3 January 2025
Joyce is still in bed getting her dressing changed by Binita the RN when Christina and I arrived at Golden Heights yesterday. I help Binita get the Ace bandage on by holding Joyce's leg up and promised to bring the three dirty bandages back tomorrow.
I brought a clean top, slip and skirt for Joyce so I could take the dirty ones home to wash.
Then I ask Binita about the Roho seat cushion ($144) sitting on the chair in its box with Joyce's name on it. Yes, it's for Joyce, she says, and puts it together for her. Apparently that hadn't occurred to anyone.
I get Joyce up and in the chair and we take a tour of the place, seeing the fish and popping into the Pacific Room. We weigh her (about the same considering the cushion and her jacket).
Then we go to the gym to work on the Spirit Cycle until the SciFit is free. She works on that while Deb the Reliant rehab coordinator comes over to chat about the situation after their Tuesday conference.
She tells me they've stopped the therapy sessions because the only time she cooperates is when I'm there. And if she refuses, there is nothing they can do. She acknowledges it's the dementia.
Instead they've transitioned her to just Golden Heights staff to help getting her in the chair and assisting her while walking. They went there this morning to get her up but she refused. So they did nothing. She called to tell me not to come, in fact.
Then Deb talks about sending her home and preparing the house for her with a hospital bed that rises so I don't hurt my back changing her diaper as apparently she finishes her days on this earth in bed.
That all sounds quite unrealistic to me, given my situation, and I tell her that. She says they're following my case with Kaiser.
She would hate to move her to another facility, she says, but a room-and-board would be half the cost of this one. Even less, actually.
I take her back to the hallway to have lunch but she barely touches the meat ravioli which has been pulverized.
My plan today is to leave her in the chair rather than put her back in bed because she's been in bed way too long. She should be sitting up most of the day, not laying in bed.
So I rearrange the furniture so the chair fits next to the bed facing the TV with the call button within reach and I find the Sugar Bowl on the TV. She decides to root for Notre Dame over Georgia. So I wish her luck and go home with Christina, who has heard everything today.
On the way out, I tell Sheik the CNA she's in the chair and to leave her there a while before helping her back to bed. He laughs.