Playing the Parent

File Under: A family thing

My friends know that I have a roommate, my 77 year old mother. Long story short, she lives with me so that I can just keep a watchful eye on her and make sure she takes her meds, eating and taking care of herself. She's self-sufficient for the most part, she still drives and cooks and goes for walks in the neighborhood, but she's slow and hard of hearing and has health issues. She's diabetic, non-insulin dependent. She's got high blood pressure, and has high cholesterol.

Dan can attest to my mom's spirit. He's met her and will agree that she's a feisty old woman.

Last week she visited her doctor to discuss some bloodwork she had done. The doctor is concerned about her blood sugar, and was surprised to see that her cholesterol was high. Turns out she stopped taking her medication because she figured she had changed her diet to control it, and it was too expensive. She's back on it, she's in a lower-cost medication so now we'll see how she does on it.

One thing that it going to take some time to manage is her blood sugar. Apparently it's been higher but the doctor doesn't want to change her meds until he sees how she does with her cholesterol. In the mean time, the doctor didn't believe she was checking her sugar properly so he has arranged for a nurse to visit. The first visit was today and she'll be here twice a week to check on mom and follow along with her blood sugar levels.

In other mom news, I bought her a winter coat over the weekend. Her previous coat was huge on her. I didn't realize it until late last winter when she came in from outdoors and was wearing it. She has been saving for a new coat, I figured I would beat her to the punch. She was thrilled and she loves the new coat.

I guess every once in a while, it's okay to be the parent.