Day 84: Well, it has been a while since I have blogged so I don't know where to start! There have been so many things going on that just sitting down to type a few words has been a challenge.
It's official----my mother-in-law was officially diagnosed by a neurologist as having Alzheimer's. He prescribed a new medication, Namenda, that he wants to see how it will work with her condition. When we met with him, he told us a few things that we already knew but it always helps to get a professional opinion.
He told us that she could no longer live by herself, she needs to be physically active, eat right, and socialize. Getting her to be physically active and socialize are two very difficult tasks at this point. She really just wants to be away from people so no one will know that something is wrong with her.
Here are a few funny stories from our latest adventures/outings:
Lauren's Graduation from Texas A&M:
1. Packing- very difficult for my MIL to think about how many days we are going to be out of town, how many outfits, what outfit is appropriate for what event, deciding on shoes to take with each outfit, the number of underwear needed, jewelry to accessorize, hose, toiletries, etc. I had decided after our trip to Lubbock that I would have to pack her while my husband took her to get her hair done. I had written down by day what to pack so I wouldn't forget to pack something. But, they got back to the house before I was finished so I had to tell her, without hurting her pride, that I was going to help her pack since I knew what all we would be doing in College Station. She was okay with that. After we got everything in the suitcase, I closed it, zipped it up, and took it downstairs where she could not get to it. Because of the disease she keeps checking and re-checking what she has packed trying desperately to make sure she hasn't forgotten anything. This continued for the next hour and 30 minutes until we left. I finally had her look at the list where I had written down what we packed and that allowed her to stop her "stewing" for the moment. She did recall though that we had not packed panty-hose so she went and retrieved those for the trip.
2. Graduation- we sat through a 3 hour ceremony for my soon to be son-in-law prior to attending the same 3 hour ceremony for my daughter at Texas A&M. There were several discussions with my MIL about who was graduating, was it high school, where were we, and where was Lauren (my daughter who was waiting to walk across the stage to get her diploma). This is the part of the disease that is so hard to understand how someone can hear information and in such a short time forget what they just heard. We got in the car to leave and my MIL asked my daughter, who was still in her graduation gown, if she was going to take any classes this summer. Lauren politely responded that no she wasn't and that was that. I can't imagine what it must be like to know that you are physically in this world but mentally do not know what is going on around you. I am thankful that my children are learning to answer without the usual "remember, I told you" statement that I remember my MIL saying to her mother who also suffered from Alzheimers. They don't remember!!
3. State Track Meet- not only did my oldest daughter graduate from college but my youngest was running her last track meet in Austin at the state track meet. So, Saturday was a little hectic. My MIL did great---she went right along and really seemed to enjoy herself. We have noticed that she will cling to my mother who is about the same age.
We got tickled though at my MIL and her purse. It is the Alzheimer patient's version of a security blanket. Most of the time we were looking for her purse or she was digging in it looking for something. When you asked her what she was looking for she would mumble something about lipstick, comb, or ask "do I have any money?"
At one point, under pressure, we were trying to get out of the car to get to the stadium in the 20 minutes we had to spare before my daughter ran, my MIL was looking all over the car for her purse. My mom told me and my husband to go on and they would join us. They never did find her purse until we were unpacking the car and it was by the bag of goodies. Evidently she got her a little snack and laid her purse down to do so.
Overall, she did fine and again seemed to laugh a lot, play with the little kids, and stayed in the room with all of the people who came for Lauren & Landon's graduation party. In Austin, she sat out at the track meet and seemed to enjoy watching the high school kids run. At the hotel that night, she began to wind down and seemed to be tired. But even at that point, we found some humor in her routines. She took her suitcase, unpacked the clothes in it, repacked them, sat out a few different outfits for the next day, and zipped and unzipped the three suitcase zippers at least five times each. I was in the other room and could hear the zipper zip and unzip many times. I had to chuckle to myself because I could see her in my mind doing this without seeing her in action.
Life is good over the hill.
