Documenting My Parents’ Decline
Am I building a spreadsheet of medical appointments and notes to remind myself later that I did my best?
My parents have been experiencing a precipitous decline in health since last summer. Surely, some of it was decline that I missed during time apart before Covid vaccines allowed us to begin visiting again. But in recent months I’ve become the point person for managing their care, their bills, and transforming into whatever the equivalent of Mama Bear is when advocating for one’s own parents.
I charm nursing home staff when I think it will help. I coax or demand, depending upon the seriousness of a need. I slap a power of attorney (POA) around multiple times a week right now for all manner of issues — updating insurance, filling out forms, trying to get the electric company to talk to me. And in a time of nursing home care shortages, I have a near-daily responsibility to call, text, email, or stand in front of the staff who are there, insisting my parents receive the help they were promised.
It’s exhausting.
I feel like that jerk, always asking for the manager. Some days though, it’s the only way to get things done.
If the emotional toll of watching your own parents age and suffer illness were not enough, I find…
