mother mother
Since 1994, my Mum has been steadily losing weight against her will. She started as roughly an 18-20 and is now around an 8, though she doesn't wear clothes that fit her. She is 5'9 or 175cm tall and at her worst she weighed 49kg. She is maybe 53kg now. She has astigmatism, bell's palsy, a pain in her side and trouble with balance. Lately she's had very bad headaches. 12 years or so ago she had a plethora of tests, mris, ct scans, blood tests, specialists by the dozen. No one could find anything wrong with her besides a very slight atrophy of the cerebellum. Tomorrow she has an appointment with a neurologist. Last Tuesday I accompanied her to a CT scan which showed she now has moderate atrophy to the cerebellum. The cerebellum is the part of the brain which controlls balance, muscle tension and eye focus, amongst other things. Mum now walks with the tips of her feet turned out, and hunched over, which is consistent with cerebellum damage. She has trouble getting up from chairs. There's nothing that can be done for cerebellum damage. She's only 51. Her grandmother had the same symptoms and ended up using a cane and developing dementia.
My mother is brilliant. Literally. If we want to judge this by pop-culture standards, she was to be a finalist on 'Sale of the Century' but gave up her space because she would be pregnant with me on TV. She won a radio quiz show which gave my Dad and his mate a trip to the snows in Vic in the 80s. She never had a university education but knows more about general knowledge than anyone I know. She still reads around 2 books a week. Around 2004 she did a teacher's assistant course at TAFE and got straight A+s, top of the class, never getting anything wrong.
More than her intelligence, she is one of the kindest, nicest, most approachable people I know. Everyone who knows her loves her. My friends envied my parents in high school. I remember being in primary school, going to the local shops and being annoyed because she'd strike up a conversation with someone she happened to be in a queue with, or more likely the check-out person (one of whom, Tracy, was our babysitter for a long time), when I just wanted to get home. I find this one of the most endearing things about her, which she continues to do.
When they owned the pie shop, my Mum saw it as a challenge to make cranky customers leave with a smile, and as cheesy as that sounds, she made it happen. Lately she visits the shops around the pie shop and people stop her and recognise her for her kindness. And they tell her they miss her at the shop.
I'm biased, but complete strangers are not.
I don't know what to do because I know that for her neurological health, there is nothing I can do. I know that as the sole child at home I should be there. I should be a comfort to her. I'm trying. I talked to my psych about it today and he wasn't much help. Not knowing the specifics, that's fine. He says rightly that preserving her mind and memory is the most important part, but I can't imagine my Mum being even more frail. Or in a wheelchair. I think about the videos that she and my Dad made when we were kids and she was carrying two of us around.
Everyone has to face it, but I don't want my parents to die.
My mother is brilliant. Literally. If we want to judge this by pop-culture standards, she was to be a finalist on 'Sale of the Century' but gave up her space because she would be pregnant with me on TV. She won a radio quiz show which gave my Dad and his mate a trip to the snows in Vic in the 80s. She never had a university education but knows more about general knowledge than anyone I know. She still reads around 2 books a week. Around 2004 she did a teacher's assistant course at TAFE and got straight A+s, top of the class, never getting anything wrong.
More than her intelligence, she is one of the kindest, nicest, most approachable people I know. Everyone who knows her loves her. My friends envied my parents in high school. I remember being in primary school, going to the local shops and being annoyed because she'd strike up a conversation with someone she happened to be in a queue with, or more likely the check-out person (one of whom, Tracy, was our babysitter for a long time), when I just wanted to get home. I find this one of the most endearing things about her, which she continues to do.
When they owned the pie shop, my Mum saw it as a challenge to make cranky customers leave with a smile, and as cheesy as that sounds, she made it happen. Lately she visits the shops around the pie shop and people stop her and recognise her for her kindness. And they tell her they miss her at the shop.
I'm biased, but complete strangers are not.
I don't know what to do because I know that for her neurological health, there is nothing I can do. I know that as the sole child at home I should be there. I should be a comfort to her. I'm trying. I talked to my psych about it today and he wasn't much help. Not knowing the specifics, that's fine. He says rightly that preserving her mind and memory is the most important part, but I can't imagine my Mum being even more frail. Or in a wheelchair. I think about the videos that she and my Dad made when we were kids and she was carrying two of us around.
Everyone has to face it, but I don't want my parents to die.