Dad has moved to new digs!

Dad was moved last weekend, nearly kicking and screaming. He "didn't want to go for a ride," didn't want to go anywhere. He rebelled at every step, but my brother managed to get him over to his new digs.

Dad loves it, loves the food and has a healthy appetite now. He's walking a bit now too, and the staff, bless, have been giving him "work" to do, filing old forms that are no longer needed. They are needed now, by him. It makes him feel important and gives him a sense of responsibility. It might not seem to be a big thing to some, but it means the world to him right now, and it keeps those synapses working and finding new routes around the damage in his brain. It keeps him busy.

It's a beautiful place, a house with 4 or 5 bedrooms, caretakers and an RN on staff 24/7. It has huge bay windows all along the back of the house so the Residents can check out the expansive lake below. We'll be going up in 3 weeks and visiting Dad in his new digs and will be getting some pictures and some videos too. They are taking good care of him and doing some of the things the other place just didn't have time to do....It's sad to have seen that too. Things like cutting his hair and making sure his face gets wiped after he eats...things like changing his shirt if he spills food on himself, or trimming his toenails or fingernails. Things like making sure his glasses and magazines don't end up on the floor, crumpled up beneath the wheels of his walker.

He wasn't treated horribly there, not by any means, and I never once smelled anything bad like urine in the air or old food or whatever. He was warm, fed, and had a comfortable bed to sleep in. It's just that there were so many people there and so few staff to care for everyone-which leads to the last reason he went to the geriatric/psyche hospital in the first place. They thought he needed to have his meds changed (read more and/or adjusted) because he was very agitated and was starting to refuse to eat...plus just being plain old crotchety. They discovered that he didn't need his meds adjusted. He needed STRUCTURE. He needs individualized attention and someone to tell him what to do. Someone to help keep him focused and his mind kept active and not left to his own mental devices as it were. I think Dad is in the best place he could be right now...And I am grateful to my brother for finding him this wonderful place to live out his remaining days in a place where he is well cared for, and cared about.



More very soon!