Mama

My experiences while living with my mother and her Alzheimer's Disease.(her birthdate = January 2, 1925)

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Yesterday I had to wake Mama up when Penny came to get her. It took a couple of tries since she was so conked out--guess an all nighter can do that to you! Penny said she took a little nap at her house, but didn't sleep too long. Mama was trying to fix her supper at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. I decided she needed to stay up a little longer so I made her get in the car for a ride. We went down to Sargent to check on the storm damage. Am not sure which houses were messed up by Claudette and which ones were already falling down, but there seemed to be extensive destruction. Mama was very quiet and did not even comment on anything.

When we got home she ate and headed for bed. It was around 6:30. She wandered through about an hour later, and I gave her the nighttime medicine. She went back to bed, and I didn't see her again until this morning. Michelle came around 10:00 PM. I told her that she might not have anything to do, but she could certainly feel free to clean up any of my junk areas. This morning she said she fell asleep on the couch around 4:30. I woke her up a little before 6:00 so she could go home. It was such a nice quiet night. Maybe Michelle can bring something with her for those nights Mama sleeps. I love those nights because that means I get to sleep, too. Just wish I could predict which nights she would be up and which nights she will sleep.

Mama is with Penny right now. I have a hair appointment at 2:00 so will see how this evening goes.

Until later.......

Monday, July 28, 2003

Am sure you are eagerly (or not) waiting for the news on what kind of night we had here in Cedar Lane!!

Michelle is really terrific. When she got here at 10:00, Mama was still in bed. I took Michelle on a quick tour to acquaint her with the layout of the house--you know, the important things like: where the diet & regular drinks are kept, the bathroom, the room she can use to snooze (should Mama let her), how to work the remote for the satellite, where the key to the front door is hidden, etc. Mama got up around five minutes after we sat down in the living room. She was sssooooo happy to have a visitor; she positively glowed! I stayed up for a little while, and then decided I had better turn in so we could see how this was going to work. I kissed Mama Goodnight, and closed my bedroom door. Mama slipped by Michelle once to get into my room, but that was it. This morning I got up before six so I could relieve Michelle. She asked if I had been able to sleep. I told her that I will have to retrain myself not to listen, but I was able to relax more than I would have had she not been here.

I asked how it went for her. She said Mama would ask her to open the door, and if she wouldn’t, Mama would head toward my room to “tattle” on her. Michelle would stop her (I did hear her talking to her a few times.), and distract her in any way she could. She walked outside with Mama a few times just to keep her out of my room. She said Mama got really angry with her for not eating the meal she fixed. Michelle told her she was too full to eat. I told her I usually pretend to eat--or munch on yogurt, fruit or something a little less filling than what Mama gives me.

Michelle left at 6:00. Mama fixed another meal. She got upset when I ate cereal instead of chicken. She got over it. She was in bed by 7:00 AM. She is now snoozing while I am writing this. I will get her up before Penny comes. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the week goes.

Well I may go snooze a bit more myself.

Until next time………….

Sunday, July 27, 2003

Mama went to bed around 3:30 yesterday. I tried to keep her up. She wouldn’t listen. I let her sleep for a little while, like her old naps. I put out clean clothes as if it was morning. She didn't take the hint. She got up several times to come look for all our visitors, give me a hug and a kiss, tell me she loved me, and then she would go back to bed. That is until around 8:30. She remembered to bake cookies to take to church.

I forgot that she had not baked cookies in a while since I have been doing that for her. I didn't think to go check on her. I found the timer and gave it to her. She set it. It went off almost immediately. She got up to take the cookies out of the oven. I told her they needed to stay in a bit longer since they had been in there all of 3 minutes. She reset the timer; it rang almost immediately again. I jumped up from whatever I was doing, put the timer on for 15 minutes, sat back down to finish exercising (I think that is what I was doing.) She giggled and the waited for the cookies to be ready. When the timer went off, she headed for the kitchen. I walked in behind her to catch her spooning out cookie dough from a bowl. Luckily the bowl was metal, but the cookies were not done since I guess she just globbed a bunch of dough in there. I took my life into my own hands, dodged Mama's attempts to stop me, put them on a cookie sheet, and put them back in the oven. I reset the timer. Of course, I had no idea how long to cook them since they had already been cooked some. I kept checking on them, but ended up leaving them in the entire time. Mama took them out and tried to immediately put them into a plastic baggie. I tried to get her to let them cool off a bit, but she was determined to do it right then. I let her have her way. I mean I was exhausted from just getting them cooked.

She went right back to bed after her cookie escapade. Just as I was about to go to bed, she tried to get up and get dressed. I told her that it was NOT time to get up. She said, "It isn't?" I told her, "No, it is NOT time to get up!" (I am still trying to figure out why she thinks I am lying to her about the time. I mean why would I lie to her???? ) Anyway, about every hour or so, she would get up and I would yell, "No! It isn't time yet!" She would answer, "It isn't time?" I would reply, "No! GO BACK TO SLEEP!" She minded me until around six this morning. I just let her go on a get dressed.

I figured she would start bugging me to go to church. She never said a word. She walked outside around the house a few times with swarm of mosquitoes following her. I got her settled hoping she wouldn’t wander off while I took a shower. By the time I was finished she was getting lunch ready; it was 9:00. She fussed at me to come eat, but I told her I really needed to finish getting dressed first. She fussed some more while I got dressed. I ate some yogurt. That kind of satisfied her. It was then time to go to Sunday school. She didn’t want to get in the car because she didn’t want to miss any people that might come. I finally convinced her to get in the car. I made sure she had the cookies; she even had a note to the preacher in one of the bags. I drove to the church parking lot; Mama said, “Why didn’t you tell me we were coming here?” I couldn’t believe my ears. She walked into the church and told everyone that she would have brought something, but she didn’t know we were going there. I tried to convince her that she had a bag of cookies in her purse, but she wouldn’t buy it.