Things have been really up and down with mom this past week. Some days she will wake up and be really weak and confused and not know where she is and other days, she will walk right out into the living room and sit down all by herself without any help. I don't know what it is that makes the difference. On Wednesday, she woke up pretty ornery. (that hardly ever happens) She did not want to take a shower and for sure didn't want Rebecca to come help her. I warned Rebecca when she got here mom was kind of grumpy and didn't want a shower. She came in and with her sweet cheerful way, totally changed mom's attitude in about one minute. By the time she left, mom was telling her how grateful she was that she had come to help her and she would see her in a few days!
Thursday morning, Brenda, Teina, Angie and Lisa came over to spend some time with mom. Angie and Lisa had flown in that morning to attend their grampas' funeral.
Mom was having one of those rough mornings where she was kind of confused. I know she loved visiting with them though because later that day after they had gone, she said " It was so nice to have everyone here...it's been so long since I've seen them!"
They stayed till about 2:00. I know Lisa and Angie were both pooped after flying out very early that morning, so that was nice of them to stay for a while. Brenda had told me earlier that she was planning on spending the day here so Camille and I could get out for a while and she would be here with mom. But then Dennis' step dad died so I sure didn't expect her to go ahead with it. She said she was picking Lisa and Angie up at the airport anyway and they all wanted to see grandma, so they would still plan on coming. That was really nice and it raised mom's spirits to see them all.
Yesterday, I saw something in mom I haven't seen before. She was sitting there staring at her pills..as usual, and she said "someone has been messing with my pills...I can't take these!" I said 'no mom, these are the right pills...no one has touched them'. After much convincing, she finally took them. Then later that night, Kelley and I had gone to the stake conference adult meeting, and when we got home, I came downstairs and found mom with this look of panic on her face. I said "what's wrong?" She said she had been waiting and waiting for the time to pass. What was odd was that Camille had been sitting with her all evening (she was still sitting right next to her) chatting and watching Lawrence Welk. A few other things happened too, like her saying that Tizzy...(Lizzy or wiggle waggle...that's another story) was upsetting the baby...(baby sound asleep, Lizzy asleep) or that Olivia had done something to the baby swing and had broken it. (Didn't happen) I would reassure her that everything was fine and within a minute, she would be over it and completely pleasant and happy again. I have seen a few incidents of paranoia from her when I've been at her house, but this is the first pretty bad ones since she's been here.
I know it's just something that comes with dementia...got to learn to accept it and not let it get to me.
Camille said they had had a nice evening together with no trouble at all. Many thanks to her again for making it possible for us to go to all of our stake meetings on Saturday.
This morning,I came downstairs early and found mom awake. She asked me what day it was. I said "Sunday", and she said "well I had better go to church then!" I told her it was our stake conference and she was welcome to come with us! I got her hair all fixed and put on her pretty green skirt and blouse that goes with it. She looked beautiful! Then we got her upstairs for her breakfast and she took all her pills in record time! I was so glad Kelley was here to help us...he can really move her around easily in the wheel chair... even down the front steps! Lifted her into the car with no trouble, then into the wheelchair and into the church in a jiffy. We sat at the back where it was easy to move the wheel chair into a spot. Conference was good. Some real good speakers and the music was nice. Mom stayed awake the whole time! That was better than I did!
We visited with some friends after it was over and introduced mom to several people. Everyone was really great and sweet with her.
When we got home, she said she liked going to our church and she had really enjoyed the meeting. Wow! That made it all worthwhile!
Now lets all have a nap.