Summering with Mom

At the beginning of June, a storm did some damage to my mom's house knocking her out for about a week. My family let us know this happened and wrung their hands while we traveled down to the New Orleans area and got the roof and electricity fixed. However, we also realized mom was not up to living by herself anymore. 

My mom is 87, fiercely independent, and was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2015 (though it may have been coming on for longer than that). She was rather adamant about not moving and not needing help, though it was obvious to everyone but her that she did. 

So once her house was fixed, we brought her up her. Now we had discussed before leaving her home that this was a permanent thing. She agree to think about it, but I don't think it sunk it. Nope, I know it didn't sink in until recently because, she has fussed and argued about it several times. Lately, it's sinking in because now she talks about going back getting some of her things. 

Another reason it is sinking in has to do with moving her Medicare and Medicaid around. Good lord, if ever you need to realize that a one payer, centrally run, health care system is a necessity try to figure out how two different states do services! Heck, even the companies that provide services through something like Medicare don't offer the same plans in different states. It's utterly stupid. 

Listening to me try to figure out these silly things and fill out applications (which always makes me grumble) has convinced my mom that this move thing is happening. Though she might not remember that tomorrow. 

We also moved her elderly dogs up with us. She dotes on them, but we could also see that they were not doing well either. I can say they have improved up here. They may not like being stuck in the more limited space (5 cats live here and they don't like cats), but they love the yard. 

So while we are still figuring things out, what we'll do with my mom once I go back to work, it looks like things are working. That is a big plus, though I think the jigsaw puzzle and puzzle book industries may realize much higher profits considering the way we're going through those things!