Relocating Grandpa, friction, cautious moves forward, bee news, a new doctor

News from the hospital is that Grandpa will be relocated to a facility here in Decatur sometime tomorrow. The extended care/rehab facility comes highly recommended by friends and church family, so we are excited by the possibility of having him closer. Today Grandpa walked the hallway of the hospital with the assistance of a walker, but he was, according to Norman, doing very well with his step control on his right side. If he can get the care and physical therapy needed, he could recover almost completely. Hallelujah! Of course, Grandma is ecstatic about the recovery, but she superimposes far too much expectation that this will all be over in a few days and she and Grandpa can get on with their lives as they used to do. That is that Grandpa will be able to take care of her and they can be somewhere all on their own. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Time will tell. My expectation is we can clearly see a path forward by late September or early October.  

For now, Mama is doing her best in dealing with Grandma’s drastic mood swings. Grandma will move from loving and deeply appreciative of all the help she is getting to hatefully and angrily telling us that no one really cares about her and what she needs. It is definitely challenging. Sunday evening, we seemed to have all agreed on buying a bumper pull camper, placing it on the property here and moving Grandma and Grandpa into that RV. However, as soon as Grandma took the slightest offence to something said or done, she proclaimed that Grandpa would not be happy living here on the property with us. Whether or not that is true, I cannot know, but I am thankful we did not rush to spend $8,000 to buy the camper she was excited about just a few days ago, but now discounts entirely.

When she was complaining yesterday evening that Mama did not do something Grandma expected her to do - even though she gave no indication of what needed to be done – Grandma got very snippy. I gently advised Grandma that we were including her into our lives as best we can and providing the best we have to offer of everything we have available to us. Her response was, “Well. I didn’t ask for any of this!” My reply was “Grandpa did not ask to have a stroke. Yet, here we are, and we can still make the most of this and help each other out.” I truly believe that is why they are here versus stranded in Florida with very little help available to them. There is always the potential for friction in these situations, but with Mama’s family, the friction is pretty much a guarantee. Don’t get me wrong. I have a problem rolling over and playing dead, so I contribute my share to the friction, but if we try, I believe we can make it through this and still love each other.

For the next few weeks, we will hold where we are and see how best to provide for Grandma and Grandpa without bankrupting ourselves in the process. My goal in these arrangements is not to spend money unnecessarily. That is to say, I want to avoid spending thousands of dollars to duplicate what we can already offer them here.  When they finally decide what they would prefer as far as living space, I will do my best to help them accomplish that goal, but I will jealously guard against wasteful spending or unnecessary debt. I know if we make this situation a matter of prayer, the Lord will give us not only the wisdom to meet their needs but also the unique opportunities needed to do so.

Over my lunch hour today, I filled the syrup feeders in all three hives – they were bone dry – and I replaced three of the four frames into the hive from which they were taken so the bees could clean up and salvage any honey and wax from the frames. Even with the extractor, I know I did not get all the honey removed from the frames, so the bees will be able to recover all the residue on the cells of each frame. Perhaps, this will give them a head start on honey that I will try to harvest in the Fall. The good news is that all the hives are doing well. There are several things I need to do still in maintaining the hives, but those upgrades will wait until Saturday.

I will be teaching classes tomorrow and Thursday. Thursday is a half day class. It is one of the courses I do not get to teach often. It is also one of the courses I created, so it is fun to teach. That and the fact that there is no test associated with the course makes it enjoyable to present.

I met my new Primary Care Physician yesterday evening. I believe I will enjoy working with him on some of the ongoing issues I have. His specialty is diabetic care, but he also takes on general patients. We spent over and hour chatting as he updated and annotated my brief record. Since I am a new patient, I will be tested on a few items of concern to him initially, but the list of required lab work was brief. All my records from my previous PCP will hopefully be forwarded to his office this week and he will be able to catch up on my history.

We will see how things turn out in the longer term, but for now I am pleased with the change. So much so that Mama, Grandma and Grandpa are all scheduling appointments with him in the very near future based solely on my assessment of this doctor.

I certainly hope they all share my assessment when they meet him.