Mama

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

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Dear Aunt Jane and Uncle Malcolm,

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I was exhausted over the weekend and slept a lot. Yesterday Michelle was out with strep throat so I took Christie's shift and Christie took Michelle's night shift.

Mama seems to be doing fairly well. She is still not up and running, but she does sit in her chair more now. She is able to go to the table to eat, but sometimes she refuses to walk into the dining room. We have to watch her intake of liquid in proportion to her output because she would drink constantly if we let her. This could cause the extra liquid to go into her lungs if we aren't careful. I got some baby teething chewy things for her to "nibble on" in between drinks. We put them in the refrigerator to cool them off and switch them out periodically. This seems to help keep her satisfied somewhat.

The Social Worker from Hospice called me last night to tell me she was impressed with this idea and, in fact, is going to get them for other patients who need to appease the chewing and sucking instinct.

Huzza Huzza and Blackberry are doing fine after their operation. They have definitely not been calm, but the stitches seem to still be in tact. I take them on Monday to get those taken out. Tuesday morning they were creating a ruckus over by the fence beside the driveway. I went to check, and they had cornered a little black kitten. I put the puppies in their portable fence and went to pick up the kitten. Before I could get back to it, HH had somehow gotten out of the fence and was back barking and jumping at the poor little thing. The kitten ran under Mama's car. While I grabbed HH, Christie coaxed the kitten out. I put it in HH & BB old Pet Taxi for safe keeping.

I took the kitten to school thinking I would drop it by the animal shelter, but one of my students wanted to adopt it. His mother said it was fine with her, but he would have to talk his grandmother into it. He lives close to us so I brought the kitty back home, but Grandma said no. Since I was paying attention to it, HH & BB were having such a fit over the kitten that I put the case on top of Mama's car so they couldn't get to it. When I went inside, they seemed to forget about the kitten.

This morning I went out to feed the occupants of our zoo, and the kitten heard me, came out of its 'house', and started mewing. I went over to pet it, and HH & BB went nuts. They were barking and jumping like crazy things. I finally put it back in the carrier and brought it in the house when Blackberry jumped up on the hood of Mama’s car and was headed up the windshield to the roof after that kitten!! They don't chase off that awful Tom Cat, but they went after that kitten like it was going to destroy the world. Guess I don't pet the Tom, but I was playing with the kitten. David Green took it to find a home without dogs.

Christie is here now, and Michelle is supposed to come back to work tonight. She got a shot of penicillin to knock the disease out of her system.

Until later, hugs,