She has her glasses - after 4 months! And she was overmedicated.

After 4 months, Mom finally got her glasses.  Can you believe that?  This is the fun of having a disabled parent with a mental disability living in a nursing home.  I still don't know why it took so long.  The eye doctor said it's cause they sent me a bill for $35 that wasn't paid.  The nursing home said they didn't know anything about it.  They didn't notice Mom still didn't have new glasses.  Unbelievable. 





I also found out why Mom is so much more alert now. She was on 2 medications to help her sleep.  She's not on either now.  They were over medicating her.  Pisses me off.  Glad she's back to being alive and awake.  She is a lot of work since she can't even get out of bed and has to wear a diaper.  Cause she can't sit on a toilet anymore.  Her hip is completely unusable.  But she is still very much alive in her brain. 


I'm glad she's back to being alert.  I get to enjoy her more now.  She's able to receive and give love more.  Research every drug your loved one gets.  I've learned.

Still no glasses

So the eyewear saga continues.  This is the fun of mental illness.  People with schizophrenia are not real good at accepting medical care.  And Mom told me last week that she got into an argument with the eye doctor and she won't be getting glasses.  So, yesterday I called her nursing home to find out what's going on.  Of course, all I can do there so far is leave a message at the case workers voice mail.  Monday I'll call the eye doctor.    Meanwhile Mom doesn't have the right glasses.  And she is resistant to get them.  Isn't this fun?  Welcome to my life with Mom.


This is also why Mom lost most of her teeth - she refused to see the dentist.  And why she is wheel chair bound - she refused to have her hip treated.  I try, but I can not force her.  She has to make her own choices and live her own life.  It's her life to live.


Then today I got a call from an aid at the nursing home.  She said they were short staffed today and only had one aid for each floor of 50 residents.  Mom wanted her bed made and the aid hadn't gotten to it.  So Mom had another resident help her.  But that resident is a fall risk.  The aid told me she yelled at Mom and apologized for that.  But then she told me Mom apologized to her too.


Mom called me later and told me she had trouble with this aid - Falisia.  I just told both ladies it's Ok and just forgive and be nice.


Now that Mom is more alert, she's more demanding.  I need to get an appointment with the staff to see if anything changed on her meds.  They are supposed to tell me but pretty much never do.  So I call them to find out.


This is the fun of caring for an adult family member with schizophrenia.  She takes meds which of course help, but there are still symptoms like anxiety.   I do what I can to help keep her life calm, try to get her medical care, and just let her know I'm in her corner and I love her so much.  And beyond that, I just let it go and trust she will be OK. And she is.