Ray received a phone call while walking the dog this morning that Mum will be transferred to Residential Care tomorrow morning early! Talk about fast. They just approved her on Friday and within 5 days she is moving to a long-term care facility. With that call instead of taking the day off , I called the Equipment place to arrange for her wheelchair and air mattress to be delivered tomorrow. Then we were out the door to her apartment to collect whatever we could, her clothes mostly, to take to her new room at the Dania Home on Canada Way and Norland in Burnaby. This facility is only 2 years old and seems to be a nice place. The staff was quite attentive. After setting up her room it was back to the hospital to update Mum and Ray's brother Ryan who happened to be visiting. Now we need to empty out her apartment PDQ. Ray and I stopped by her apartment again, to load up the car with anything going to the care home so Ryan could deal with the rest of the stuff tomorrow.
Ryan had come over by bus so promptly when back home to Qualicum Beach on the ferry after visiting Mum so he could return tomorrow with a van to pack up her apartment. Fortunately he had already taken Thursday off from work.
Thursday, June 22
Ray and I met Ryan at the apartment at 10 am to return Mum's keys etc. After phoning the new place we found out that Mum had already been transferred there at 9am this morning. Ray and I stopped for a quick bite and then made our way to Dania Home to meet up with the Equipment people. Unfortunately, the mattress and pump were not the right fit so she will not get her new one until tomorrow. The wheelchair will need some more adjustments tomorrow as well. Mum did not have a very good day as she was in quite a bit of pain with all of the transfers and was nauseous so did not eat any lunch. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day. While Ray kept Mum company I ferried the rest of her stuff from the car into her room.
Of course it is much more homey now with all of her pictures up on the wall. She also has her own bathroom. She has a lift to get her out of bed and it goes all the way into the bathroom. We did not get back to the motorhome until 3 pm. Ryan texted that he had just finished cleaning out her room at that time as well. Both of Mum's boys are pooped. Hopefully things settle down now. Very thankful that Ryan took on the job of clearing out Mum's furniture for us.
Friday, June 23
We're back at Mum's by 10 am waiting for the technician to come to fix the wheelchair and exchange the air bed. Ray also had a ton of paperwork to return to them on Mum's behalf. The wheelchair back support cushion is still causing her pain so they will have to bring another one on Monday. Ray toured Mum around the facility in her wheelchair to show her where everything is. She is still somewhat confused at times asking for things like her call button when she is being wheeled around in her chair. We left shortly after she got her lunch as we wanted her to interact with the other people at her table and hopefully she will eat.
After seeing Mum it was time to go to the bank so Ray could check that things were all straightened out and he could make sure the care home gets paid etc. Ray has to make sure that he can top up her "slush fund" for laundry, hair cuts etc when we're travelling. We stopped for lunch near the bank at a sushi place. Yummm.
Saturday, June 24
Ray and I were going to take the day off ... that was until Ray found out that Mark had the day off so he quickly put him to work clearing out the shed that will come down by the roofers in the next couple of weeks. Mark also transplanted a few plants that needed to move. I took Larny for some driving practice and did a little bit of grocery shopping. We spent the afternoon outside under the trees trying to stay cool. Mum called us again to tell us she needed to see the doctor right now as she was in "terrible pain". I explained to her that she needed to tell this to her nurse, Valeri, and that she should take her pain shot to help. Mum had told Valeri that she was not taking anything unless her daughter-in-law said to. Mum's called us every day for the last week and a half with things we cannot do for her. This is part of her confusion I guess. Hard to take though, as it is so not like her.
Sunday, June 25
My day to cook for Dad. First however, we will need to go and check on Mum and I am to go through her clothing list with her care aide and make sure she has all of the clothes she will need. Some of her stuff will not work with her unable to move her left arm or leg to get in and out of clothes. They also have a "Country Fair" at the care home today and we would like to take Mum off her floor to see it.
Once Mum is as comfortable as she can be and is used to living at her new place, our plan is to leave on our winter travels mid-September, come home for Christmas to check on Mum and my Dad and then fly back to Phoenix and continue our trip, crossing the border back into Canada mid-March. This of course all depends on how the summer goes. Other than a few trips to the island to visit Kristi and Jason and to Squamish to visit Garrett and Kat, I think that is all that we will have time for this summer while we attend to Mum and my Dad.
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