Resident Care Conference

Tuesday, July 12th, 2016

I got to the meeting room early and was asked to wait outside.
There was a group of people, most of whom I did not recognize.
I recognized the LPN and the music therapist.
The first person was the RN and she said mom had edema.
In general, it sounded like mom was doing fine.
There was concern that Donna was too controlling.
They thought mom was perhaps not joining in activities that she could be doing because Donna did not want to participate.
Both Mom and Donna like music and enjoy singing.
Mom's medication seems to have been brought back down again.  They had increased it at the beginning, probably to keep her calm, but I had asked them to bring down the dosage.   I'm concerned about side effects.  I also asked about the Aricept as the psychiatrist had told me that it would only work for about 6 months to a year.  If it is not helping her, she probably shouldn't be taking it.  They said they would administer another memory test.  I think mom got like 3 right last time.
Mom has gained about 20 pounds.
I asked about the swelling of her calves.  Later the LPN came and checked mom's calves and confirmed that she did not have edema.
I asked about which activities mom wasn't participating in.  Mom doesn't like arts and crafts.  She says she isn't artistic.  I added that mom needs a lot of one-on-one attention and cuing.
She doesn't even know what to do with a toothbrush.
The biggest issue is the "do not resuscitate" order.  I asked that she be resuscitated.  I'll have to change that.

After the conference I had lunch with mom and the girls.  We started with potato and leek soup.  I thought it was pretty good.  We had hamburgers and french fries. Mom's took a long time to come and they were late with her ice cream too.  Ailene pointed out to staff that mom didn't have her burger yet.  She's looking out for mom now.

I asked everyone how old they were.  Donna knew what year she born and she had her birthday already which makes her 80.  Mom will be 82 and Ailene is 87.  Ailene said that her relatives were back east.  She said that her younger brother had passed away about a month ago.  The youngest brother is 67.  She said she was the oldest.

I told everyone that I would be on vacation next week at music camp.  Turns out that Jackie plays the ukelele too.  Mom did not seem to clue in to the fact that I would be away next week.  She didn't seem upset at all.

After lunch we went to the dog park.  Mom and Donna were enjoying being outside and watching the dogs.

We came back to participate in a gardening activity.  We watched some Youtube videos about trimming tomato plants.  Most of the residents watched politely, but one man, Edward, said he wanted to go back to his room with his wife.  They are quite the pair.  There are at least two couples that seem to have dementia.  The recreation leader asked if they would stay just a bit longer.  Then real tomato plants were brought in and mom and Donna got to share a plant to prune.  Donna has bad arthritis so she didn't want to use the pruning shears.  She asked mom to do the pruning, but mom said she didn't want to and gave the shears back to Donna.  I was going to prune the plant, but mom didn't like what I was doing and took the shears.  Mom started pruning the plant.  She mainly cut off the flower buds that were already dying.

I saw Gerry waiting in the wings.  She was obviously interested in what was going on.  I invited her to join us.  Mom and Gerry argued silently about which parts to cut.  Gerry wanted to cut off all the flowers around the tomato plants and mom just wanted to cut the flowers that were dying.  They compromised.  Mom cut one of the thriving flowers.

Soon it was over.  Gerry seemed disappointed.  I thought coffee was going to be served so I asked her to join us.  Mom and Donna left to go to the washroom.  I brought mom back because she said she didn't need to go to the washroom.  Meanwhile I went to wash the cherries and blueberries I had brought.  By the time I got back, mom went to the washroom.  Eventually we all sat together and ate the cherries and blue berries.  Coffee was late.  I asked Gerry how to sign "late."

Ailene came by. I thought she was going to join us for coffee, but she just came to show me her brother's obituary.  She was very proud of her brother.