Lois Lane checking in
Carly and I got to my dad's yesterday morning and got busy cleaning. To put it as nicely as possible, it was pretty gross. My dad has a laundry chute which goes to the basement, but the basement is damp, so stuff he had not bothered to wash, was covered with mold. About 10 loads of moldy clothes. I filled the tub with hot bleach water and soaked the worst of it, while starting on the rest.
I had called my younger brother, Chris, on the way over and invited him over to help. He came with food at about noon and after lunch we sat down with my dad for a chat. He was very lucid yesterday and that was certainly a blessing.
I started off by telling him that everyone I knew who knew him wanted him to be in assisted living. No surprise there. I told him they were going to start the process of making that happen on Monday and if he wanted to stay in his house, then there had to be some changes made. Now. You could tell that surprised him.
That got his attention. He agreed to be agreeable. I'm hoping praying this will be better if we can get him to take his medicine. I found several unopened bottles of medicine he had gotten filled, but never bothered to take - some from as far back as May.
A couple of hours later we had a plan of action. I will be contacting his doctor this morning to try to get him an appointment today. I will also be contacting the antique mall where he has booths to tell them he won't be continuing and to arrange to come get his stuff. I will be calling an auction firm to set up an auction to get rid of the 3 barns full of stuff that we would otherwise have to deal with someday. He agreed to give us his POA over his personal as well as his medical stuff. I downloaded those papers last night at my mom's and will take those to him this morning. The most important thing is he agreed to take his medicine that the doctor prescribed for his memory. He had been given samples for 4 months, but hadn't taken them, since he would have to pay for them after that.
He took the first one yesterday. If this drug works as it should, it should buy him several more years of independent living. But with the new lowered price on his house, hopefully it will sell soon. Then he agreed to move into an either an apartment close to David and me or an assisted living home.
Lastly, he has agreed to not drive without first getting his medicine regulated and being cleared by the doctor to do so.
I'm sure there's other things on my list, but I have lots to do, so I gotta get going. Thank you all for your prayers. Please pray that when I get there today, he remembers agreeing to all this.
As I was bringing up yet another load of clothes from the basement, he was sitting in his recliner and he grabbed my hand as I went by. With tears in his eyes, he quietly told me thank you. If he only remembered how much I have to thank him for, he would know that wasn't necessary.
