Have you ever had one of those dreams that truly seemed so real it was hard to shake off? The vestiges of it stay with you for a great deal of time?
I recall a nightmare I had involving sound and people fighting "Andy Capp" style; they were in a large ball rolling through the house sawing through the walls getting closer and closer to me. The sound of the water in the pipes, as my father took his shower in another part of the house, gave the dream the finishing touch. I remember it vividly.
It came to me recently that this is similar to Mom's situation; except that she is living the dream. She is neither asleep nor awake - but fluctuating between a sleepy and a dreamy reality - her wakefulness and her dreams are her realities, but unlike the majority of us, there is no strict partition which tells her on which side of the sandman she is.
Her speech is affected - think of what it's like to speak to someone who's in slumber; their speech is slurred, mushy, usually unintelligible, and typically non-linear. It's difficult to make heads or tails of. Much the same can be said of Mom. And, yet, there are just as many times when she speaks clearly - but her thoughts are muddled and unintelligible.
She may as well be sleep-walking. This can account for her delusions of performing tasks with my grandmother, having events with my brothers, and her siblings, She deludes that people are dead, and even if they're sitting directly across from her this is her reality.
There's truly no other way to put it. While spending time with her it becomes obvious.
How then, can she walk? With LBD, the body doesn't go into normal paralysis while sleeping. This can be seen as typical of those who do sleepwalk.
She never did this before, but it helps to believe this. It makes sense.
Dreams are also surrealistic, and non-linear. This accounts for so much of her thinking.
You try to make sense of your dreams...
So, when people ask me "How's your mom?" I may actually respond, "She's really sleeping well!"
I recall a nightmare I had involving sound and people fighting "Andy Capp" style; they were in a large ball rolling through the house sawing through the walls getting closer and closer to me. The sound of the water in the pipes, as my father took his shower in another part of the house, gave the dream the finishing touch. I remember it vividly.
It came to me recently that this is similar to Mom's situation; except that she is living the dream. She is neither asleep nor awake - but fluctuating between a sleepy and a dreamy reality - her wakefulness and her dreams are her realities, but unlike the majority of us, there is no strict partition which tells her on which side of the sandman she is.
Her speech is affected - think of what it's like to speak to someone who's in slumber; their speech is slurred, mushy, usually unintelligible, and typically non-linear. It's difficult to make heads or tails of. Much the same can be said of Mom. And, yet, there are just as many times when she speaks clearly - but her thoughts are muddled and unintelligible.
She may as well be sleep-walking. This can account for her delusions of performing tasks with my grandmother, having events with my brothers, and her siblings, She deludes that people are dead, and even if they're sitting directly across from her this is her reality.
There's truly no other way to put it. While spending time with her it becomes obvious.
How then, can she walk? With LBD, the body doesn't go into normal paralysis while sleeping. This can be seen as typical of those who do sleepwalk.
She never did this before, but it helps to believe this. It makes sense.
Dreams are also surrealistic, and non-linear. This accounts for so much of her thinking.
You try to make sense of your dreams...
So, when people ask me "How's your mom?" I may actually respond, "She's really sleeping well!"
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