There's good news and bad news about Annajane. The good news is that I talked with her yesterday, and it was a real conversation. I told her about the tenure decision. She understood, and wasn't surprised. She asked about my friend who had been about to have a baby back when I visited. I'm amazed she can remember anything from then. I didn't have the guts to ask directly what the very bad period had been like for her.
(She added, "It's strange how you and [friend] are so close, but you're so different. She has two children now, but you've never shown any interest in that at all." That's right, I'm not telling my family anything about the baby effort because I don't want to upset them—and because Nanna's a pre-Vatican-II-style Catholic! I'd almost forgotten myself!)
She was cheerful and laughing, but her consonants were a bit thick. Overall, she sounded like she usually does when she's being medicated out of a manic episode. She says they're planning to release her on Thursday. Which might be true, might not be true—she always thinks she's about to be released. I'll have to talk with someone at the hospital to know for sure.
The bad news is that there isn't any obvious place for her to go next. Right now she sounds way too together for the dementia unit of a nursing home, which was her last out-of-hospital bed. But I think she's lost her place at the adult home she's been in for the last two years (even though they're demanding payment for February, becaause they didn't get 30 days notice that she was leaving). She was suprised to hear that Tom-her-case-manager had picked up her belongings from the adult home and left them at Nanna's.
But, would an adult home be the right place? What level of care will she need? Do any of the medical professionals understand what happened a month ago, or have any idea whether it could happen again?
Time to make a lot of phone calls. (Her doctor at the new hospital has not yet called me back, even once.)
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