October 2019 Brookdale

 We moved Mom and Dad into Brookdale Assisted Living Center on October 17. They are slowly settling in. I don't have any photos of their furnished apartment yet.  We still haven't hung anything on the walls yet and Mom's trying to get organized and still is trying to find things because *I* was the one who emptied boxes and suitcases and probably hid too many things. ha.  No, not really. I did unpack, but some of their drawers were already packed and she has to sort through a lot of stuff.

 We want them to be involved in the community, so I forced them to attend "Sit and be fit" the other day.  Home health is coming in to treat Dad's bedsores on his bum. Poor guy. But he just SITS. All the time. He needs to get up more and let them heal. But getting up is hard. Standing is hard. Walking is hard.  Even sit and be fit isn't the best, but at least he gets up to walk there and has to walk back. This time, we (Mom and I) walked down the hall and back with him for a bit more exercise. After the short class of sitting and moving, the longer walk down the hall and back, he was ready for a nap.  But they had to trek on down to lunch instead.

 The halls and nice and wide and roomy. Dad does know his room number. He has some good memory moments, but does still forget lots. He repeats. He repeats. A lot. A lot. That's hard for Mom. He is still adjusting, too.  Mom and I left to go check on prescriptions at Smiths and when we returned, he was still tucked into his recliner right where we left him. But he was afraid to move and had become so warm and uncomfortable.  And that made him grumpy and cross. But then he apologized to Mom for being so cross.  He apologized multiple times.  We don't know why he didn't just take off the top of his snuggy till he cooled down. . . but it didn't occur to him, I suppose. He is comfortable being up and down all night like he was in Georgia.  He makes it to the bathroom and doesn't leave and go down the hall, so that's a good thing. ;-)  It could happen.

Here's the cute kitty that was hanging out in the Halloween decorations in front of Smith's.

Below is the apartment under renovations. They just re-pained and re-did the flooring after the last occupant left.  They can make it their own and we hope to help them become more comfortable, more strong and more social during the coming days, weeks, months and years.