Helen's 71st Birthday is almost upon us! This Saturday the 2nd April. For Darwin friends (or anyone interstate who's able to come of course) we are planning a low key gathering at Helen's house in The Gardens on the Saturday afternoon - say 2-4ish.
In other news since I last wrote - I have been to-ing and fro-ing a bit and have now started another locum for 4 weeks at Danila Dilba Aboriginal Health Service in Darwin allowing both for some mental stimulation outside the house and the chance to earn a little money. Louis and Emma have mostly been here with Helen and have been doing sterling work cleaning up some of the garden overgrowth and working on Helen's tax from 08/09, Jo is still caring 3 days a week which is going well and Douglas came up a few days ago. Right at the moment Louis and Emma have "popped" over the Bali for a week on a sudden whim and Helen has had her first trial of the weekend respite house available sometimes through NT Carers. Doug went to visit her there (as the rest of us were away) and his comment was "ok but not great". We are bringing Helen home again this afternoon so will be interested to see how she experienced it. Both dogs are well and recovered from their various health issues (apart from Umphy's mysterious bald patch on his shoulder).
Helen has also remained in good form since I last wrote and has been enjoying having more people around. She has been listening to more books and has made a mental transition so she feels as if she has "read" a book after she listens to it. A recent one from Vision Australia was a biography of A A Milne which seemed apropos after our Winnie The Pooh phase.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
8th March 2011
Helen continues very well (especially compared to how she was 2 weeks ago). Louis and I are both in Darwin with her and tomorrow Louis' friend Emma arrives as well. We have been re-organising our home care arrangements and have a lovely woman called Jo looking after Helen on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Louis has managed to finesse the frustrating funding system to better utilise our government $ - rather than half of it being sucked up by administration fees and suchlike.
We are also looking at both respite time and permanent placement options in nursing homes as well as continuing to try to offer good care at home. Unfortunately as the system goes you really have to do all things at once and to negotiate a massive amount of bureaucracy....seems a shame that we are finally getting the home supports worked out better just when this time may be ending.
Since I have been back Helen has enjoyed a few talking books from Vision Australia - including 44 Scotland St which she previously received as a book from Cousin Julie but didn't finish before she lost her vision. She also was able to listen in on a Book Group Discussion which is a monthly Telelink "interest group" organised via Vision Australia. They were discussing "Sold" which was a nasty-flavoured book about slavery which Helen didn't finish, but she says she found the discussion stimulating nonetheless.
We are also looking at both respite time and permanent placement options in nursing homes as well as continuing to try to offer good care at home. Unfortunately as the system goes you really have to do all things at once and to negotiate a massive amount of bureaucracy....seems a shame that we are finally getting the home supports worked out better just when this time may be ending.
Since I have been back Helen has enjoyed a few talking books from Vision Australia - including 44 Scotland St which she previously received as a book from Cousin Julie but didn't finish before she lost her vision. She also was able to listen in on a Book Group Discussion which is a monthly Telelink "interest group" organised via Vision Australia. They were discussing "Sold" which was a nasty-flavoured book about slavery which Helen didn't finish, but she says she found the discussion stimulating nonetheless.
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