Sardine of Trill

[ismo]

We're home. It was a day of changes. I'm tired and sad and need time to process stuff. The Duchess and I agreed we'll probably spend the next 24 hours in fetal position. We're kind of in shock. Mother has undergone a steep cognitive decline the last week or two, since her second fall, and no one knows why. All staff we talked to, and the physician's assistant, agreed that Mother would not be safe returning to assisted care. Her needs have gone beyond that. We were told last week that there were no spaces available for her in long-term nursing care, due to the renovations. Today, they said they would make space for her. Until there is an available unit on the long-term floor, she will stay in her room on the rehab floor, and receive the same care as the other long-term patients. It was a sad moment when we had to tell the people who took care of her for so long that she will not be coming back.

The worst moment of the day was when I stopped to visit her before the conference, and found her in the hair salon, waiting in her wheelchair to have a shampoo and curl. I bent down to greet her, and she grabbed my hands and said, "I just want you to take me home!" and started to cry. Now I can't even take her back to the place she called home for the last few years. It's the best possible outcome, under the circumstances, but we have now come to the part where the best possible outcome will break your heart anyway.

Comments

[oracne]

I really wish I could hug you for real.

[ismo]

Thanks, I do too. And I wish we could stroll through Rittenhouse Square and check out some novel foodstuffs.