April brings May showers but also new diagnosis...

The Long Term Care insurance company declined the first application, not surprisingly I guess (cynical) so we re-submitted with more careful work from the doctor. When we were in the doctor's office (so I could personally oversee his filling out the form), he said aloud her diagnosis - dementia.

Mom's reaction was swift.

"Dementia?" But he explained it very nicely, that at her age, it's the body's way of helping her to let go, to lose track, and with good support around her, it is not really a problem. It's OK to let it happen.

So, she starts to giggle. She LOVED it! As she went back to her home, she stopped people in the halls - some she barely knew - and said, "My doctor just diagnosed me with the early stages of dementia!", accompanied by waves of giggles.

Yep. Exactly so.

And, during April we've had one (or was it two?) hospitalizations. She went in for atrial fibrillation that wouldn't stop. And her cardiac cath, but I think I've already described that.

I finally got a three-month supply of her meds. That will ease the complexity of all these last-minute refills.

She's also had daily low-blood-sugar events. We brought her to an endocrinologist for her diabetes, who adjusted her insulin dosage and asked for more readings of her blood sugars. The 'home' will help administer and log those - at $10 a pop, it will end up at $600 a month, but perhaps we only need to keep that rigid of records for a month or six weeks. But it's worth it - she utterly could not keep track of that many sticks.

I had her out for a family dinner last night with my friends from Colorado and my kids and grandkids. It was loud and raucous and fun - she mostly sat there, interacted when prompted, then just enjoyed being around people. About 7:00 she was ready to go home.

We have discussed getting a wheel chair (for outings, to conserve her energy and speed up the travel) and a walker (for walking outside of the home, since the home has railings everywhere). She was open to it. Now I just have to figure out how to get them (with Medicare). Sigh.