Socks, Meds, and Dying

Took a big armful of laundered & ironed clothes back to mom's. Thought we'd visit a bit, but again she was asleep in her room. I guess the Activities Ladies are on an extended holiday.

Sock thief. I found two "orphan" socks in her closet Monday and hung them on the rack in the closet, thinking I'd find other mis-matches and eventually pair up most of them. Went back today and the orphans were gone! Who would throw out socks? I made a note and clipped it to a bag on her closet shelf saying "mismatched socks", and tossed in the latest findings. Probably today's orphans are the mates to the disappeared Monday ones.

Medications. I have 3 meds that should have been stopped, but were on her insurance statement for July: Namenda (for Alzheimers), Lorazepam (for anxiety), and Mirtazapine (for depression). I asked the Chute Director about discontinuing them, reminding her the doctor said he would stop them. She'll look it up and let me know.

Reading about the "death panel" scare. It's good that people are talking about this. Mom's doctor said, "Nobody dies in America without doing everything possible." This is a hugely expensive and wasteful philosophy. It's time we learned to include death as part of the Grand Scheme and stop pretending it's not going to happen. It's also time we learned to deal with dying in a more grown-up way. There are quality-of-life questions that take courage to ask, and it's not socially correct to talk about "assisted dying" even though it goes on all the time (ask any honest physician). I wonder what it will take to talk straight about all this.