At this point in my dad's illness, I am pretty much awake 24-hours a day. I have to remember a certain mantra not only at 2:00 am but also 3:00, 4:00, 6:00 am, and any other moment day or night: People with Alzheimer's sometimes have no control over their behavior. Trying to reason with them is futile.
My mom has been living in a care home for nine months now. I think I am still not over the trauma of making that choice (actually, there was no other choice), and though her mood finally seemed to improve in the past 3 months she is still very unhappy there and wants to come home. It's heartbreaking over and over again when I have to leave her there when I visit. At least she's feeling a bit better overall now.
The time will soon arrive for my dad to move there as well, in fact, it kinda already has. But thanks to the BS with Medi-Cal and IHSS, I'm in a conundrum. My dad needs to go into long-term care, but my income and health benefits come from taking care of him at home. Not only will I lose my job, in that situation all of my dad's current income will go to the care home. I do have a plan for all that, and through careful budgeting I am surviving okay on the partial* wages I get through IHSS. However, the fiasco I'm having with IHSS has forced me to more than double the time it will take to reach certain goals. If it worked the way it's supposed to I could go forward with my plan now. Not all is lost, I'll get there it will just take much longer.
*I am paid for about 4 hours out of the 12-20 I am "on the job" each day...I'm not kidding.
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