When do the little things add up to something worrisome?

I'm starting this blog for several reasons:

• to help others with aging parents
• to share what my family is dealing with
• to help my Mom and preserve the wonderful woman she is

I wish I would have gotten started sooner... when there were days or weeks between the "worrying" incidents. Now, they are a daily occurrence. The question is: when do the little things add up to something worrisome?

Here's the scoop on me and Mom:

Mom is an 83 year old female in relatively decent health. She hasn't had a heart attack or stroke. She hasn't broken a hip. Sure, she has issues with her heart (A-fib), takes a half dozen types of pills several times during the day, and is slowing down with age - her eyesight, hearing, sense of smell and mobility are declining quicker than she recognizes. At some point this year, we'll probably talk her into using a walker. She is forgetful; she tells the same stories over and over, and she asks questions about things we've already discussed. But she is still Mom. Just the 83 year old version.

I am her oldest daughter. I left my director-level job in the casino industry in Nevada about 18 months ago and came home to help out. Mom has sacrificed a lot for me... when an opportunity presented itself, the least I could do was come back home to Chicago to be with her, right?

My sister (Adrienne, aka The Nurse) is also here in the Chicagoland area. Thank God! I don't know what I'd do without "A" to talk to. She is 2.5 years younger than me and is a single parent. She and her 4 kids keep me grounded. And busy. It's a good thing.

There are plenty of little things with Mom that happen every day that make me worry. Let me give you an example: Mom has an automatic withdrawal for her supplemental health insurance premium. She wants to change the bank account this withdrawal comes from. She gets a form from the insurance company. She starts to fill it out. She is going slow and being very careful. She does not want to make a mistake. About 10 minutes into this project of hers, she calls to me. "Can you bring me the White Out?" I ask "Why?" She tells me that she made a mistake; she put the City and State on the same line when it should have been on two lines. No big deal, right? When I look at the form to make the correction, I see that she has made many mistakes. The form boxes have the heading for what goes into that box on the TOP of the box. After filling out the first box correctly with her name, she started looking at what was under the line (the top of the NEXT box) as her guide to filling out that box. Now, I can understand that she made a mistake. We all do. But she was being careful. She got the first one right. What happened between box #1 and box #2 to steer her in the wrong direction?

These are the little things that are worrisome. Especially when they pile up... hour after hour... day after day...

When do the little things add up to something worrisome?