26th March.....Changes

After my last positive post a lot of things have changed. Firstly, after Christmas, my dad had to ask Maureen to leave as she had spent about 2 out of 5 weeks at home and, while we all appreciated that she wanted to spend Christmas with her family, she hadn't arranged any alternative support for dad so he was mostly alone for 3 weeks over the Christmas period and he began to feel that she wasn't 'earning her keep'. While she seemed like a lovely person, I agree that she didn't seem to understand that the free room, board, food and petrol came with some responsibilities. Unfortunately Maureen's departure coincided with Sarah deciding that enough was enough and she needed to take a step back. This meant that Maureen departing left dad completely alone, but fortunately this meant that Social Services FINALLY got involved!

Despite her insistence that she was done, I have to say Sarah has still been a massive help, particularly in what unfolded next.....

On my visit to Cornwall at the end of January, dad and I discussed the possibility of him going into a care home for a month of respite care and we visited a luxury nursing home an hour from where he lived. While we were there they discussed him having physio every day with their in house therapist and hydrotherapy in the pool. Dad and I were both sold on the idea and we arranged him to head over on 1st March. Unfortunately things were not quite as rosey as we were expecting and it turned out that the physio was only 4 days a week, use of the pool would require hiring men to help him into the pool and dad felt that the care level was significantly lower then what he was receiving at home, which was only 4 times a day. For £915 per week, plus extra for physio, dad was not happy and he demanded that he come home. This would have been easier were it not for the fact that I was 300 miles away and undergoing a school inspection and so barely had time to sleep, let alone deal with dad. Fortunately between Sarah and a couple of his friends, they were able to arrange him coming home after 10 days, but that has meant that he is only getting 3 care visits a day as the carers had rescheduled things assuming dad would be away for a month. On the bright side of this, dad has now begun to get himself ready for bed, and I think an element of forced independence has been good for him. I'm heading down again on Friday and will have to sort out his cat and lots of other bits and bobs that were meant to be sorted on his return home, but I hope to be able to report an increased level of independence as dad is adamant he is walking better.

On a brighter note, I have just started booking a 3 week holiday in California for my 30th so I hope I will get the opportunity to meet some of you while I am out there!!!

Thank you again for all of your support

Catherine