Believe

Saturday the psychologist at St. Anthony's called me at home and talked about her evaluation of my brother.  She indicated her testing showed he has brain damage to the left side of his brain, cause unknown.  She believes it is causing dementia and impacting his cognitive abilities.  I have to admit I have some skepticism about her diagnosis.  They came to some of this conclusion because Mike gave his UPS account number to a patient who told him she wanted to have something shipped.  I know my brother and doing that wasn't out of the ordinary for Mike.  He is an extremely generous person who would give anyone the shirt off his back.  I realize that isn't always a good thing and it can get him into trouble at times however that alone is hardly cause for a nursing home.  We received conflicting recommendations from the psychiatrist and the psychologist.  The psychiatrist believes Mike needs to be placed in a facility and the psychologist believes he can live alone with assistance.  

After calling a few places and looking at what is available it appears that getting him on a waiting list may be all we can do right now.  Ron and I talked and we think if we stay with Mike (Ron would move in with him and I'd be there most of the time as well) we could hopefully keep him at home until something opens.  Of course that depends on Ron's health but either way I'd have them both close enough for me to take care of them.  It's the only plan we can come up with immediately and I just hope we can pull it off.  I still have hope that Mike will continue to improve in spite of what we are being told.  I may be unrealistic but I know my brother better than anyone else and I have to see for myself.


Mike actually cracked a funny yesterday when we saw him.  I took him a Christmas T-Shirt that had a huge picture of Santa on the front with the word "BELIEVE" under it.  When I gave it to Mike he said, "Whoa....this might be shock therapy for some of these patients."
Ahhhhhhhhh you gotta love him!