I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Sunday Planning, I plan for the week ahead.
All planning is planning under uncertainty, but some planning involves more uncertainty than usual. Tomorrow I go to my father’s care conference at the rehab facility to hear from the social worker, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and other staff about his progress since he arrived there last Thursday. About a week before that, he suffered a bad fall and concussion in his apartment. Weakened from flu, he passed out, taking a big chunk out of the drywall in his apartment.
I’ve seen him every day since then, but I don’t know what to expect from the conference. What will they tell me about what they think he needs? At one point, speaking off the cuff, the occupational therapist said he probably should go to assisted living. I suspect he won’t need to. He was living 100% independently before with some mobility problems only. He has made rapid improvements in strength and cognition since arriving at the skilled nursing facility. He wants to return to his apartment. So I think that will happen. But I’m not sure what level of support I’ll need to give him to ensure he is safe there.
Meanwhile I’m busy working to integrate my dad’s dog into my household. She’s temporarily living with me to ensure that dad and his partner Hilde don’t have to walk her or otherwise care for her. This is safest for now. Kristy the dog is very strong and has pulled my dad and Hilde when she lunges at delivery people or other dogs, resulting in injury.
Kristy gets along great with my dog Bo but is still getting desensitized to the cats. She barks and whines when she sees one, and has made moves towards one, which could be a predator instinct. I think she’s mostly just confused and alarmed by their presence, as she’s never lived with cats. She doesn’t lunge at squirrels outside, only other dogs and UPS, Amazon, and Fed Ex guys. But I am being careful.
One of my cats is perfectly fine with Kristy’s presence — the more scaredy cat one — and the other, normally very confident in approaching dogs, has been hiding under the bed.
I hope by this time next week I can report that Kristy and the cats are living in harmony, with the cats out of confinement in my bedroom suite, and everyone sleeping together in the same room. For now, I’ll probably be sleeping upstairs in a guest room with Kristy and allowing my dog and cats run of my own room. Or I’ll take the two dogs over to Ray’s house and let the cats have the run of the house while we’re gone.
My urge during times like this is to analyze and plan. But it’s better to just let things unfold sometimes instead. I don’t know what will happen at the care conference. I don’t know how Kristy will progress in her attitude and actions towards the cats. I must live my life forwards as uncomfortable as that feels right now.