Yesterday was very busy. I left for Worcester, MA at 7:30am to pick up my oldest son at Clark University where he just completed his freshman year. My wifes parents met me there and after we packed him up we walked around the campus. This was his grandparents first visit to the campus. The grounds looked especially nice with the flowering trees speckled against the brick buildings.
After driving home I got to work around 1:30 and worked til 6:30pm on a website that I had made good progress on. Then I jumped in my truck and drove over to Sentry Hill to visit my dad.
When I walked into the common area I was approached by one of the kitchen staff and was told my father offered her $5 to take him outside.
I found him in his room with the door closed. I knocked and he said, "who is it."
I said, "Kevin." I pushed the door open and walked in. He had been lying on his bed. I sat in a chair and asked how he was. He looked pretty good and didn't complain. I asked if he would like to take a walk or go for a ride. He said he had no preference so we walked.
We took a nice walk, probably just under 2 miles, up York Street and through the center of town and returned via Woodbridge Road. He was very lucid and insistent that I explain what had been told to me by the social worker. I explained that she told me he would be allowed to go out whenever he wanted. He only needed to ask someone and that they did not want him to feel like he had been locked in.
After our meeting with the administrator last week it was decided we would have a meeting with the administrator, head nurse and social worker to discuss the options for my father. It seemed too complicated to get us all together so I had an abreviated meeting with just the social worker over the phone. She said they considered moving my father into another section where there are no locked doors which would allow him to leave anytime.
My sister and I have apprehension about this, as well as the above mentioned staff. We are not certain he would always be able to find his way back and after walking with him in town I am concerned he may not notice an oncoming car. So we decided it would be safest for him to stay in the Browning unit but somehow allow him access to the outside, attended.
Toward the end of our walk my father asked me if we could go up to his house as he wanted to charge a battery for his tractor. I tried to think of other options for charging it, such as have me do it on the way home as I live a mile from his home. But he persisted and we drove up to his house. It was around 9pm when we pulled into his darkened driveway. He asked me if we were at Bud's house as he didn't recognize where we were. I told him this was his home, we got out and everything became familiar to him. He checked the heating oil level, started his truck up, opened his front door and we walked in finding everything just as he left it.
He perused through his many most cherished items making sure they were there and finding many other things that interested him. He was proud of the fact that he knew where most of the items had come from, from whom he purchased them from or some seemingly otherwise unimportant fact.
He excitedly said, "I don't know how I remember all this stuff Kev, I just do!"
He asked me to confirm his reason for excitement which I did as I wondered how he was able to retain so much info when yesterday my sister told me he was clueless about where he was, people and even food.
Yesterday has probably been his worst day. She said he was very despondent. I planned on visiting him with my middle son but when I picked him up at school he told me he was feeling like he may have the flue. So I decided not to visit my dad.
After driving home I got to work around 1:30 and worked til 6:30pm on a website that I had made good progress on. Then I jumped in my truck and drove over to Sentry Hill to visit my dad.
When I walked into the common area I was approached by one of the kitchen staff and was told my father offered her $5 to take him outside.
I found him in his room with the door closed. I knocked and he said, "who is it."
I said, "Kevin." I pushed the door open and walked in. He had been lying on his bed. I sat in a chair and asked how he was. He looked pretty good and didn't complain. I asked if he would like to take a walk or go for a ride. He said he had no preference so we walked.
We took a nice walk, probably just under 2 miles, up York Street and through the center of town and returned via Woodbridge Road. He was very lucid and insistent that I explain what had been told to me by the social worker. I explained that she told me he would be allowed to go out whenever he wanted. He only needed to ask someone and that they did not want him to feel like he had been locked in.
After our meeting with the administrator last week it was decided we would have a meeting with the administrator, head nurse and social worker to discuss the options for my father. It seemed too complicated to get us all together so I had an abreviated meeting with just the social worker over the phone. She said they considered moving my father into another section where there are no locked doors which would allow him to leave anytime.
My sister and I have apprehension about this, as well as the above mentioned staff. We are not certain he would always be able to find his way back and after walking with him in town I am concerned he may not notice an oncoming car. So we decided it would be safest for him to stay in the Browning unit but somehow allow him access to the outside, attended.
Toward the end of our walk my father asked me if we could go up to his house as he wanted to charge a battery for his tractor. I tried to think of other options for charging it, such as have me do it on the way home as I live a mile from his home. But he persisted and we drove up to his house. It was around 9pm when we pulled into his darkened driveway. He asked me if we were at Bud's house as he didn't recognize where we were. I told him this was his home, we got out and everything became familiar to him. He checked the heating oil level, started his truck up, opened his front door and we walked in finding everything just as he left it.
He perused through his many most cherished items making sure they were there and finding many other things that interested him. He was proud of the fact that he knew where most of the items had come from, from whom he purchased them from or some seemingly otherwise unimportant fact.
He excitedly said, "I don't know how I remember all this stuff Kev, I just do!"
He asked me to confirm his reason for excitement which I did as I wondered how he was able to retain so much info when yesterday my sister told me he was clueless about where he was, people and even food.
Yesterday has probably been his worst day. She said he was very despondent. I planned on visiting him with my middle son but when I picked him up at school he told me he was feeling like he may have the flue. So I decided not to visit my dad.
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