Walker

I received this email from mom’s community this afternoon:

Just updating you on Lorna, we noticed today that both her wrists are swollen. We updated the nurse. She started using her walker and she looks more stable when walking around the community and is working well for her.

This was my reply:

While replying, I was fine. Then I felt defeated. How on earth can the community healthcare team, who I trust with my mother’s care, steam ahead and set all of this up without consulting me, much less keeping me in the loop as to how this choice was arrived at? Considerations:

• Insurance coverages?
  • Model?
    • Does it have hand breaks? Can mom use breaks on a walker?
    • Does it have a seat built in? Is that seat wide enough for mom’s curvy tushy?

• Thank you for the opportunity to ask my daughter, your former health services director, about how best to choose a walker for her grandmother, whose abilities she is intimately familiar with.

I could go on but I won’t.

I have worked very hard, with good success, over the years not to come out of the gate with my verbal pistols blazing. There is nothing that encourages my complete and total relapse faster than this sort of thing. My family and some friends have witnessed my swift and ruthless takedown of fools in my midst. It’s terrifying. I am just short of furious right now, and will NOT contact the managing director tonight… He wouldn’t know what hit him. It’s a kindness, particularly since I doubt he knows anything about the situation.