Normal Crazy

Nothing new crazy to report.  Mom has had a flurry of doctor appointments yesterday and today.  Yesterday I took her to see her Primary care doc (which also happens to be Hubby's and mine as well).  The doctor told me that the shrink is going to write up that Mom is cognitively impaired and with that and another letter from another psychologist I had previously taken her to (more to see if I were imagining things or if she really wasn't all there) I'm pretty sure the disability will come through without having to battle it, now it's just a matter of time.

It's very frustrating living with a person who has such a hit or miss memory.   For instance this morning Mom had an appointment with the psychiatrist at 8:20 which is fairly early for her to get moving around.  Since it takes her FOREVER to get going, dress, smoke, coffee in the morning I told her to set her alarm so she would have enough time to do her dilly-dalling.  I told her this as I went up the stairs to my bed at 9:20.  "Mom, your doctor appointment is at 8:20 in the morning, you need to set your alarm so you have time for your piddling in the morning"  " OK, OK" she replies.  I finally peel myself out of bed about 7:30 to find her just getting up, still in pj's and making a pot of coffee.  She finishes getting the coffee going and proceeds to stand there waiting on the coffee pot which is notoriously slow.  I fuss at her "Go put on some clothes while that's going, you gotta get going!"  She mopes off and goes to get dressed, showing back up in the kitchen just a few minutes before 8:00 and pours a cup and sits at the table as I coordinate the kids getting out the door, go get her keys and start her car (it's remote start), the van (also remote), and generally manage the chaos.  At about 8:05 I tell her she better get going as it takes about 10 minutes to drive to the appointment and Mom tells me " I don't know why you're rushing me so much, the appointment isn't until 9:30!" Luckily I had the appointment card stuck to the master calendar and I pulled it out and showed it to her and that lit a fire under her and she got out the door.

Mom just walked back in and reported her meds will stay the same, and she goes back in January to the shrink. 

I will say I'm overly thankful for the little hospital and clinics here in our town.  They are affiliated with a large healthcare center in Milwaukee and have taken Mom in as a patient for gratis.  I don't know how we would have gotten the disability declared, and any sort of healthcare for her.  The bill for the shoulder fiasco was over 30K alone.  With no insurance, no medicare, no medicaid she would be destitute at this point.  I've looked into medicaid for her, and while she will qualify based on income after she gets her disability, her small amount of savings and the little nest egg she has from selling her house keeps her from qualifying.  When the disability kicks in she begins her wait time for Medicare which is something like 2 1/2 years.  I suppose we'll have to see about getting her some sort of major medical insurance, but with her health problems it's likely to become a nightmare.  Hopefully some of the Obamacare provisions will kick in and make it possible by then, I'm not real sure how all that works and when it kicks in.

Father-In-Law is really starting to decline now.  Hubby speaking with co-workers was advised to switch as much of his property as possible into his and his sister's names before FIL passes to avoid probate.  SIL checked with an attorney and he declared this a fantastic idea so SIL has hauled FIL into the lawyer and has  gotten power of attorney and is currently working on moving stuff into her name.  FIL has written up a will and the like, however it would be nice to just sell, and liquidate stuff and not have the nightmare dragged out for months on end.

Starting next week I will be babysitting a tiny little girl for a couple of weeks.  Some friends of ours had a baby a few weeks ago, the mom will be going back to work the week of Thanksgiving.  I offered to watch the baby for a couple of weeks to avoid putting her in daycare for a bit and avoid all the cold germs a little longer.  Not that my own kids are germ free - Igor had a touch of stomach bug last week - but at least the house is a little more isolated than room full of little ones.  I thought of  just offering to be her sitter full time, but honestly I'm totally enjoying being child free for several hours a day and I know that sweet little infant will soon turn into a handful of toddler that must be watched constantly and I can say I'm over toddler hood.  Don't get me wrong, if the stork delivered a little girl to the front door I'd be more than thrilled but I don't think I'm going to sign up for all the drama of toddler right now.  I have enough drama right now.

I've been pretty good about going to the gym lately.  It certainly helps keep my stress level down to some sort of reasonable level.  The plus of going to work out is that I've managed to drop about 8 lbs without really dieting, though I have tried to avoid the stash of Halloween candy and avoided eating like a hog at meals.  I haven't been this light in about 15 years.  I'd still like to loose about 5 more pounds, I know that's not major weight loss, but when you are only 5'1" it's several sizes in clothes.

Well, I suppose I should get off of my duff and get to said gym.  Hard to do when my nice warm bed upstairs is calling out to me and the only noise in the house is Mom surfing Pinterest (she clicks that button on the computer so hard I'm amazed it hasn't broken) and the fan on the humidifier.