A Daughter’ Journey With Her Dad’s Alzheimers

Well, here it is Thursday. Every week goes faster than the last. Still waiting for spring to arrive. Slow and steady.

Made some phone calls yesterday. Spoke to Home Care re the current situation with my Dad. Will be getting a phone call back from them. And then see what happens after that. Not sure what the next step will be.

Also phoned the Alzheimer’s Society. Going to speak to someone there. Not for another couple of weeks though. Wish I had called them sooner but…..

Wondering what else I could be doing at the moment. Find that I am not sleeping well. This whole situation with my Dad and his future is weighing heavy on my mind. After speaking with my older brother on the weekend, his thought is that we need to convince my Dad that he needs to go into community care. His wish is that my Dad does not go into long term care against his will. So he wants to look into places that are available. He needs to see what is here. Not working in health care, he really has no idea of the different types of facilities.

Working in long term care and on a locked dementia unit, I am quite familiar! It will be 5 years this fall that I have done so. And I truly enjoy my work and the residents that I care for and the awesome co-workers that I work with. It is a rewarding and challenging type of work.

Still need to contact my younger sister and fill her in on the current situation. So an email is in order plus a follow=up phone call. I did call my older sister and fill her in. She is not heavily involved in the situation. Seems prepared to let whatever happens, happen.

Perhaps for clarification purposes, I will state that I am the middle of 5 children. So older sister, sister #1 is the one who will go with what is decided among other siblings. Older brother, is the one who visits on a regular basis and is actively involved so he will be referred to as brother #1. Then there is me! And next is sister #2 who is very involved although she lives several provinces away. So that leaves brother #2 who is prepared to go with the flow. That’s the line-up.

So need to get my day started. Have some errands to run. Also plan on leaving the province tomorrow. Going to visit an elderly Aunt, who is in long term care. She is my Dad’s younger sister and she has Alzheimers as well. Hubby and I try to visit her on a regular basis. Last time was in November of last year when she celebrated her 85 birthday.

And a visit to Dad is in order today. Didn’t see him on the weekend as my brother and his girlfriend visited him. But did send over some food. Dad was not feeling up to coming over for Easter dinner. Spoke with him last evening. My brother had visited him on Sunday and Monday. That gave Dad Tuesday as a recovery day.

Will also let him know that we will be away this weekend. Dad is very close to this sister. They are the only 2 siblings that are left also. I know that he would dearly love to visit with her but is unavailable to travel to see her. And my Aunt is no longer available to travel as well.

And so it goes. Here’s to better and sunnier days ahead.