Nicorette and Cookies
I've spoken a few times before about mental illness and the struggle I have had in understanding and being sensitive to someone who faces these challenges. This has become even more apparent over the last few days. My mother in law had been falling a lot and ended up breaking her leg. She was living on her own and has trouble getting around due to her replaced hips. Once the nurse came in it was apparent to her that my mother in law could no longer safely continue to be self sufficient. She required surgery on her leg and has spent almost the last month in the hospital. This week however, an opening was made available in a long term care facility for her. This week has been full of preparation, paperwork and adjustments. Yesterday she was moved into her new home.
We headed over yesterday to see her settled in. My husband needed to go over a huge stack of paperwork while the kids and I sat with her and spoke with some of the nurses. She has been a very heavy smoker for 40 years and cutting that out is going to be difficult. We are preparing for her to be very, very angry for quite some time. She should be on the patch for about 10 weeks and chewing the gum as well. It's very expensive and I'm not sure where the money for that is going to come from exactly. I'm sure we will end up paying for a fair bit of it. The pharmacist mentioned to me that it can be rather dangerous if someone were on the patch and chewing the gum to even have one cigarette. She wanted to make sure that we were aware of that. I informed her that she isn't really mobile right now and doesn't have any cigarettes with her so it should be safe. I did tell my husband however that if anyone does bring her smokes once she is more healed and mobile I will hunt them down and hurt them... badly.
Though the adjustment is set to be really rough for both her and for us, now being responsible for another person, we know it's going to be so much better for her. She may hate us for a while, or maybe always, but she will now be getting regular meals, regulated medication and observation so she is no longer injuring herself. Even during her time in the hospital we noticed she was more interactive. She talked a bit with the kids and made an observation or two. This is not typical of her normal behavior.
I'm not sure if she really understands that this is where she is going to be staying from now on or if she still assumes she will be going back to her apartment. When I told her that we would bring some of her pictures down to put on the wall she adamantly told me no, she doesn't want them. Lately she seems very apposed to pictures and I'm not really sure of the reason. I'm choosing not to take it personally (all the pictures are of my husband, myself and the kids) because I know she isn't well.
It's very sad that this is the way that this is the way things are and I feel bad for my husband, needing to deal with these things at such an early age. We will need to take heart in knowing this is the best thing for her and stand strong even through the frustration and anger that will most likely be dirrected towards us. At least when my husband dropped the patches off today she was happy about the food being better than the hospital and they brought her cookies. Everything is better with cookies!
We headed over yesterday to see her settled in. My husband needed to go over a huge stack of paperwork while the kids and I sat with her and spoke with some of the nurses. She has been a very heavy smoker for 40 years and cutting that out is going to be difficult. We are preparing for her to be very, very angry for quite some time. She should be on the patch for about 10 weeks and chewing the gum as well. It's very expensive and I'm not sure where the money for that is going to come from exactly. I'm sure we will end up paying for a fair bit of it. The pharmacist mentioned to me that it can be rather dangerous if someone were on the patch and chewing the gum to even have one cigarette. She wanted to make sure that we were aware of that. I informed her that she isn't really mobile right now and doesn't have any cigarettes with her so it should be safe. I did tell my husband however that if anyone does bring her smokes once she is more healed and mobile I will hunt them down and hurt them... badly.
Though the adjustment is set to be really rough for both her and for us, now being responsible for another person, we know it's going to be so much better for her. She may hate us for a while, or maybe always, but she will now be getting regular meals, regulated medication and observation so she is no longer injuring herself. Even during her time in the hospital we noticed she was more interactive. She talked a bit with the kids and made an observation or two. This is not typical of her normal behavior.
I'm not sure if she really understands that this is where she is going to be staying from now on or if she still assumes she will be going back to her apartment. When I told her that we would bring some of her pictures down to put on the wall she adamantly told me no, she doesn't want them. Lately she seems very apposed to pictures and I'm not really sure of the reason. I'm choosing not to take it personally (all the pictures are of my husband, myself and the kids) because I know she isn't well.
It's very sad that this is the way that this is the way things are and I feel bad for my husband, needing to deal with these things at such an early age. We will need to take heart in knowing this is the best thing for her and stand strong even through the frustration and anger that will most likely be dirrected towards us. At least when my husband dropped the patches off today she was happy about the food being better than the hospital and they brought her cookies. Everything is better with cookies!
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