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The Trouble With Getting Older
Jan. 18th, 2025 08:14 amNot last night but the night before, apparently Grandma spent the night in the hospital. She fell and broke her hip, and on top of that she hadn't been drinking basically at all so her urinary functions had shut down, so what she WAS drinking was getting backed up and trapped in her bladder until it was so full it was excruciatingly painful. Apparently she spent half the night in the hospital just SCREAMING because she was in so much pain, not even morphine could help, and I've been there, it's not a fun place to be.
Eventually they figured out the bladder thing and got it drained with a catheter, though, and then she was more comfortable and even able to read a book. Aunt Brenda was there with her the whole night to get all the medical info and stuff. Her hip break was minor (just a fracture not a BREAK break) but like... she CAN'T take care of herself anymore. She NEEDS to be in a care home, but she absolutely blew it when one came up a couple months back and she refused it.
Mentally, she isn't even with it enough to drink enough water to keep herself going. Is she even going to meals at the retirement home where she is anymore? She was to begin with, but who knows, now? So, I think Mom and my two Uncles are going to just get together and TAKE power of attorney from her, regardless of what the assessors say. Because she's somehow passing the assessments every time someone comes to check her out, even though she literally can't even remember to DRINK anymore.
If they do that, though, she will see it as an ABSOLUTE betrayal, and everything will just...
Yeah. It'll just. I hate how things are going with Grandma and for Grandma right now, and I just want to rewind ten years to when she was healthy. Though even then she was depressed and upset all the time. But at least mentally she was THERE and physically she wasn't a malnourished stick of a thing.
I know we're going to lose her soon, and it's going to kill me when it happens, but I almost hope it'll happen sooner rather than later because I don't know if ANY of us can handle dealing with her declining health, especially mentally, for much longer. Everyone is just on edge and all I can do is cry about it, and that sounds selfish, I know, but I also know GRANDMA is suffering and I don't want that for her, so...
Eventually they figured out the bladder thing and got it drained with a catheter, though, and then she was more comfortable and even able to read a book. Aunt Brenda was there with her the whole night to get all the medical info and stuff. Her hip break was minor (just a fracture not a BREAK break) but like... she CAN'T take care of herself anymore. She NEEDS to be in a care home, but she absolutely blew it when one came up a couple months back and she refused it.
Mentally, she isn't even with it enough to drink enough water to keep herself going. Is she even going to meals at the retirement home where she is anymore? She was to begin with, but who knows, now? So, I think Mom and my two Uncles are going to just get together and TAKE power of attorney from her, regardless of what the assessors say. Because she's somehow passing the assessments every time someone comes to check her out, even though she literally can't even remember to DRINK anymore.
If they do that, though, she will see it as an ABSOLUTE betrayal, and everything will just...
Yeah. It'll just. I hate how things are going with Grandma and for Grandma right now, and I just want to rewind ten years to when she was healthy. Though even then she was depressed and upset all the time. But at least mentally she was THERE and physically she wasn't a malnourished stick of a thing.
I know we're going to lose her soon, and it's going to kill me when it happens, but I almost hope it'll happen sooner rather than later because I don't know if ANY of us can handle dealing with her declining health, especially mentally, for much longer. Everyone is just on edge and all I can do is cry about it, and that sounds selfish, I know, but I also know GRANDMA is suffering and I don't want that for her, so...
