Smiles

Ned and I got a full day in yesterday.  He came by at 10:30 and we headed up to Atria.  My mother had an 11 a.m. appointment to finally get her hair cut, for which she is WAY overdue.

We got her upstairs to Lucy and Ned said he'd stay with her so I could get downstairs and take a shower.  I always resist doing that, but I have to admit it's SO much more satisfying than a sponge bath, and safer than trying to climb the stairs to the shower.

Ned brings a "spa kit" with him each time and gets me all set up in my mother's bathroom.  It also has towels, shampoo, a wash cloth, soap, and a back scrubber--he's thought of everything.

This week he went out and bought a holder for the shower head, which normally just hangs loose.  It makes all the difference in the world.

I got all showered and Ned brought my mother downstairs, looking SO much better for the shorter hair!

I don't know whose top she's wearing  I had never seen it before and realized, as she stood up, that she was wearing black paints.  I've never seen her wear black pants and they were very attractive!

(Ned told me that they had passed Tony in the hall coming back and she stopped and kissed him on the lips)

Jeri has been trying to call her since her birthday, a month ago, but is never able to get her, so I texted her and she called right away and they had a chat.

Oh, I just love this picture.  She was genuinely happy to talk with Jeri and though didn't make much sense, talked with her for about 5 minutes, which was good for Jeri too.

Then we packed everything up and went to the car.  I had to get my regular blood test and we decided to take her out to lunch at IHOP.

The blood test went well, except I walked out of there looking like I'd been in a war because they had to try 3 different locations before finding a cooperative vein.  I had bandages all over me!

Then we went to IHOP for lunch, with Ned's friend Brian, whom we met on the way in.  I didn't give my mother a chance to order any more; she is overwhelmed by menus, but I noticed that she again tried to eat the pictures of the food.

I ordered her 2 fried eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast.  She couldn't seem to understand the difference between "bacon" and "toast" and wasn't sure what to do with the slices of bacon so she used the bacon to spread jam on her toast, after she had tried to shake the jam over her eggs instead of salt.  But once again she ate every crumb (but not the napkin) and I think it was good to get her out.

Ned walked her back to her apartment and I went to the office of Jennifer, the director.  She wanted to go over changes in her care, all of which I approved.  They are going to be watching her more carefully, helping her with bathing, rather than just watching her, and trying to make sure she is eating, since she is losing weight. 

The "attack" of the other day was on a new roommate they had moved into the empty unit that my mother shares.  Since Marge moved out months ago, that unit has remained empty and we speculated  that maybe she thought the new person didn't belong there.  Anyway, they moved the new person to a different room and all seems to be going all right.

But then we'd done it all and came home.  Ned headed back to Sacramento and I went to sleep for about 2-1/2 hours, waking up just in time for Jeopardy.

Today is Walt's day.  Ned will be here at 8 to take him to Kaiser and we'll see what the report is now.