Hairy
In about 10 minutes I'll be getting my hair done. Yesterday we had worship in the park but because the weather threatened to rain we ended up having services in a park shelter with a potluck to follow. As it was also my grandmother's 82nd birthday and I wanted to be at her party (3 hours away) I only stayed for a bit of the potluck and then I ran to my grandmother's.
For her birthday we ended up taking her to my dad's favorite restaurant and it was my aunt, 2 uncles, grandmother and myself. My aunt and uncle don't realize that the there are tricks to being with my grandmother. One of those tricks is taking her to limited, but familiar places. My aunt wanted us to go to an Italian restaurant that she thought my g'ma would find pretty but the thing is that with my g'ma she might find it pretty but she'll also spend all of her energy trying to figure out where she is and what's that noise and what are those people doing over there, and who are they, that she'll never get comfortable and then she'll keep repeating herself and no one will be comfortable.
My grandmother has vascular dimension a disease that people confuse with Alzheimer's. VD is a series of small strokes throughout the brain and manifest themselves in no short term memory. So while my grandmother can remember who her family is she can't "remember" where she is and what she's doing. But if we go some place familiar then she's more likely to feel comfortable about being there. As such I'm constantly fighting with my family to establish this with them. The thing is that before she had this condition she would have wanted to go some place new and see and experience something new so my family thinks that the way to make her happy (she was notoriously unhappy before the condition). But I know that the way to make her happy is to make her comfortable.
It was a hairy situation but after I got everyone on board we had a great evening. The restaurant that we went to is situated on the river and as if I had read the script my grandmother sat in a seat by the window and said, "I could sit and watch the river all day long" (something I knew she loved to do). We had a lovely meal (I had the salmon and shrimp cocktail) and most importantly my grandmother enjoyed herself.
For her birthday we ended up taking her to my dad's favorite restaurant and it was my aunt, 2 uncles, grandmother and myself. My aunt and uncle don't realize that the there are tricks to being with my grandmother. One of those tricks is taking her to limited, but familiar places. My aunt wanted us to go to an Italian restaurant that she thought my g'ma would find pretty but the thing is that with my g'ma she might find it pretty but she'll also spend all of her energy trying to figure out where she is and what's that noise and what are those people doing over there, and who are they, that she'll never get comfortable and then she'll keep repeating herself and no one will be comfortable.
My grandmother has vascular dimension a disease that people confuse with Alzheimer's. VD is a series of small strokes throughout the brain and manifest themselves in no short term memory. So while my grandmother can remember who her family is she can't "remember" where she is and what she's doing. But if we go some place familiar then she's more likely to feel comfortable about being there. As such I'm constantly fighting with my family to establish this with them. The thing is that before she had this condition she would have wanted to go some place new and see and experience something new so my family thinks that the way to make her happy (she was notoriously unhappy before the condition). But I know that the way to make her happy is to make her comfortable.
It was a hairy situation but after I got everyone on board we had a great evening. The restaurant that we went to is situated on the river and as if I had read the script my grandmother sat in a seat by the window and said, "I could sit and watch the river all day long" (something I knew she loved to do). We had a lovely meal (I had the salmon and shrimp cocktail) and most importantly my grandmother enjoyed herself.