Hello there...
...I'm back but I forgot why I came here. As I was walking into the room my dad asked me where I was going. I said, "To the bathroom, then I'm going to computerize." (That's another one of my own made up words...feel free to use it if you like.)
Basically, I "called" the computer. When I came out of the bathroom, he was on the stupid thing playing Solitaire again. That's all he does on the computer and he does it a LOT! I've walked in here about 3 times today to go online and found him here playing that silly game. This time I couldn't take it. I had to toss him out on his ear. I don't know where he is but I bet he's answering the same questions over and over again.
The mind is an amazing thing. Jean can't remember that she just asked for the food in front of her but she can go play bridge all afternoon. Apparently she does it well enough to get partners to play with her. She has always been a seriously good bridge player. That's how she met my parents. She uses that to "prove" that she isn't confused. I guess if a hand lasted longer than ten minutes she wouldn't be able to do that but she can.
Then, the other day she went to the DMV to get a new license. Hers "disappeared" one day when she threatened to drive. She has to at least have identification so my father finally took her to get a "new license".
We were both quite secure in the fact that she would fail any test that they could give her. After all, she can barely walk for more than 10 feet without holding onto someones arm. If you throw a curve at her like, "What day is it?", she has a one in seven shot at giving you the right answer. If you pay attention, she shakes so much she can barely feed herself. She can't make eye contact for very long and she can't carry on a conversation longer than 3 sentences. But you'll be happy to know that the State of Florida has given her a license anyway.
It's a provisional license for her to use while they run it past the Medical Review Board but it's a license to drive. I'd rather have a 6 year old behind the wheel than this woman. The 6 year old gets the basic idea...move without hitting stuff. Jean was hitting things long before she got this bad. Her insurance in Illinois was so high that she could have paid someone to drive her around but she still paid the insurance. I forget what it was but it was something outrageous like $10,000 every term...six months or a year.
I don't understand why they have to give HER the benefit of the doubt, there's no constitutional right to drive. Every State has a handbook with that very notion expressed on the first page. We do, on the other hand, have a right to be protected from incompetent drivers and I think Florida dropped the ball on this one.
It seems as though there are so many old people down here that they don't want to take their privileges away injudiciously. But I think that they could have at least asked her to take the written test over again anyway. The really bad thing is that when they noticed her shaking and asked what medicines she was taking, she said, "Blood pressure pills." My father had to tell them about the Alzheimer's meds.
Oh man...I hear her calling for may dad. That means she's in there alone and that's not a good thing. I think I'll go watch TV with her. It's no fun at all, she can't get into anything so she changes the channel when she gets lost. That doesn't take very long so we watch about 20 minutes of a show and then we watch 20 minutes of another show. I wonder what snippets I'll be able to watch this time?
See ya soon!
:)
...I'm back but I forgot why I came here. As I was walking into the room my dad asked me where I was going. I said, "To the bathroom, then I'm going to computerize." (That's another one of my own made up words...feel free to use it if you like.)
Basically, I "called" the computer. When I came out of the bathroom, he was on the stupid thing playing Solitaire again. That's all he does on the computer and he does it a LOT! I've walked in here about 3 times today to go online and found him here playing that silly game. This time I couldn't take it. I had to toss him out on his ear. I don't know where he is but I bet he's answering the same questions over and over again.
The mind is an amazing thing. Jean can't remember that she just asked for the food in front of her but she can go play bridge all afternoon. Apparently she does it well enough to get partners to play with her. She has always been a seriously good bridge player. That's how she met my parents. She uses that to "prove" that she isn't confused. I guess if a hand lasted longer than ten minutes she wouldn't be able to do that but she can.
Then, the other day she went to the DMV to get a new license. Hers "disappeared" one day when she threatened to drive. She has to at least have identification so my father finally took her to get a "new license".
We were both quite secure in the fact that she would fail any test that they could give her. After all, she can barely walk for more than 10 feet without holding onto someones arm. If you throw a curve at her like, "What day is it?", she has a one in seven shot at giving you the right answer. If you pay attention, she shakes so much she can barely feed herself. She can't make eye contact for very long and she can't carry on a conversation longer than 3 sentences. But you'll be happy to know that the State of Florida has given her a license anyway.
It's a provisional license for her to use while they run it past the Medical Review Board but it's a license to drive. I'd rather have a 6 year old behind the wheel than this woman. The 6 year old gets the basic idea...move without hitting stuff. Jean was hitting things long before she got this bad. Her insurance in Illinois was so high that she could have paid someone to drive her around but she still paid the insurance. I forget what it was but it was something outrageous like $10,000 every term...six months or a year.
I don't understand why they have to give HER the benefit of the doubt, there's no constitutional right to drive. Every State has a handbook with that very notion expressed on the first page. We do, on the other hand, have a right to be protected from incompetent drivers and I think Florida dropped the ball on this one.
It seems as though there are so many old people down here that they don't want to take their privileges away injudiciously. But I think that they could have at least asked her to take the written test over again anyway. The really bad thing is that when they noticed her shaking and asked what medicines she was taking, she said, "Blood pressure pills." My father had to tell them about the Alzheimer's meds.
Oh man...I hear her calling for may dad. That means she's in there alone and that's not a good thing. I think I'll go watch TV with her. It's no fun at all, she can't get into anything so she changes the channel when she gets lost. That doesn't take very long so we watch about 20 minutes of a show and then we watch 20 minutes of another show. I wonder what snippets I'll be able to watch this time?
See ya soon!
:)
posted by Meg Kelso | 3:58 PM
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