Tangible proof that not only did March exist, but at some point in there I contributed to something at work. Kinda. If you take a few steps back and squint...
(Original post explaining the trophy's origins here.)
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Intermission with Trophy
Tangible proof that not only did March exist, but at some point in there I contributed to something at work. Kinda. If you take a few steps back and squint...
(Original post explaining the trophy's origins here.)
Monday, April 18, 2011
Moving Day
So, it's been a stressful week. Hell, it's been a stressful month and a half, but the preceding week or so has been particularly stressful.
The staff at Grandpa's rehab center, which once went all-out trying to figure out what was wrong with him, has done a complete 180, hiding behind bureaucratic technicalities and health care system flaws so they can essentially wash their hands of dealing with him. (I won't get into details here, except for a question. On TV shows like Law & Order, a big deal is made of mental competence when it comes to trials and convictions; a mentally incompetent person is not allowed to make legal decisions for themselves, and may not be held accountable for their own actions or words. Why, then, in reality, does the word of a hard-of-hearing man diagnosed with dementia, who has had major brain trauma in his recent medical history and is very likely suffering from sleep deprivation and/or depression, constitute a sufficient excuse for doctors and nurses to shrug their shoulders and say he doesn't need assistance?) I'd say that they're just overwhelmed, packed to the gills with an influx of rehab patients, but to be perfectly blunt about it they're supposed to be trained to deal with it. Grandpa's paying just as much as everyone else; he should be worth some of their precious time and effort.
Fortunately, Grandpa won't be stuck there much longer. Tomorrow (or today, rather, as it just cleared midnight), he's scheduled to move into a small group home. The person in charge seems like just the kind of person Grandpa needs in charge of his situation right now, someone who won't accept malingering or stubbornness as an excuse not to push oneself. Hopefully, the change in surroundings and extra attention will perk him up.
With any luck, having Grandpa out of the neglectful rehab clinic and into a better (we hope) situation will ease some of the stress.
Can't say I'm holding my breath on that, though...
MONDAY UPDATE - Well, Grandpa was moved today. He took it surprisingly well... as in, he mostly slept through the transfer process. We're just as glad to see the backside of that danged clinic, though... they hadn't even bothered washing his hands, even with signs all over about using hand sanitizer.
Today we saw some of the strangest clouds we'd seen in a long time, with some of the wildest weather shifts. The March lion seems to be lingering overlong this year... unless this really was some manner of airborne leviathan.
The staff at Grandpa's rehab center, which once went all-out trying to figure out what was wrong with him, has done a complete 180, hiding behind bureaucratic technicalities and health care system flaws so they can essentially wash their hands of dealing with him. (I won't get into details here, except for a question. On TV shows like Law & Order, a big deal is made of mental competence when it comes to trials and convictions; a mentally incompetent person is not allowed to make legal decisions for themselves, and may not be held accountable for their own actions or words. Why, then, in reality, does the word of a hard-of-hearing man diagnosed with dementia, who has had major brain trauma in his recent medical history and is very likely suffering from sleep deprivation and/or depression, constitute a sufficient excuse for doctors and nurses to shrug their shoulders and say he doesn't need assistance?) I'd say that they're just overwhelmed, packed to the gills with an influx of rehab patients, but to be perfectly blunt about it they're supposed to be trained to deal with it. Grandpa's paying just as much as everyone else; he should be worth some of their precious time and effort.
Fortunately, Grandpa won't be stuck there much longer. Tomorrow (or today, rather, as it just cleared midnight), he's scheduled to move into a small group home. The person in charge seems like just the kind of person Grandpa needs in charge of his situation right now, someone who won't accept malingering or stubbornness as an excuse not to push oneself. Hopefully, the change in surroundings and extra attention will perk him up.
With any luck, having Grandpa out of the neglectful rehab clinic and into a better (we hope) situation will ease some of the stress.
Can't say I'm holding my breath on that, though...
MONDAY UPDATE - Well, Grandpa was moved today. He took it surprisingly well... as in, he mostly slept through the transfer process. We're just as glad to see the backside of that danged clinic, though... they hadn't even bothered washing his hands, even with signs all over about using hand sanitizer.
Today we saw some of the strangest clouds we'd seen in a long time, with some of the wildest weather shifts. The March lion seems to be lingering overlong this year... unless this really was some manner of airborne leviathan.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
April, Already?
Time flies when reality's in limbo...
The days have been getting away from me for the better part of a month. Aside from writing, I've managed to drop the ball on most everything I've meant to do. Sketchbook consumption is down to a crawl. Craft projects are just not happening. I'm even having trouble just sitting down to read books, which means my April update at Brightdreamer Books is going to be so anemic it probably won't happen. Don't even ask how I've been doing on the exercise front, though I can blame the unusually wet and scuzzy weather for that one. (Well, I probably shouldn't, but I choose to anyways.)
On the other hand, over at Grandpa's house, things are moving along pretty well. Rooms are being painted, fixtures are being updated... all sorts of little things that need doing after a few decades of use are finally getting dealt with. So, whatever happens, at least the place will look decent when we're done.
Grandpa himself is not progressing as well as one might hope. Some days he'll feed himself and notice surroundings and be able to talk for an hour or so. Others he just isn't there. At this point, we're suspecting that it could be sleep related. Evidently, older people sometimes have trouble getting enough deep sleep (REM stages 3 and 4.) In other words, just because he's sleeping most of the day doesn't mean he's really sleeping deeply enough to rest. If this is true in Grandpa, that could be the invisible key to his inexplicable shifts from reasonably coherent to nearly comatose, since nothing else changes in his routine from day to day. I don't know if there's anything that can be done to ensure proper sleep, or at least improve the odds, or even if this is what's really going on to baffle family and staff alike, but I'd feel better if we can put our fingers on a cause.
Maybe then April won't be the lost cause that March seems to have been.
The days have been getting away from me for the better part of a month. Aside from writing, I've managed to drop the ball on most everything I've meant to do. Sketchbook consumption is down to a crawl. Craft projects are just not happening. I'm even having trouble just sitting down to read books, which means my April update at Brightdreamer Books is going to be so anemic it probably won't happen. Don't even ask how I've been doing on the exercise front, though I can blame the unusually wet and scuzzy weather for that one. (Well, I probably shouldn't, but I choose to anyways.)
On the other hand, over at Grandpa's house, things are moving along pretty well. Rooms are being painted, fixtures are being updated... all sorts of little things that need doing after a few decades of use are finally getting dealt with. So, whatever happens, at least the place will look decent when we're done.
Grandpa himself is not progressing as well as one might hope. Some days he'll feed himself and notice surroundings and be able to talk for an hour or so. Others he just isn't there. At this point, we're suspecting that it could be sleep related. Evidently, older people sometimes have trouble getting enough deep sleep (REM stages 3 and 4.) In other words, just because he's sleeping most of the day doesn't mean he's really sleeping deeply enough to rest. If this is true in Grandpa, that could be the invisible key to his inexplicable shifts from reasonably coherent to nearly comatose, since nothing else changes in his routine from day to day. I don't know if there's anything that can be done to ensure proper sleep, or at least improve the odds, or even if this is what's really going on to baffle family and staff alike, but I'd feel better if we can put our fingers on a cause.
Maybe then April won't be the lost cause that March seems to have been.
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