2001-06-25 - 10:01 p.m.

An email I just sent:

It gets worse and worse.

After leaving four messages on Grampa's answering machine through the course of the afternoon, I walked in to Grampa's room at Reeds Landing around 6:20, to find him sitting in his chair nude from the waist down. He immediately started yelling at me to get the nurses to "bring back his wheelchair which he absolutely had to have this instant and how dare they steal it from him when it was his." He was near hysteria. The nurses said it was the floor wheelchair, used for residents when they fell, or needed to go to the dining room. Back to Grampa. "No that's wrong, it's mine, I signed it out and I have to have it to go to the bathroom, and I have to give it back tomorrow." More talking with nurses, who insist it is the floor wheelchair. Back to Grampa. "No, I have to have it, it's illegal if I don't have it, I could commit suicide without it, I have to have it, I could go to jail if they don't bring it back." He was obviously terrified.

At this point I just tried to calm him down and realize he was talking nonsense. After about 15 minutes of more hysterics and me saying what laws would be broken if he didn't have it, etc, he finally calmed down, as I assured him that I would try to have the day nurse tomorrow look into it and to call Dr. Meyers' office to see if there was a wheelchair which had to be returned. (When I got home there was a mesage from the nurse on my ans. machine saying it was the floor wheelchair. I called Viola back (took me two tries a half-hour apart) and she said it was definitely the unit's wheelchair, not Dr. Meyers'.)

He was half-nude because he "pissed himself" on the way to the bathroom and was waiting for his pants to dry out. He refused any offer of new pants, of taking a shower to wash off, etc, so I had to endure the whole visit seeing things I didn't want to see. I brought him new underwear but he didn't put it on till right before bed.

He said Dr. Lenville still has a healthcare proxy for him. This directly countervenes what Dad said Grampa said. The most I could get out of him about the Rice lawyer was that Mr. Rice was retired. Grampa would not say who had Power of Attorney, only that they were Respectable People who would act when the time was right. He couldn't remember the name of Mr. Rice's firm and wouldn't acknowledge that I might need to call Mr. Rice someday.

The only Rice that I could find in the Lawyer section of the Yellow Pages is Jonathan Rice at 1500 Main Street (Baystate West) 732-2301...looked more, and he is Senior Counsel of Robinson Donovan Madden & Barry PC, same number. http://www.robinson-donovan.com. This looks promising: http://www.robinson-donovan.com/Attorneys.htm#JONATHAN%20P.%20RICE

He thought the box full of papers next to him, the one with the most current, contained what the box said - reams of blank paper. He didn't see the note on the lid, nor did he have any recollection of the note we left him last week. After searching for the note I gave up, only to find it later when he got up. He'd been sitting on the tablet. Anyway, after much heartfelt pleading from me to let me help him get the process going, he agreed to let me go through and file the box of current papers. I got about halfway through before Grampa asked me to leave after he went to bed at 8:30. He said I could stay, but I guess I was making too much noise, so I left at 8:45. In the red box, everything on top of the folders needs filing. Everything below the folders needs sorting, and then filing.

I didn't find anything about the trust. I did worm out of him that it's at Dreyfus.

Melanie, he is not adverse to you going there tomorrow night but he wants you call him if you do go. Based on his wheelchair hysteria, it sounds like he may have another Dr's appt tomorrow, so he'd probably be gone in the afternoon. You should probably call him in the mid-to-late morning; I don't think he's sleeping late anymore.

Oh. As for his taxes, he will let the people who have Power of Attorney deal with that when the time comes; they will have the money to do whatever they need to do, so he says.

As for the key to the iron cabinet, that was a no go, too, in that I didn't look for it. We talked about it, and Grampa said Dad had found a way to have it copied. Grampa was confusing that with when Dad did have keys made for the steamer trunks. The last time I saw the key, Grampa put it in his pocket when we were looking for his will to go over with the trust people. This was back in the winter sometime.

Other things:

Not once while I was there, from 6:20 to 8:45, did anyone come to check on him. That may have been because they knew I was there visiting. I don't know. I found that odd. I also was distressed to find dirty dishes. What I found, I put in the sink.

I still haven't been able to ascertain if he's getting current mail, and if he is, if he's paying his bills.

Lila is apparently on a trip somewhere and isn't seeing him.

Initially he was convinced he needed his doctor's permission to listen to his CDs.

Soon after I got there, he said what he was supposed to do this evening was pretend he was in the basement at a desk. (I still don't quite get that one.)

He did seem to improve as time went by in that what he said made more sense. He did take a long time to form, and say, sentences.

He told me he thinks he has a touch of Alzheimer's or something.

He only had one hearing aid in.

I'm sure there's more but I can't remember it right now.

--Adam

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In other news, I bought a bottle of Obsession for Men tonight along with a new antenna for my cellphone.

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