Page 111 - FDCC Pandemic Book

When I went to the drug store that afternoon, I had a shopping list of items I had never known existed: bed pan liners, dry shampoo gloves, etc. When mom’s occupational and physical therapists came
to the house the next day, they also spent time teaching us
with the basics of patient care.
Caring For Aging Parents
I nthelatespringof2020,myhusbandandIlearnedthathisfather’s“forgetfulness” was the result of the diagnoses we had feared; things were going to get worse, rather than better. His parents live about 400 miles from us, and we were struggling
to figure out how to help them—especially during a pandemic.
I had been feeling grateful that my mother did not yet need extra help. She was healthy, independent, and quite active. So active that, on the morning of June 1, 2020, she climbed a ladder to change a light bulb on her front porch. Standing upon the bright yellow warning label on the top step of that ladder, she lost her balance and fell six feet to the concrete below. Thankfully, her neighbor heard the crash when the ladder toppled; he called 911 and then called me.
My father-in-law’s diagnosis and my mother’s fall launched our crash course in caring for aging parents.
I am a lawyer. As a lawyer, there are things that I do well. There is a corresponding
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GENA L. SLUGA
Christian, Dichter & Sluga, P.C. Phoenix, AZ