Note to Family Doctor

August 26th, 2009

Dear Doctor,

Tomorrow my dear wife is taking Mom into your office for her regularly scheduled physical. We gave Mom a ride to Prayer meeting tonight and she complained about having to go to the Dr. in the morning and appeared to be totally worn out from the ride to church and back home. She said she would have to write a check and couldn’t remember who to write it to. I wrote a note for her so she could remember who to make it out to and how much. Her memory is getting worse all the time. She often does not know what day of the month it is or what day of the week it is.

She will probably tell you that she is “fat and sassy”. That is not what she tells me 9 out of 10 times when I talk to her. She complains about bursitis pain in her left shoulder and dizziness, nausea and lack of balance although she refuses to use the walker we got for her. She is frequently short of air and coughs constantly. She acts as if she does not have the strength to get up and do hardly anything and spends her days lying on the couch watching TV and napping. She repeatedly says getting old is not as much fun as she thought it would be.

We have her on a waiting list for a “Chore Volunteer” in home care giver to help with the domestic things that need to be done. We are not sure that she eats properly. She keeps a hand written log (if we can believe it) of when and what she takes for her medication and this convinced the nurse that you ordered for the evaluation on her that she did not need “medical assistance” regarding proper medications. During the recent period of very hot weather, my sister had Mom stay with her for those few days and since then told me that she now feels that IF Mom doesn’t get an in home care giver soon Mom will be needing assisted living. That would be a very difficult move to make. Mom is barely getting used to the move from her mobile home to the SHAG apartment she is in now. I started a Blog on “Aging Parents”: http://wat2dowitmom.blogspot.com

Yours truly,

Elvis