Oy.

[shadesong]

My grandma had a car accident today. She's okay, she just has airbag burns on her arms, but still.

She got distracted while driving and drove her car into a pole.

Yes, this is the same grandma who dislocated her arm and lay there as it swelled for a day and a half, not telling anyone because she didn't want to bother them.

I'm starting to get worried about Grandma. I'm really starting to think that she's not really able to take care of herself anymore. Her mind is mostly there, really - she's not ready for a nursing home, she'd strenously object to that. Likewise, a live-in companion. So I don't know what the solution is going to be. I'm just concerned, and I know there's really nothing I can do about it...

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Comments

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Its been my experience that people put this sort of thing off WAY too long.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, Grandma's been mildly scatterbrained for a while, but then Grandpa died almost 2 years ago - and since then, she's had no one to monitor her. My parents are 10 minutes away, but she "doesn't want to bother them". *sigh*

[m0usegrrl.livejournal.com]

oy indeed... ::hugs:: i don't know if there is an optimum solution -- i think the best y'all can do is choose the solution that's the least painful...

[snowelf.livejournal.com]

You said what I was thinking. It's never going to be easy.

[elorie.livejournal.com]

If you've read my journal much, you know that the same deal is going on with my mother....who is 75 years old. My brother and sister, who live near her, have taken to "borrowing" her car a lot, essentially to keep her from driving. It pretty much unreservedly sucks.

Hmmm. A plan to cheer up poor, sick 'song. Once you're feeling better....later in the week....we could get together for lunch or something, maybe? My schedule is kind of...random.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

My parents usually drive Grandma places, but she's still independent and thinks she's still 100% capable... I think they need to permanently "borrow" her car!

My schedule's pretty rigid - not much time for lunch - but dinner, maybe? rloveking and voltbang and I were discussing getting together for dinner - maybe you could join us? That way we won't be standing in the restaurant covertly peering at each other and thinking, "I wonder if that's her?" :) But yeah, sounds great - after I get better. You do not want to take this creeping crud home to Raven!

Re:

[elorie.livejournal.com]

Heh. There is that. Though I have become increasingly brazen over the years, and can spot a fellow freak a mile away....

[ariedana.livejournal.com]

My grandmother managed to drive her car into her apartment about a year ago. Right into the front door.

Sometimes there's an in-between solution. She's in a housing community where she has her own place but there's a lot of support around. Maybe your grandmother would be more interested in something like that, where she is independent but doesn't have to travel and can get help for things.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

She's already in one of those... it's not giving her enough help, I guess. :(




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[voltbang.livejournal.com]

If she's in one of those assissted living communities, as one of my grandmothers is, maybe they can help with the subject. It's something they see a lot of, I'm sure. She may be frequently capable, but if she had drifted the other way, it could have been a mack truck instead of a telephone pole, and the story would have a very different ending. Or it could have been someone with an unsecured child in their subcompact, and it would be another story still. Perhaps the community has someone to talk to about graceful ways to seperate her from her car keys.

[skylion.livejournal.com]

talk to her. you never know. she what she thinks.

Re: Oy.

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

It seems that I know too many people in this situation.

cindygerb's Mom thinks she is still up to doing most things when she can't even get out of bed without help.
She had IV's and said that she wanted to take us out for lunch. We pointed out the IVs and she said that she'd just take them out...

Good luck with your grandma. Hope she heals well.

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

Ach. =:P That's no good.