Mama

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

Thursday, November 18, 2004

After talking with brother Dr. Tom, I decided maybe we should just watch Mama's mouth to see if it swells or starts bothering her. He reminded me of the foot doctor fiasco, and I had a vision of Mama with a sore mouth. It scared the daylights out of me so we are going to monitor the situation for now. Tommy will be home the weekend after Thanksgiving, and David and Linda will be here for Thanksgiving Day. Will let them check her out and see what they think.


Beverly said Mama was really busy today. She had three poopy incidents, Beverly had to call Christie in for reinforcements on the last one. I guess Michelle was still here for the first two, lucky her!! We were just discussing last night how long it had been since she pulled one of those so guess it was about time. Either that or she heard us and decided it was time!!! She also pulled her catheter almost all the way out. Beverly had to call the Hospice nurse to come fix that. Shortly after I came home, Mama pulled her diaper off. I had to hold her hands and let her 'fishkiss' me while Beverly got her properly covered once more. I'll take sixth graders over that any day!!


Blackberry has become Mr. Macho lately. Any time I give the boys treats, he steals Huzza Huzza's and then growls at anyone who tries to take it away from him. I guess I am going to have to do some intervention because I really do not like this behavior.

We get out early tomorrow and then I am off all week. Beverly just told me that her family has rented the Cedar Lane Community Center for their Thanksgiving meal so they will be close in case we have any major catastrophes.


Better go do something constructive. Hugs to one and all,
Connie

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Copies of email
Nov. 9
Dear Aunt Jane and Uncle Malcolm, Thank you for the Thanksgiving invitation, but I will probably have Mama so the Mama-sitters can have their family gathering--they do it up big every year. Tommy is working and won't be home until the weekend after. David and Linda may come here, but we really haven't made any plans.

Christie helped Mama into the dining room for supper tonight. Mama fed herself a big bowl of potatoes, some apple crisp with ice cream, and several cookies. She is snoozing away right now. Her eye is better and her urine is clearing up so guess she is on the mend--until the next episode.

Hugs until next time.

Nov. 11
Oh my! Beverly and Michelle have been worried about Mama's toenails. They have gotten so thick and yucky. They were afraid of ingrown toenails and all kinds of other problems. They made an appointment with the foot doctor for today. I met them after school. Mama was not happy to be lying on that table. The doctor came into the room, told us we couldn't all stay in there, and then walked out. When he FINALLY came back in we told him that we all needed to be there to help hold Mama. I held her hands and talked with her while Beverly and Michelle helped him with her feet. Poor Mama. She had tears in her eyes as she looked into my eyes and said, "That hurts. Tell him to stop." Since I was trying to keep her calm, I am not sure exactly what he did to her, but her toes are really, really, really tender. She wasn't able to keep her supper down either. I think it was just too much pain for her. I will not let them take her back!

On the bright side, before the doctor fiasco, they took Mama into Wal-Mart in her wheelchair. They said Mama would point at stuff and say, "Look at that!" and just giggle. I think she enjoyed seeing all the pretties and seeing new people.

Hugs to one and all,

Nov. 12
Mama seems to have survived her trip to the foot doctor. Her feet are tender, but Beverly and Michelle were able to get her to soak them. After that she let them put medicine and Band-Aids on them. So thankfully her feet seem to be doing better.

Beverly is taking tonight off. Christie is filling in for her. Tomorrow Michelle will work the day shift and Beverly will take over when she leaves. Betty called and asked me to go shopping with her tomorrow. I wasn't going to go at first, but Beverly was still here when she called. Beverly came storming into the dining room fussing at me, telling me I could go, she would just come in earlier than she had planned. So I will go play a little tomorrow!! Need to go check on my whine-y little puppies. They are so mistreated!!

hugs,

Nov. 16
Linda (my sister-in-law) called last night and said they will come for Thanksgiving. I am really glad they are coming. It wouldn't seem like Thanksgiving if nobody came. I will fix a mini-Thanksgiving meal. Mama is eating mostly soup and soft foods so don't need a lot of left-overs. Of course, I might really get into cooking since I have all of next week off. We have waiver days on Monday and Tuesday--which means we went to meetings and workshops over the summer that will count for those two days.

Mama seems to be doing fairly well. She was mad at me Sunday evening because I wouldn't let her dig in her diaper. I was holding her hands trying to keep her occupied until Michelle came into work since it takes two to change her. She put my hand to her mouth and bit it, thankfully not too hard!! Beverly has been telling me that Mama has begun to do this when she is mad at someone, but it was my first experience.

She is still giving 'kisses' to us, but she is often forgetting to smooch so it reminds me of a fish mouth--she just puts her mouth to our cheeks, forehead, and wherever else she bumps against. I am now a bit leery wondering if she is going to bite my cheek!!!! Her hands and arms are still really strong, and she will grab us behind our necks making it difficult to get away from her.

I made Mama's Angel Biscuit recipe tonight to take to our Thanksgiving meal at work tomorrow. She was sitting in her chair, yelling for me to "come to me" and motioning with her hand for me to get myself to her. I kept stopping my mixing to go get my fish kisses, so am not sure if I measured correctly. Luckily others are also bringing bread items, so if mine aren't any good, I'll just won't tell anyone they are mine!!!!

My puppies are whining to get in the house so I guess I had better go give them some attention. Hugs to one and all,

Nov. 17
The Angel Biscuits turned out really yummy so I guess I measured everything correctly. The entire meal at work today was fabulous. I was glad I wore a skirt with an elastic waist. I guess this was a warm-up for our holiday eating.

We are going to try to find a dentist to work on Mama's teeth. A while back one of her teeth broke, and Christie finally got Mama to let her look in her mouth. The root is still in the gum. We started worrying about infection and all kinds of complications so Beverly called Hospice, who called Dr. Sacco, who called me. Dr. S. agreed with me that the complications from infection would probably be worse than complications from dental work. I guess we will have to find someone who will agree to put Mama under anesthesia since she would be biting the whole time if she is conscious!! Will keep you posted.

Hugs to one and all, and many thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.