Another whirlwind of a week. Grandma (my mother-in-law) has been discharged, some decorating progress and more things are going wrong.
Seven weeks after her mini stroke and several lurchy moments with her health, I’m pleased to say Grandma has now been discharged from the rehab unit in Bedford. She is in a nursing home, just a few miles away.
She is settling into quarantine life in solitary confinement, although there is always someone with her as constant supervision is required. Hopefully this can be relaxed once she is a little more reliable and “compliant”.
As for the Continuing Healthcare Funding, we aren’t sure what’s going on at the moment. Ahead of her discharge, the rehab unit (which is part of the NHS) completed a screening tool which was sufficient to trigger a full assessment. We feel as if the staff in the rehab unit have a good understanding of her needs and are sympathetic towards us, this is positive and reassuring. Following on from this, interim funding was approved and the wheels were turning for her to move into a nursing home.
Then at 6:28pm on the day before she was due to be transported to the nursing home, the funding has been lowered to below the normal rate charged by the nursing home and this doesn’t include the 24/7 supervision which is required. The nursing home, I should say, is definitely not the most expensive around here but does seem pretty good. The nursing home’s manager was exasperated by the funding situation but seemed confident it would be sorted out in the future.
We have decided to step back and let things sort themselves out in the short term, while we have an advocacy firm primed to take action when decisions are made. During this time we imagine Grandma can become more settled and an updated assessment of her nursing needs can then take place.
The Pink Room
The so-called Pink Room has never looked very pink to me, so the choice of colour was pretty obvious when it came to redecorating the room. Thankfully this has been fairly straightforward although the high ceiling was a challenge.
As you can see from the above photo, I have been captured screwing in the final – and previously forgotten – screw into the IKEA daybed.
I have used some beeswax polish on a handsome tallboy (which is significantly taller than me) and this has improved the appearance nicely. There is a real beauty to the antique veneers, a lovely warm range of colours which is quite something. Having said that, I do think it needs some further polishing to make up for decades of neglect. Speaking of which, one of the legs gave way when it was being moved and is currently propped up on one side to keep it safe, so not entirely elegant at the moment. Some proper repair work is needed, or even a new home.
All this was done in time for my mother to pay us a visit over the weekend.
Things going wrong
I seem to be blogging more and more about the things going wrong, here in the Dusty Museum. There seem to be so many things which are fragile, brittle, dried out, jammed, painted over, crumbling, imperial size, wonky, creaky, crammed full and frustrations everywhere.
On the bright side, last week the plumber succeeded in fitting a working power shower – it’s like being hosed down in a monsoon, none of those gentle drizzles anymore! Never mind the water meter either!
Our friend Val investigated the earthing and found no immediate danger (Rachel’s shock has been put down to static) although there are a number of, well, shall we say “areas for improvement”. That wasn’t a surprise and we’ll probably get these things sorted, although I do think all the plumbing, heating and wiring needs replacing. £ouch. And naturally while that’s being done, we would naturally think of other necessary improvements and modifications. £OUCH! We need to keep things in perspective and think about the longer term plan; we certainly don’t have a bottomless pit of money.
To cap it all, today the microwave made a funny noise and has now stopped working. That is the talking LG microwave we got for Grandma a few years back, while she was still able to use it. At least we have a spare – an early c.1978 Sharp microwave in the laundry and this works fine. I did, however, retrieve from the garage a basic microwave which Hannah bought for one of her poverty stricken student pads, so that is now earning its keep in the kitchen.
And me, I’ve just finished a course of antibiotics for the first urinary tract infection since January. That’s quite good going!
Despite the frustrations….
….I am still enjoying being here in the Dusty Museum. It helps if I can be moving us forward a little each day. Fix something, paint something, see some clutter go, delight in something. It’s all heading in the right direction but we just don’t know where. We don’t, to put it bluntly, know how long Grandma has left and this situation overshadows our normal conversations about our future adventures.
Speaking of adventures, this is our adventure now, here in the Dusty Museum. We are in a new village and yet one which we know quite well and its where Rachel grew up. We like chatting to our neighbours and passers-by. We long for further adventures and greater freedoms but for now, I’m content here with our current adventure in the Dusty Museum.