Time to Monitor Some Behavior....

So, this week we begin doing some monitoring on Mom.

What does this mean?   It means we (the staff at St. Anthony's with some input from me) will be making some notations on behaviors, as well as attempting to have Mom begin renewing her basic activities.

Here are the four points we are targeting:

1)  Sleeping.

     Mom will be checked hourly to see how she's doing sleep-wise.  If she's sleeping too much during the day or if she's having restless night sleep.

  This is to determine what's happening with her at night while answering the questions about her behavior over the weekend (not willing to dress or go out of her room due to being so tired).   The catch to this is whether or not the staff monitoring her wakes her by simply opening the door.   
    We will take in the information next week and make some determinations. 

2)  Exercise.

      Mom will be strongly urged to have some form of exercise on a daily basis with her exercise nurse.  Even if this means using her dinner wine as bait.

Mom really needs more exercise.  This could alleviate the lethargy and, perhaps, the edema she's been suffering from of late.  The wine is a treat, not an entitlement so there's no actual punitive endeavor there.   It may have many more benefits.  We will see where we are in a week. 

3)  Edema.

   Mom must be elevating her legs and wearing her compression stockings on a daily basis.  For some reason, which has been quite unclear, she seems to not have them on - and it may well be that she takes them off herself.  She's naughty that way.
    However, the swelling was too much last Monday, and it continues, although we've gone through this before.  We'll be checking on this with regularity.

  Edema can be a sign of kidney failure, liver failure, as well as be a lead up to congestive heart failure.  The stockings work to force the blood of her vascular system to move and be more effective and efficient - thereby increasing the blood flow. 

4)  Bathing.

   Arrrrrrg!  I've read so many articles and blogs about dealing with the unwillingness to bathe.  To be honest, I believe it's a control button.    While Mom is still garbed in her new togs, we aren't sure when she last bathed.  We may have to use something as bait (such as wine, again).  We'll be watching the progress and see what methods work this week.  Maybe we can bribe with chocolates....
   Not bathing may not only be a rather filthy and smelly affair, but it can lead to some other problems which I'd rather not speak of here.  Let's just say it's not only uncivilized, but something a woman of Mother's purport shouldn't be omitting. 

Well, on another note, she may be having her hair done this week, as well as a mani-pedi (that's manicure/pedicure for those unsure).  That may make quite a difference in her affect.  Next week should bring some data we can use or dump.

Stay Tuned!

Has One of These Days Arrived? Not quite yet - or the Week Ending 04/12/2015

A fretful but interesting week.

Monday, my brother, Tom & his wife, Peg, came down from Seattle to visit Mom.  I called ahead and told them to tell her that if she didn't take a shower there'd be no wine or ice cream for lunch.

It worked!  She skedaddled right in!

When they arrived, they were concerned by the swelling in her legs.  In fact, the edema was so bad they could barely squeeze her feet into her slippers.  But they did and off they went to lunch.

The visit was pleasant, but they noted that Mom wasn't always coherent and mumbled a great deal.

After they dropped her off they went shopping for clothes.  They bought pants, shirts, and a fleece type top.  They handed them over to me to make the attempt to have Mom try them on.

Wednesday, the RLC came to visit.  Mom kissed Connie on the cheek and then Jean (after Jean made mention of her omission).  Mom seemed quite tired.  She'd been to Mass earlier in the day, and this seemed to have sapped her energy.

They were able to play 3 rounds of Scrabble when Mom decided to put all the tiles away.  She had the lead score, 37, but the others weren't far behind with scores in the 30's.

The ladies trotted off to allow Mom some rest.

Friday night Mom arose and began a frantic search through the cottage for her baby who was sick.  This was something they hadn't seen Mom do.  This was also a shock to me when I heard.

Saturday, Mom refused to come out of her room as well as change out of her night clothes.  She stayed in so they brought her meals to her.  She complained that she hadn't slept well the night before.  This is self-explanatory.

Today, I arrived and found Mom still in her night clothes.  I'm not sure if she'd taken breakfast.  When the nursing aide came to check on her Mom shooed her away claiming she was in the shower and wanted privacy.    Not quite sure she actually did bathe...

I brought in the clothes Tom & Peg bought and told Mom to try on the pants.  She did it!  Yes!  No arguments or excuses.  They were a tad blousy on her but they fit and they looked good.   Then came the shirts.

Mom said I should try them on first to see if  I wanted them.  Um, No!  She stated that lots of men were wearing them these days.  I glossed over this and gave her some time to try them on.  When I re-entered, she was wearing the fleece with no shirt on.  She looked small in the clothes, but she also looked great!

Mom looking sleepily dapper. 

And, too boot, she allowed me to put on a pair of the socks I found for her.  We were able to get her feet into her sneakers, and she was ready to rock the world!

Her edema was still present, but not as bad as it was Monday.  The staff told me it was quite alarming, but the next day it had lessened as it did each day since.  She wore her stockings each day, and this seemed to help.

We then went to Jean's and had a lovely lunch of Boeuf Bourgogne a la Parisienne with Brussel Sprouts and Egg Noodles (no, the sprouts weren't mixed in - they were on the side).  Mom had her ice cream with fruit cocktail as a condiment.  She was happy.

