Mom, stuff
I don't get over here to LJ very often except to read friends' posts. I just have to let you guys who follow me know some things that I don't necessarily want to talk about over on FB.
Mom has Alzheimer's. I just found out. My sister says she swears she told me before, but I don't remember. I either have it, too, or rejected the information. I knew it was dementia of some kind, but didn't understand this specific diagnosis. We thought we'd be able to let her stay in her apartment for probably another year, but that all changed last Thursday.
Her right knee, the one that was not replaced had been hurting her, but she was getting around okay. Thursday am, she called me and said she couldn't get up out of her chair. She didn't understand that it's a lift chair and it would get her up. I drove in and found that she had spent the WHOLE night in the chair. She'd tried to get to the patio and had opened the door, but knew she couldn't go outside, so turned around and got into her chair. The patio door was open all night.
One of the other residents who is in charge of keys when the office is closed was there. He said her neighbor saw her patio door open and called him. They really are a wonderful bunch of people there and they all look out for each other. :) She needed to go to the bathroom and it took 1/2 hour to get her the 10 feet. Her good leg wouldn't work probably because of sitting in the chair all night. I called my sister to let her know what had happened and she came in to help. We ultimately decided that Mom needed to go to the ER. My daughter A was going to help me get into Mom's closet that morning and "week", so she was there, too. We got Mom cleaned up and into my car and A and I went to the ER.
We were there 12 hours!!!! They ran lots of tests and finally got an ortho resident to look at her knee. LOTS of fluid in there!! He consulted with the attending and they agreed to aspirate it. Two full syringes the size of a large man's thumb each were pulled out of her knee! A, who is the strongest woman I know, suddenly got a whole lotta warm and had to actually leave the building for a few minutes!! LMAO Guess it's a little different when it's a loved one. :D
Anyway, it was decided that Mom would come home with me that night for a few days. We thought we'd take her home after our cook out Sunday afternoon, but she's still here. I found her on the floor of the bathroom leaning up against the door jamb Sunday am. She'd tried to get out of bed, which is normally fine, but she slipped before she could get her feet under her and landed on her butt. She scooted herself to the bathroom, leaving a trail behind her. :( We managed to get her into the shower and cleaned up and she was okay, but she can't stay by herself.
My sister has planned all along to have Mom live with them when she needed to and they have been making their finished basement into an apartment for her. Of course, construction works at its own pace and that has NOT been going well at all. It's finally looking like we can get her over there in a couple of weeks or so. We bought a baby monitor the other day so we can hear her if something happens at night. Amazing inventions!!!!!
Dementia is hard. Hubs' parents both died of cancer and it was fairly quick. I'd never wish that on anyone, but they were actually "there" right until the end. Mom is somewhere else a lot of the time. She forgets everything that's said to her...everything. She'll wear the same clothes every day if we don't set clean ones out for her. It's all very stressful and even more sad to see my mother this way. I'm not the only one, I know, and others have it much worse. I'm grateful she's still with us as Dad's been gone since '83.
So, anyway, there we are. If you managed to hang on until the end, here, thanks for listening. Just had to 'talk' to my friends. Love you all!
Mom has Alzheimer's. I just found out. My sister says she swears she told me before, but I don't remember. I either have it, too, or rejected the information. I knew it was dementia of some kind, but didn't understand this specific diagnosis. We thought we'd be able to let her stay in her apartment for probably another year, but that all changed last Thursday.
Her right knee, the one that was not replaced had been hurting her, but she was getting around okay. Thursday am, she called me and said she couldn't get up out of her chair. She didn't understand that it's a lift chair and it would get her up. I drove in and found that she had spent the WHOLE night in the chair. She'd tried to get to the patio and had opened the door, but knew she couldn't go outside, so turned around and got into her chair. The patio door was open all night.
One of the other residents who is in charge of keys when the office is closed was there. He said her neighbor saw her patio door open and called him. They really are a wonderful bunch of people there and they all look out for each other. :) She needed to go to the bathroom and it took 1/2 hour to get her the 10 feet. Her good leg wouldn't work probably because of sitting in the chair all night. I called my sister to let her know what had happened and she came in to help. We ultimately decided that Mom needed to go to the ER. My daughter A was going to help me get into Mom's closet that morning and "week", so she was there, too. We got Mom cleaned up and into my car and A and I went to the ER.
We were there 12 hours!!!! They ran lots of tests and finally got an ortho resident to look at her knee. LOTS of fluid in there!! He consulted with the attending and they agreed to aspirate it. Two full syringes the size of a large man's thumb each were pulled out of her knee! A, who is the strongest woman I know, suddenly got a whole lotta warm and had to actually leave the building for a few minutes!! LMAO Guess it's a little different when it's a loved one. :D
Anyway, it was decided that Mom would come home with me that night for a few days. We thought we'd take her home after our cook out Sunday afternoon, but she's still here. I found her on the floor of the bathroom leaning up against the door jamb Sunday am. She'd tried to get out of bed, which is normally fine, but she slipped before she could get her feet under her and landed on her butt. She scooted herself to the bathroom, leaving a trail behind her. :( We managed to get her into the shower and cleaned up and she was okay, but she can't stay by herself.
My sister has planned all along to have Mom live with them when she needed to and they have been making their finished basement into an apartment for her. Of course, construction works at its own pace and that has NOT been going well at all. It's finally looking like we can get her over there in a couple of weeks or so. We bought a baby monitor the other day so we can hear her if something happens at night. Amazing inventions!!!!!
Dementia is hard. Hubs' parents both died of cancer and it was fairly quick. I'd never wish that on anyone, but they were actually "there" right until the end. Mom is somewhere else a lot of the time. She forgets everything that's said to her...everything. She'll wear the same clothes every day if we don't set clean ones out for her. It's all very stressful and even more sad to see my mother this way. I'm not the only one, I know, and others have it much worse. I'm grateful she's still with us as Dad's been gone since '83.
So, anyway, there we are. If you managed to hang on until the end, here, thanks for listening. Just had to 'talk' to my friends. Love you all!