calherewecome

First the good news. Mary’s shoulder continues to improve. She is doing PT twice a week in outpatient rehab facility in San Pedro. Sometimes Paula takes her and sometime I get the job. She isn’t driving yet. We hope that she doesn’t get to drive again. She really needs someone at her side to catch her if she stumbles. Another fall could kill her. She stills has some shoulder pain. Some days are better than others. Dr. prescribed an NSAID for the pain. It seems to help.

Now the bad news. Her mental facilities have been fading of late. She certainly knows who Paula and I are. But some times she is confused as to what day it is.

For example, today she slept most of the afternoon. She got up at about 5:30 PM. She says to me, “I don’t usually wake up this early in the morning”. I try to gently tell her that it is 5:30 PM not AM.

Often times she will ask several times what day it is and what we are doing for the day. She sometimes forgets what we did an hour ago. We will watch the local news. Afterwards, she will ask if we can watch the news.

Paula will be taking her for her high school reunion in Eureka, KS in May. The reunion is held every year on Memorial Day weekend. The high school was so small that the reunion is for all class years. I begged off. I have appointment to rearrange my sock drawer. Mary definitely needs someone to shepherd her through the complexities of air travel. Especially since they will need to change planes in Las Vegas.

Paula and I have pretty much taken over her day to day scheduling. Making Dr’s appointments and taking were she needs to go. Paying her bills, etc. One day at a time.

The bravado that we faced when we first moved out her is pretty much gone. i.e I can do everything for myself, by myself. She seems to have learned to accept the help that we have given her.

I have begun to cherish the time that I get Paula alone. We are looking forward to our trip back to Mass in May. It will be a short trip due to the need to turn around and take Mary to KS.

Later,

Joe

It’s been a while since I’ve reported on Mary. She is recovering nicely from her surgery. She’s had occupational therapy (OT) at home three times a week. She is mostly going without the sling so she is a bit more functional, but not quite 100%.
 
 Keeping track of her schedule for Dr’s appointments is challenging. It seems there always somewhere that we need to take her. And seeing as she isn’t driving, either Paula or I do the driving.
 
 She finally allowed me to take over managing her finances. What a mess. I collected all of the tax related mail into a folder. This past Saturday I took the folder to her tax guy. I had thoughts of doing her taxes myself, but thought better of the idea. Easier to drop the load of paper on the accountant and let him sort it out. He had it done in short order. No missing 1099’s. I got her to sign the efile voucher. Now we’re all done but for sending the IRS and state of CA checks. The good news is that her finances are strong. She often claims poverty, but that just doesn’t hold up when you look at the numbers.
 
 So in looking at her bank statement for January, I found someone had written three checks for a total of about $10,000. Mary had no clue about the checks. So off we go to Wells Fargo to try and straighten out the mess. We had to create a new account and transfer funds from the old account. So we need to get new checks and new debit cards.We left $200 or so in the old account to cover the last few checks outstanding. Paperwork sent to WF fraud department. We will probably get the money back. We have no idea how someone got a hold of the blank checks. We are trying to make sure that no blank checks are left out in plain view in the condo. Just in case our housekeeper was grabbing them.
 
 So, what next? Mary will be starting outpatient physical therapy this week. We will be beginning to plan our trip back east in May. Right now, we feel comfortable leaving her alone for a couple of hours so that Paula and I can have a date night. We are less comfortable leaving her alone for a week. We are hoping that we can find someone (perhaps from church or OES) to spend the week with her. Paula and I will manage to fit in our annual physicals this month.
 
 So I hear it has been snowing a bit back east. I have been trying real hard not to comment. The weather here has been outstanding. Today is sunny and about 70. Forecast for the weekend is a serious rain storm. Lord we can use the rain. Prices of fruits, vegetables and meat are surely going up this summer as more large farms in the CA Central Valley fail. By the way, gasoline here just went up over $4.00 per gallon of regular.
 
 Tuesday night is our regular family dinner tonight. Mike, Theresa and Jonathan will be here. Menu is meatloaf, mashed potatoes and beans or as I like to call it “Masonic menu #2”. Menu #1 is of course “Roast beef, Potatoes, and green beans”. Of course are green beans are fresh, at Thomas Talbot Lodge they come out of a can (gross).
 
 Theresa and Mike are expecting their second child in October. We are so looking forward to our second grandchild.
 
 Well, that’s enough for now. Stay warm.
 
 Joe
 
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