I arrived safe and sound on Monday and Ellie was there to pick me up. The flight was on time and there was no extraordinary construction on the 401 so I was at Mom’s by about 2:00. She was thrilled to see me.
For the most part, she seems fine – there were odd moments here and there where I noticed lapses but overall, she was fairly competent. There are definite deficits in the problem solving realm, however.
I have decided we need to sort out her filing cabinet so she has room to file the stuff that is taking over the other surfaces in her den. She is quite reluctant to get rid of old condo board meeting minutes and stuff about pot lucks that she organized 10 years ago. She also has a 2 inch thick file about the garage sales the building used to have. I am trying to throw the stuff out in bits and pieces so it isn’t too obvious. Some she is okay with getting rid of but other stuff … When she is not in the room, I have been quickly adding to the shredding pile and getting rid of some of this. I am keeping far more than I think is necessary but in order to keep her happy, it is necessary.
On Tuesday, I opened the door to the laundry room and just about fell over – the smell was awful. I asked Mom is she had any food in there but she said no. I kept looking around and finally found a bag of liquefied potatoes! She then remembered that she had put them in there a while ago but because she doesn’t use potatoes very often, she forgot about them. I have Febreezed the room several times and it is getting better but there is still a smell. Mom hasn’t had any sense of smell for years and apparently one of her workers doesn’t either and I guess the others didn’t want to comment.
On Thursday, Mom got her bad news. We phoned Motor Vehicles and they confirmed that her license has been revoked for medical reasons. Apparently it was done on the 21st so she should have her letter within a day or so. She is still very angry that the doctors, who have never seen her drive, are allowed to determine that she is not fit to drive. From talking to the person at the Medical Review Board, it appears that the concerns are for her cognitive skills.
We saw her family doctor on Wednesday and Dr. G. said that she is not willing to speculate on why the other doctors decided she is not fit to drive. Dr. G. did, however, give her the name of a company who will do driver testing – we called there and they want $495 to do the test but there are obviously no guarantees that she would pass. Apparently there is a 1-1½ hour computer test (you don’t need computer knowledge to do it) then a ½ hour driving test in a car with dual controls. After a week or so, they let you know if you have passed.
Susan, Mom’s personal support worker, who comes in 5 days a week – in the morning and again just after supper, noticed a dripping sound yesterday. I had heard it but did not think about where it might be coming from. She checked the air conditioner and said that was what she heard. I have never had apartment style air conditioning so I didn’t really know that it should not have a dripping sound. On Wednesday afternoon, while I was clearing out boxes and piles of paper, I found that there was damp spot on the carpet. I realized it was probably related to the dripping sound from the air conditioner. On our way out on Thursday, we talked to the building office manager and she and a cleaning lady came up. They found that the water hose was blocked and was causing the whole thing to overflow. It is all cleaned out now but the blower is not sounding right so the building superintendent, who is on holidays, will need to have a look at it on Monday when he is back. Mom figures this will cost her money and it is necessary to have the work done because she is in a condo apartment so if she doesn’t do it, it could cost her lots of money if anyone else’s apartment suffers damage.
In some ways, this was the deciding factor about the car – sounds convoluted but true. She is very conscious about her budget and refuses to spend unnecessary money on anything. She accidently bought the wrong toothpaste and while she dislikes what she bought, she refuses to buy another tube of what she likes because that will cost her. While this seems like a nonsense issue, because she has to spend money on the air conditioner, she has decided she doesn’t want to risk money on the driving test so she has agreed to give up driving. This is going to be so hard mentally for her because she is not ready to admit she is having problems with her independence.
Today, I need to finish the shredding, vacuum and tidy the den, water plants and a few other odds and ends.
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