Knees & Feet...

Today I headed to Georgetown about 10:30am. I had a few errands to run before heading to the nursing home to visit mom. Just before I left my home, I received a phone call from our ward Relief Society president (women's organization at Church). She requested I take a picture of my mom and me while at the nursing home today. I tucked my trusty camera into my purse and headed out the door. As luck would have it when I got to the nursing home about 11:45am the missionaries were there visiting the residents. I asked one of them to take a picture of me and Mimi (my mom).

Papa arrived a not long after they brought Mimi's tray with her lunch. While we were starting to feed mom, Jeanne Watson and Jessica Wilde showed up with their camera. They took another picture of Papa, Mimi and me. Then we began to feed Mimi in earnest. Papa had a 12:45pm appointment with the Humana agent assigned to him and we needed to be to his apartment by that time. Today Mimi was a diligent little eater and really seemed to enjoy her meal. Papa has a plan that when we sing tomorrow he will have all the employees at the nursing home come in and sing a song with us at the end. Papa stood up to go and tell one of the employees about this plan of his. As he stood to leave Mimi reached out an grabbed his arm and indicated she didn't want him to leave. He turned around and lovingly assured her he wasn't going and he would be right back. I picked up on the feeding chores and we progressed with Mimi eating. Here's the "knee" part...When Papa came back and sat to Mimi's right he started to feed her. I looked at him and he had a huge grin on his face. With his eyes, he indicated for me to look down. I glanced down and right under the table our little Mimi had taken her right leg and placed it over Papa's left leg. Papa and I both chuckled at this action by Mimi. I'm not sure if she thought she was crossing her legs or what but she was just as casual and comfortable as she could be with Papa feeding her and her leg drapped over his and her hand clasped in front like she was about to say a prayer. A very cute picture. Papa and I hurried to his apartment and met the Humana Insurance agent. He is a very nice young fella and is totally concerned about the proper care being paid to these older people using Humana to manage their Medicare insurance needs. I learned so much from him today and really appreciated his care and concern. I now feel better able to assist Papa with this part of his life. One of the things we learned is that Humana has a mail-in prescription drug option and if Papa uses it he doesn't have to pay anything for 3 very expensive medications he takes regularly. Yippee!! After the Humana guy left, Papa and I got his program ready for the nursing home tomorrow. Then we headed to Arby's for lunch. Here is the "feet" part...After Arby's Papa drove and I showed him where the Pavilion is in Georgetown. This is a very nice facility with indoor exercise stuff. They have a wonderful swimming pool area, a very nice room with lots of treadmills and exercise equipment and a huge room with 2 basketball courts in it. Around the top of this room is a walking path. Papa likes to walk in the morning and in the evening in his neighborhood. He has a route worked out that is 1 mile long. He does this in about 20 minutes so our 81 year old fella is really booking when he does his walk. When it gets too hot or too cold, his walk becomes an issue. Since it is one form of exercise he can do and really enjoys, it is a loss when he can't do it. What we learned from the Humana guy today is that The Pavilion has an arrangement with Humana. They created a program called Silver Sneakers. All Papa has to do is go in and show his Humana insurance card and he has FREE access to any of the facility. The part he is most happy about is that walking path around top of the basketball courts. Now he can walk whenever he wants in whatever weather he wants. His eyes won't tear up in the cold and he want suffer from being over heated or too cold. It is also level so he can probably walk farther if he wants as opposed to the little bits of a hill in his neighborhood. So it was a good day with the Wabbits (my family nickname from our childhood). I've got some paperwork to get in order for tomorrow for the mail in prescriptions and the registration at the Pavilion, but we are on our way to better and less expensive health care for Papa.