As I mentioned in an earlier post, some of the changes that dementia causes are difficult to cope with. My mother has trouble distinguishing what is real and what she has imagined. The things she says that have happened sometimes are really outlandish and other times you think, "Yeah, that probably happened", the trouble is you never can predict which is which. The other day she showed me her hand and said that she had gotten her finger caught in a car door. The finger looked a little tweaked but arthritis could be the cause of that. I called my sister just to check, sort of say, "listen to what Mom made up today", to my surprise my sister said that it did happen. I felt a badly that I hadn't believed her. The dementia symptoms are not consistent, at times she is spot on and hyper vigilant other times she is just out there. As a caregiver, it keeps me a little off balance, I can't assume anything.
Another story she repeats frequently is that my sister-in-law chased her around the yard with a baseball bat, trying to kill her, she goes on to say that her friend came over and took the bat away. None of this happened, my sister even had my Mom's friend come over to tell my Mom it did not happen, went on to explain to her that she must have had a bad dream. My Mom still thinks it really happened, when she brings it up I just change the subject. She also accuses the same sister-in-law of stealing things, but in fact my mother hides things. Whenever I find something she says had been stolen, she says that my sister-in-law hid it. It's a very sad part of the disease and no amount of explanation will change her mind.
Patience is what my goal is for everyday...also staying on my South Beach Diet, even though I'd rather get friendly with Captain Morgan
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