there by themselves Some of my ladies although not yet technically seniors participate in these and even sitting on the edges gives them a huge boost in community and life outlook.
Also we have some pharmacies here that will prepackage medications for people I had a father that has been caring for his severely disabled daughter and just the removal of having to put her medications together has reduced his stress immensely and made his mornings brighter.
I probably have many more ideas and I know the lingo that can help call me if you.
March 17th, 2013 - 11:33
Vicki, thanks so much for the pointers. So far the meds are pretty easy and complement the part of me that clicks with patterns, sets, and sorting. CK has used Google Docs to make a spreadsheet that helps us track blood glucose.
We’ve contacted a senior center, and they did a home visit to talk with Mom about offerings. As I mentioned in a post yesterday, Mom has some very serious social anxiety and we can’t get her motivated to get out with her peers at all. We’re going to request an assessment from another community resource for the aging population, even if we pay out-of-pocket for it.
I’ve been sort of documenting things all along, particularly this past year. I decided to start calling it out more obviously so the blog might start to come up for people searching for resources and insight into what it is like caring for a parent at home.
And I should call just because it has been so long since I’ve heard your voice! Love you lots.
March 17th, 2013 - 11:45
Thanks for writing about this
March 17th, 2013 - 11:53
Thanks for the feedback and the encouragement!