Friday, December 4, 2009

Full Disclosure

My own personal excitement for today was that as I used the computer today I noticed that we lost another of our Goldfish from our pond since he/she was lying on her side.
This all was during a tremendous downpour that was pretty much the theme of most of today, the dry season of the south!
There was a short window of opportunity of non rain for a short while and so I chose that time to go out and verify that the Goldie had come to the end of his life cycle, and with my walker I maneuvered myself to the side yard to retrieve the net for just such occasions and I was able to pull back the protective netting over the pond and capture the dead fishy on top of it. As I balanced the net with the fish on top of it I made my way towards the canal to place him gently amongst his comrades. I slowly got the netting into position and tossed him towards the water, but he only made it onto the shoreline and so I decided to go closer to make his body go into the drink, but alas I lost hold of my walker, and it too fell into the canal or mud would be a better explanation since the tide was out.
My wonderful neighbors across the canal yelled don’t move and they drove around the block and came to my rescue!
How embarrassing, but I am very thankful they were there!

Now onto more important information…
To be fair I am no doctor, and Hubby’s Mom has always been somewhat of a packrat.
But the reports from Hubby’s visual of what he has been experiencing over the last two days would indicate to anybody that his Mom has gone over the top with saving things.
Hallways, bathrooms, basement and garage as well as the guest bedroom as well as her own, all this finds Hubby having to maneuver around the boxes and he can only access his bed from one of the two sides; the whole home is full of boxes! Of papers of things she hasn’t had a chance to get to; some were nine years old by the dates he read. Only one of the two bathrooms are accessible and that one had a bad toilet that Hubby I suspect has already fixed since I do know they were picking up the appropriate parts at the discount store where they also were picking up groceries, since Mom neglected to get those. All she had in the frig was some eggs, milk and frozen chicken in her freezer compartment.
Now some might think that this might be because of unforeseen financial difficulties, but it is definitely NOT the case. Mom is quite solvent with pensions, stocks, bonds, real-estate, investments and a fully paid for condo that is worth a few hundred thousand.
So what gives you ask? She is not well and apparently from all logical information she is suffering from OCD or Obsessive Compulsive disorder, which manifests itself in hoarding, which is treatable; if she is willing to go the route with anti-depressants and major counseling.
Today I spoke with eldercare (www.eldercare.gov) in her area; somehow she was already in their system.
Apparently, someone from her senior center happened to mention that she was having difficulty feeding herself.
Not true, she can feed herself fine she just doesn’t feel grocery shopping is necessary.
She wants freebies like today, a free lecture and lunch was how my Hubby got something to eat, and the only transportation was a friend and her husband from her senior group who also took them to the discount store after, since Mom still hasn’t found her registration or insurance card for her car in her garage!

Hubby is quite upset with his Mom’s situation, but he and I are not giving up on her yet!
She wants to live on her own, and by all means we want what she wants for herself…independence, but realistically she needs some help.
And she has to decide that is what she will have to do in order to keep that independence.
It is evident that no one but Hubby and his sister have entered her home in quite some time, she visits her friends, or like to today she waited for their car in front of her home and went outside to hop in their car!
I at least think that no one else is aware of what she is going through or something would have been done to help her, and I don’t mean how her daughter was trying to by putting her away, besides that was helping Sissy more than Mom, that’s way too over the top for what should be done!
What’s needed more than anything is medication and counseling and an in house intervention.
She only seems to save papers not garbage and pets, but still in overwhelming amounts and also I would think a fire hazard. They must be removed.

I can only hope that the case worker that was supposed to meet with Mom last month and apparently didn’t will contact Hubby before he leaves next week! I have her number for Hubby to call her and he will most likely have to on Monday!

Good night to all and to all count your blessings and I will too!

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