Pondering

Pondering.  Mulling.  Recalling.  Trying to understand what we missed in the early stages of Mom’s LBD is always tugging at the bells of my mind (that’s an interesting image, I must say - but I’ll keep it!).  The more I read, the more I muse and think.  

As I was reading earlier in the day, I came across something that made me stop.  It had to do with dizziness, nausea, constipation and dementia.  For a few years before Mom was well underway with overt symptoms of LBD there were other indicators that we had no idea existed, nor would they be anything to which we would pay much attention.  

I can recall around the summer of 2007, give or take when Mom was at the beach house and her cousins, Marion, and Janet, came for a visit.  Her other cousin, Alice, lived up the road in Astoria and they be-bopped between her house and the beach house for variety.  I know Mom really enjoyed the visits, and when Alice came hopping into the house with her tennis racquet Mom was at the ready.   They walked down to the courts and played, but Mom tired quickly and they headed back to the house where she went down for a nap.  

There were some other things that seemed odd to both Janet and Marion on that visit, as well.  They phoned me and asked if Mom was doing alright.  I had not noticed anything that was amiss with her, just her aging, and told them.  Had we known then what we know now I may have paid closer attention and tried to figure it out.  

Yes, Mom was becoming more tired and easily nauseated more frequently.  It seemed every visit we had she would state this but figured it had more to do with manipulation (to get me to do more than I already was) and hypochondria, which she seemed to own.  And Alice (who now suffers the same as Mom with LBD) showed no signs of slowing down, other than age - and she was just an eager jackrabbit when it came to playing sports and being involved in activities, although she, too, had slowed down her participation as time progressed.  

In 2009, Janet again phoned me, and said they felt something was really wrong with Mom.  She was very concerned, but we really hadn’t noticed anything at that time, either.  It wasn’t until 2012 when Janet and Marion were, again, down at the beach, that I began to notice something was strangely amiss with Mom.  

During that visit, Janet and Marion, along with Mom, were bouncing between Alice’s house and the beach house.  Mom was truly weary.  She would phone me in the afternoon and tell me she was coming to Portland the next morning and staying until that Sunday or Monday.  Then, she would phone again the following morning and tell me she was staying.  That afternoon she would be  calling again and the pattern kept going until Saturday, (when she was originally supposed to be arriving) when she actually appeared.  

Now, I live on a “mountain” in the suburbs, and it’s about a 250-foot elevation climb in one mile from the nearest grocery store.  Mom had, in the past, gone down and picked up a newspaper and then walked back up.  She really did hate the hills, but while she would be tired and a little dizzy, she would recuperate in a reasonable amount of time.   By 2009 she was unwilling to walk back up as she would be quite dizzy from a leisurely walk down, and I’d also noticed that she wasn’t willing to go for very long walks at her house in Port Angeles, either.  I wasn’t sure the cause, but I put this to her age, as well.  

In 2012, I came home from work one day and found her collapsed on the bed in her room in my house.  She’d been there most of the day, and was exhausted from walking down the street to the store for a paper to find there wasn’t one that day.  The hike, she said, nearly killed her.  

I began to notice that she was becoming more easily tired and always seemed nauseated, as well as dizzy.  I wasn’t sure what that meant.

Today, I realize that she was suffering as the Lewy bodies began to amass on her brain.  Her blood pressure began to peak and digestive issues also began to manifest themselves inside her.  

The blood pressure was odd, I thought, as I recalled one or two times when it had crashed on her in the ‘90’s and she was rushed to the ER.  Surely, it couldn’t have reversed itself; yet this would explain the tiredness and the dizziness she was experiencing.  And, high blood pressure is also a side effect of dementia - why?  I’m not sure I can say with any reasonable fact at this time.

Her nausea, I’m discovering, has to do with another side effect of dementia - it can be caused by constipation; another side effect.   Mom has been on laxatives prescribed for this, but it’s an ongoing issue.  It could also be why she’s not very hungry lately.  She would never tell anyone as she believes it to be a private thing, as well as nothing you would discuss openly. There are those who would say they are a side effect of the medications, but she had these problems before she ever took them. And, from my readings, these would have subsided by this point; in other words, it's caused by dementia somehow.  

Had we known then what we know now would matters be handled differently?  I’m not sure.  But what I do know is that posting this might help someone who has questions that need answering.  

Just pondering.