Going to the doctor

We had a little bit of rain last night. I stayed up far too late reading e-mail and fell asleep on the couch. This morning was pretty tame: Dad had her at the table by the time I got up. So I made us both breakfast. After breakfast, I washed and dressed her and brushed her teeth. Then I bathed myself and dressed. I gave her a job picking foam off the back of the couch cover. I tried to find velcro to fix her wheelchair bag. She had me go through most of the boxes in the closet before concluding that she didn't have any. I found one side of a strip from something Grandma saved and I used that. I also sewed a sock Dad brought to me with a hole in it. I juiced up a large batch of veggie juice. We all had some and there was a cup leftover for supper. We had an early lunch, and then went to see Dr. Klatter out past the church. She spent an hour with us answering questions and telling us that she wasn't ready to accept the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease, and that she wanted another neurologist's opinion. But she said there was no reason not to expect Mom to continue to decline. When we left there, Dad decided to stop by Swift Creek Adult Day Care to check the place out. It is very small, and costs $56 for a 6 hour day. The director seemed very nice and thought Mom was an excellent candidate for their program. I still want Dad to check out Lucy Corr Day Care because they have an associated full service around-the-clock facility. That could come in handy if Dad gets sick. We went home for supper. It took awhile for Dad to get their food ready so I gave Mom a glass of the remaining veggie juice, and some coconut milk. After supper Dad took her out for a spin in her wheelchair. I stayed behind to work on the quilt. I had put together the binding strips this morning and pinned it to the quilt this afternoon. So this evening I started sewing it on. I moved the sewing machine to the dining room table and turned on the ipod and speakers for some classical music. When Dad finished wheeling her, he popped his head in to say that he was taking her for a walk. I figured they couldn't get far. When I saw him next, he had blood on him and said she had fallen. I went out to the back porch. She was lying oddly there and I thought the worst. But while he went to get a wheelchair, she told me nothing was broken so I sat her up and and saw her scraped elbow. Dad put her in the chair and wheeled her inside. She said she wanted grapes, so I washed some for her while Dad hunted Bacitracin and bandaids. He cleaned the scrape and put a small bandaid on it. Then she ate a banana while he hunted hydrogen peroxide to get the blood spot out of his pants. She ate mushroom soup while we applied the hydrogen peroxide. It did not work completely and we wondered if that was because it was out of date. Then she wanted carrots. She really worked up an appetite! Finally we took her to the back for bed. But she had defecated, and we had to cut her Depends off. Don't want to say too much but it was an ordeal and at least there were two of us to handle it. I brushed her teeth and put her to bed. Then I noticed that the bandaid had come off and she was bleeding again. So I reapplied the Bacitracin and put a much larger bandaid on it. Then Dad and I sat in the den to chill and chat, resting up now that the work was over. Then he went to bed, while I stayed up to write to my blog.
* Posts that the backyard neighbor installed up against my Dad's fence. The pink string marks the property line. *