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Ways to Help My Mother Post-Surgery?
My mother is about a week and a half out from her second hip replacement surgery. My stepfather passed away unexpectedly shortly before her first hipreplacement, but I went to a nearby university and was around to step and fetch, run errands, and clean up around her condo between classess as she recovered. But this time, I live 2,000 miles away, and I'm wanting to do the best I can to help out while she is laid up.
My mother will have a physical therapist coming over to check in on her and give her PT (I think she'll be there 3 or 4 times a week) and my sister lives about 15 drive from her, but she's been a little flaky helping my mother prepare for surgery (for three months, my mother repeatedly asked her to help rearrange furntiture to accomidate a walker and my sister only obliged about a week ago, although she's been unemployed for five months) and she didn't help my mom much after the first surgery because of her work schedule.
I bought my Mom a Kindle as her birthday/pre-surgery gift so she wouldn't be bored to tear in the six weeks she's recovering at home, but I want to do something more to help out while she recovers. I don't want to send flowers because I could see her fretting if the cats knock them over and any package in general might be a hassle if my sister or someone isn't avaiable to get them from her mailbox or from the post office.
What other thoughtful things do you think would be helpful for her? I plan to call and check up on her, but I really don't know what else would be helpful from this distance. Thanks in advance!
Re: Ways to Help My Mother Post-Surgery?
Is there any way to have meals delivered to her? If not cooked meals, maybe something really easy to heat up would help. I know when I had ankle surgery not being able to get around the kitchen was very frustrating.
ETA: I just realized getting a packag may be difficult. Can the Physical Therapist check her mail or be with her if she can walk to the mail?
My mom had double knee replacement surgery earlier this year. Other than actually being there, some things that helped her were -
* providing food so she didn't have to cook (if you can't do that in person, maybe you could either arrange to have some trays/platters delivered or send her gift cards to places where she could call and order for delivery...is there something like Take Out Taxi, etc. in her area that would give her more than the standard pizza and Chinese options?)
* hiring a cleaning crew to keep up with the house
* making sure she had books, movies, etc. Sounds like you've got that covered with the Kindle!
I don't think packages would be a problem. If they're too big to fit in the mailbox, typically the carrier will bring them to the door. Unless your mom lives in a complex where instead of that, the package would end up in an office, you should be good. You could do UPS, too, that might help guarantee delivery right to the front door.
Hope all goes well for your mom!
I don't know how your mom is about how her home gets cleaned but maybe you could get a maid service to come by once a week or every other week to run the vaccum, dust, take out trash, do laundry, etc...
Also, what about a gift card for a grocery delivery service like Peapod? She can go to the website, order her groceries and dictate a time for delivery when someone is going to be around/could be around.
HTH
Not sure of your Mom's age, but you could check with the local senior center or the American Red Cross. Both commonly have volunteers who help seniors when they are less then mobile.
If your Mom attends a church you could call the church to see if they have someone who would visit your Mom. My church has a group of volunteers to visit shut-in parishioners regardless of the parishioner's age or why they have lower mobility.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
Is there a neighbor that you could arrange to go check on her, maybe take her mail in, heat up a meal?