Yesterday, I took my brother out to breakfast. He was a little agitated. There were two reasons: he saw a dentist and he had difficulty arranging for the newspaper to be delivered to him.
My brother hasn't seen a dentist in about 3-4 years. It was at the bottom of my list of things to get done for him, and the old nursing home had been monkeying around with the request for almost a year. This new nursing home only took two weeks. They have a visiting dentist, apparently with x-ray capabilities in the home. My brother had been complaining about a chipped tooth (he has had several) so I wasn't surprised when he told me he was going to need a crown. He teeth are pretty discolored, so the first thing they had to do was take x-rays, and he's scheduled to get his teeth cleaned. I warned him it may take several appointments to get the teeth thoroughly cleaned because it had been so long. My husband is concerned that the nursing home dentist is going to take advantage and rack up a bunch of bills. He suggested that we take him to our dentist, or at least to another one, to get a second opinion. I should also mention that is not clear if Medicaid is going to pay for dental treatment or not. I am assuming not. However, our parents left us some money for his care, and this seems like a very good thing to be spending money on. Also, anything that is going to save me or my husband personal time is well worth it. So I am going to call the nursing home on Monday and tell them to go through with it.
The second item he was concerned about was that there was some kind of hassle getting the Tribune delivered to his door. Apparently he worked it out. I think this is wonderful because he is so much more taking an interest in the outside world. He prefers the Sun-Times because it is in tabloid form and easier for him to physically use. I didn't tell him, but I plan to get him a subscription to the Sun-Times for his birthday.
When I took him out, I noticed that I had difficulty zipping his jacket. He mentioned to me that he had put on 5 lbs. I suspect by next weekend I am going to have to assert myself and make sure that a doctor gives him a higher dosage of lasex for a while. It always amazes me how I notice way before anyone else when his congestive heart failure is acting up.
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