Today, a Sunday. I took my brother out for breakfast. Now we go to a local International House of Pancakes. It's not nearly as personalized as the family restaurant we used to go to, but my brother doesn't seem to mind. It was a little cold outside, so he probably is not going to be able to sit outside for very long. However, he has been sitting outside a lot, you can tell because the top of his head is quite tan.
He says he has two male friends that he sits outside with. I think this is great. I am really pleased that the nursing home managers let him roam wherever he wants to go within the building, it gives him much more independence. I asked him if he had gone to play poker, he told me no because it was all women. I encouraged him to go and told him the ladies would probably like the presence of a man and he seemed to perk up about that idea.
Today was also a good health day, he didn't need assistance in getting up from his seating position at any time.
This placed has a visiting dentist every other week and also a monthly audiologist visit, so I think my life is about to get much easier in regards to that too. My brother really needs to see a dentist, I let it go because it seemed like there were so many other issues to deal with first. Then about three months ago I signed him up for "dentist insurance" at the old nursing home. Medicaid/Medicare was supposed to pick up for the cost, and the nursing home kept on forgetting to sign him up for a dental visit so he never had one. Hopefully, this nursing home is much more together and he will actually see a dentist within the month. I don't mind paying for it, he just needs to get it done.
His hearing aid went bad last week. Thankfully, my husband was able to bring it in and it was fixed on the spot for $30. Apparently I had let the insurance I have on the hearing aid go (I never got a bill to renew it), so I was glad it didn't cost much. I have been thinking for a long time to get him another hearing aid because he breaks his at least once a year, and then he has to go without an aid for a while, which is really hard on him. The only drawback is that these hearing aids cost at least $2000, and I am not happy with the audiologist my parents had been using for him. Now I think I will contact the nursing home audiologist, and if problems ever develop, it can be taken care of within the nursing home structure.
I used to think that my brother only had one or more two years of life left before his heart failed, but now he is doing so much better I am rethinking what the likely scenarios are.
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