She spoke of many things and seemed lucid at times.  Dad is out of town on business, it seems, and my grandmother is so terribly busy that she isn't able to visit Mom all that often.   Mom's brother who died has apparently moved to Idaho.

There was an instance in which Mom mistook me for Dad and asked me how my mother was.
"She's sitting right next to me.  How is she?"
"You're not funny.  That's just rude."
"Well, who am I, then?"
"You're my son."
"So you're my mother."
"Stop that.  Don't play games with me."
This led to a distraction of "Wow!  Look at all that traffic!"  It worked.

To be honest, Mom was all over the place today.  She told me, in the morning, she hadn't slept well the night before.  Preparing to leave for Jean's, I asked her why she thought she wasn't getting good sleep.  She retorted that she could fall asleep in record time and slept soundly through the night, and I shouldn't go around making things up. <sigh>

Where will Mom be, mentally and physically in the next 6 months?  in the next year?  I honestly can't tell you, but I've a feeling this season of disruption will seem a happy place comparatively.

When Did It All Begin? and the Week IN Review: 8/10/2014

Looking back over the year, and consistently asking, "What were the first signs?" and coming up with little bits and pieces, I still cannot figure it out.  The symptoms began so slightly and so benignly it is tough to judge exactly when Mom began to fall prey to the Lewy Bodies...

In 2003 she and I went on an excursion to England, Wales, and Scotland.  She wasn't completely with it, then, but she was her regular self, at the same time.   Aside from being a bit more vague than was typical, and clumsy (she broke a rib climbing some stairs - but that was attributed to her being tired, and the time she tried to jump the style in the loo to avoid paying for using it, falling down on the other side).

After returning to the States, she went to the beach house, and then to mine for a few days to visit friends before going back home.  That's when she caught my kitchen on fire, which wreaked havoc for me for 7 months.  She denied any claim to the damage, but asserted it was due to her I was gaining a remodel...her thinking was completely illogical.  Perhaps that was the sign.  I don't know.

After that, there were little things, like putting dish soap in the dishwasher and having a flood in the kitchen at her home, yanking out her fridge and breaking the waterline, which caused yet another flood...I saw it as karma at the time (due to her denial of setting my home ablaze), but it could have been more signs.

Then, the housekeeping - she was never terribly fond of it.  We had, as brothers, hired housekeepers for her from time to time as gifts, but she had grown less and less interested in dusting and vacuuming.  She would rinse off her dishes and put them back in the cupboards, rather than put them in the dishwasher - as she felt they weren't all that dirty.  YIKES!

Then in the past 2-3 years the symptoms became much more evident.  And, here we are!  I'm sure my brothers could also relate some stories that may have evidence of her slow progression to where we are today.

This week, we had a good time.

I brought her some compression hose for her legs and edema.  For the first time, she liked them.  They weren't so difficult to put on, and they were a strong compression.

Next, we went for a walk down the street and to the park.  At the commencement of the short jaunt, she stated she was in pain, but as we continued she felt much better.

We sat in the park and looked at the children playing and the flowers and homes.  Next, we went to the residential grounds and sat near the fountain and gardens.

She was going to play BINGO that afternoon, so I left her to her lunch, reminding her of her beauty appointment the next day.

The RLC is hedging on attending her this week, as Connie is down at the beach, and Jean is trying to jibe her schedule with Mom's...



UPDATE:  This Week In Review


No RLC visits this week, and the movie was postponed due to illness (I had a cold that I didn't wish to pass on).

Today I put on Mom's hose, again, but it was more difficult (She's not much help - in fact, it'd be easier to take her legs off, put on the hose, then re-attach them) as she kept fidgeting about.  But it was done.

She was more flighty in thought, and unable to make connections - this would pass, but then again it would begin.

We went to Mass, and during, she wanted to know which aisle to get to for communion.  I motioned to the center, then she began prodding me to move so we could go.  I told her it wasn't time yet, but she continued for a few more seconds until I told her the man next to her would be the one to poke.  She stopped (Thank God!).

After Mass we went to Jean's house, where we indulged in freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, smoked turkey burgers, cherries, fruit cocktail with pineapple (which Mom mixed with some ice cream), coffee and lemonade.  Mom was very content.

However, her mind was working (?) overtime, and she would make super-olympian leaps of thought in her discussions.  For instance, she would be talking about food, then in the same sentence transition to her grandfather.  I noticed it, but Jean went with it as though it were normal (and it pretty much is, with Mom).

Later she was talking about how she'd like to go to Italy at some point.  I reminded her she'd gone a few years back with her friend, Nadya.  Mother told me to stop imagining those things.  But she had gone.  I reminded her of our trip to England, Scotland and Wales, and she did remember that, but she said we had gone, but not to so many places (sic).

She was in a very delightful mood, and was able to laugh a bit.

When I dropped her off, she was very content and ready for a nap.

I will be making an eye appointment for her with the optometrist, as she is "getting crystals on the sides of my eyes", and is worried about where, exactly to put her eye drops  in;  back to that square again, I suppose.

But, all in all, she's in good health, and her legs are looking much better.  The swelling has gone down on her ankles, as well as her legs.  She told me she really hates the stockings, but these are the most comfortable ones she's had ever!  She can't wait until she doesn't have to wear them again!

Until later this week, I hope I've sated you with information!