Things have been going so well for the past month. A little success breeds hope for a better future, ya know. I understand that ALZ 's is a progressive disease with no cure, but I also understand that some people, can maintain the disease quite well, with the proper med's, for quite some time. My prayer is that this will be the case for Mom. She is taking her meds well. She seems to have lost the anger she once felt about me carrying her "red card" (bank card), and this afternoon we were eating our lunch and watching a TV program and she actually laughed out loud. I admit that her laughter made my day. She makes her own bowl of cereal for breakfast each morning. She also showers, chooses her clothes and dresses for the day. So she begins her day like most of us do.
Actually I find my biggest challenge with Mom, at this point, is keeping her occupied. Left to herself she will sit in her room and read all day and all evening, except for coming out to shower and eat her meals. Mom is small and somewhat frail and I feel strange asking her to do things that I can actually do myself, but I am reminded of what the doctors tell me, "at this point it's a matter of use it or lose it sooner". They encouraged me to keep her busy and somewhat challenged. . .Today was laundry day and she folded 3 loads of laundry for me - two loads of towels and one load of baby clothes. I tried to engage her a bit by eating our lunch on TV trays in front of the TV - she has a TV in her room but has only had it on twice, and just for a couple of minutes each time. . .Friday she has her beauty shop appointment then will go to the library to check out more books. Most days, tho not every day, I can find ways for Mom to interact with the outside world, at least to some degree, but the one thing that is still lacking at this time is a friend her age. This would enrich her life a lot. I'm still looking.
Good luck with that! My mother's sister died last year and that was her closest 'friend.' After her stroke the church people stopped coming after a bit. Mother can't speak clearly and I guess they thought she couldn't hear either. Mother doesn't seem to crave friends. Family appears to be enough. Although apparently she and my sister (the one she lives with) have had an issue. My mother got mad at Nita and broke her 'new' chalk dog. Nita collect vintage things. Last time Mother got mad she spilled bleach on Nita's favorite blouse!There may be a down side in Mother doing the dusting and laundry! Nita now does her OWN!! I'll hear the whole scoop tomorrow when I go to Fort Worth!
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