Recommendations for bed-ridden Senior

The thing my Dad would have loved the most is seeing his old friends. Surely some of your Dad's friends are still alive. If you could track a few of them down, they could Facetime and catch up. Socialization could do wonders for his state of mind.

Also, tell your kids and grandkids to come visit and ask all the questions they can about his life and heritage. It will help them, and all an old person has left is the good old days. If he is able, have your Dad write stories about his parents and grandparents for future generations.

Not much on the old friends front, as he has been a bit of a recluse for the past decade, though I joked about making him a Facebook profile.

My children are awesome and all live in Dallas and frequently come and visit him and bring him joy when they come over.

My oldest (adopted daughter from my older sister) is about to have her first child in July. My middle daughter lives downtown and my son lives on the other side of the house.

He hasn’t really wanted visitors yet, as he just recently moved in with me and is still kinda embarrassed about being immobile and unable to control his lower half.

Try to get him outside as much as possible. Even if you have start with just time in the yard then a walk. If you have to take him a wheelchair to get him out do it.

My grandfather got frustrated by too much technology and wanted to go back to the way things were. We brought him a newspaper every morning and he enjoyed just reading his paper.

Definitely want to get him outside as soon as we can. Weather has been recently icy and cold and rainy on our first couple of days here.

We haven’t even tried to use either of our wheelchairs yet, but would be great to get him to the middle of the house to watch the Super Bowl with us.

ETA: he has poor vision and I have ordered new glasses for him but they won’t be here for over a week. All of his visual stimulation has been from a large monitor placed in his room. Love to hear video and movie recommendations.

Get him some viagra and a prostitute. That will cheer him up.

I will shut up after this. If you can think of any way to give him small/easy tasks to contribute to the household, it would make him feel like less of a burden and more of a contributor. Maybe set the table for meals? Water a plant?
Inventory the pantry and make a grocery list? Dust the coffee table? Anything you can think of, but make it feel like his participation matters.

Contact your local Council on Aging, sometimes called Agency on Aging, and ask if they will come and do an assessment to see what programs or assistance he may qualify for. It could be someone to come clean or help him shower/dress, or meals delivery, or other.

Some COA have places to eat or participate in activities like card games or exercise with other old codgers. My parents (pre-covid) loved to go to theirs to eat lunch and visit.

For vets, the VA has various benefits too. My relative qualified for a helper who came to his house every weekday to just help with cooking, dressing, going to doc visits, etc. Takes a load off the family members who may be shouldering those tasks.

Another VA benefit is Aid and Attendance/Housebound, which is a cash benefit. Takes months to get a decision, and the rules are not clear, but my relative got about $1,000 a month. It says you can get it in addition to your pension; he got no military pension but still qualified. Like I said, murky rules. My relative had someone sharp who did the paperwork and kept hounding the system, but there are agencies out there who will do it for a fee of several hundred bucks.

Hospitals usually have a social worker or similar who can help line up services at home. Home health, PT, hospice program (they brought hospital bed, power chair, oxygen machine, etc.). You never know until you ask.

A good internal med/GP doc who treats a lot of older patients may also be able to point you in the direction of services and facilities. Our relative's did.

The Grumpy Old Men Movies were funny.
Stepbrothers with Will Ferrell is pretty funny.
Bluey cartoons are great for persons of any age

PBS has This Old House that shows how to fix stuff on old houses. It can be quite interesting.
Nature and Nova are good programs.

You can find a lot of oldie but goodie sit coms like MASH, The Wonder Years, Leave it to Beaver, Gunsmoke, etc.

Notice I try to focus on a lot of comedy. Because Laughter IS the best medicine. Once you lose the ability to laugh, you are screwed.

We have the sweetest lab in the world, and she has accepted him as a guest ;)

She sits in the room by his bed when I’m in the room, but she is a trained blue ribbon duck dog programmed to stay right by my side whenever she’s around me.

Definitely want to find some good comedies! It was great to hear him chuckle when we were watching Gran Torino last night