Friday, August 29, 2008

The "joys" of having older relatives.

Well, I just put my aunt in a nursing home. She hasn't been the same since she was mugged almost two years ago. Due to her osteoperosis, she fractured her hip in that incident. Since she's never been married (and no kids), I ended up with the duty of taking care of her.

She still has two sisters who are living (my mom and her oldest sister) but Mom has dementia and my older aunt is in a care home so that leaves them out. Her #2 sister passed away a couple of years ago. I have a cousin but he's been taking care of his Mom and works full time and my sister is in Dallas so she really can't help. Since I have my own business, my schedule is a bit more flexible.

She did go into a care home last year while she recovered from her initial mugging but had to go back in at the first of the year because she couldn't take care of herself. Being hard headed and not listening to instructions from her caregiver resulted in a fall which fractured her hip so bad that she had to go into surgery. After surgery, she was put into the Rehab hospital but that lasted about a week because she could not perform her therapy sessions.

Thus she's in a nursing home on a (hopefully) short term basis while they try and get her walking again (at least with a walker). They will continue to do therapy there but on a less rigorous regime.

I know her mind is still good because she is a motor mouth and won't stop talking even though you're trying not to listen. If she shut up without being asked to, I would then worry about her state of mind and her health.

As my Mom says... "Don't get old..."