Labor Day weekend had all of our family, all 10 of us, gathered in a cabin near Lead in the Black Hills. The weather was gorgeous; warm during the day and cool at night. All in all we didn't do much; some of us did a little hiking, Walter, Nich and Bobbi went to see the Mammoth site (at the request of Walter) and the rest of us joined them in Hot Springs for swimming at Evans Plunge. The boys gave mom a break and took me to Deadwood to walk the streets and have a few drinks; other than that we stayed at the cabin and enjoyed each others company by either sitting on one of the decks, in the hot tub or in the family room by the fireplace. The boys played some games and taught Walter how to play Risk, exactly what a 5 year old needs to learn to play. It was a short, quick weekend that was very enjoyable, at least for me it was nice to do basically nothing but sit and relax; sitting and watching the family interact with their dad/dad-in-law/grandpa . But sitting and relaxing isn't always the best thing for me because I start thinking; Will this be the last family vacation with Greg?, What does the next year/6 months/ 3 months/ 1 month hold for us? Greg depends on me to do so many things for him, how long will I be able to keep doing the things he needs?
After all the relaxing and thinking we returned to reality, jobs and responsibilities. Fast forward a few weeks and it was time to once again attend a care conference for Greg. These are held approximately every 3 months and update me, or whoever attends with me, on how Greg is doing while attending Day Break. I knew that he was declining and everyday when I picked him up he would be sitting in the same recliner off in another room by himself. This was mentioned in the care conference and they approached me with the idea of moving Greg to the Ceili Cottage or the Cottage as they call it.
The Cottage is still part of Day Break but is actually a house which is located by Sanford Hospital and is specifically for people with Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. They have more one on one care and the staff members are nationally certified so they are dementia-care specialists. There is only room for 8 clients and they had an opening and thought that Greg fit the criteria to attend. So on October 8th Greg started at the Cottage. So far he has done amazing and has come "out of his shell', he participates in activities and seems to be doing well. The Cottage is open 8:30 to 5 which means that the boys have gracious pitched in and helped me out once again.(I guess God knew what he was doing when he gave me 5 sons) I work 7:30 to 4 so Trevor now gets Greg up, dressed and fed and then Nich, Elliott or Bryce takes him to the Cottage and I pick him up when I get off. This means that my gym routine has gotten pushed back to 5:20, which means that Trevor and Elliott watch Greg which I go workout for a half hour. I enjoy going to the gym and it has helped me not only physically (with weight loss) but it has also helped with my mental well being, so it is something that I really don't want to give up. Plus the workouts are fun and entertaining. Kiefer has talked to his manager at work and his manager has agreed that he could take time off to take Greg if needed and Bryce's friend, Dut has also offered his help if needed, as have many other friends. So far what we are doing is working and keeping Greg in a routine just makes days go better for everyone involved. I realize that Greg will continue to decline as that is just the nature of this horrific disease, but for right now we'll continue with this plan until God leads us to the next step. Because every time I think I'm in control He manages to steer the boat in a different direction.
