Month: December 2019

3:30 PM – Mom just came in asking if I knew where her suitcase is. When I asked why she needed it, she started saying that “Junior and Jer…” I stopped her right there and said that; “No, they are not coming to get you.” She just said OK and walked back out to the kitchen.

I don’t know why she’s so fixated on this.

OK, now it’s back to a Jerry Fessler (although she’s pronouncing it different now – fee-sler.) Now it’s someone that she went to school with and he bought her grandma & grandpa’s pink house and he’s supposed to be coming to pick her up, but she wonders where he’s at and wants me to try to find out. Apparently, there’s plenty of room for her there and she’s going to live with him, or something like that. When I tried to tell her that no, this didn’t happen, I got the “I’m not going to argue” BS. *eyeroll*

6:30 AM – I woke up at 2 AM this morning to use the bathroom and discovered Mom sitting in her chair in the kitchen with the back door light turned on. I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I think she ended up sleeping most of the day yesterday, which is good because I don’t think she’s been getting much sleep lately (which explains all the weird behavior.)

I just noticed that her purse, a ziplock with toiletries and some pajamas were by the chair. She may have been waiting for someone to come and pick her up again. Since she hadn’t taken her toothbrush and the tooth paste out of her purse yet, I decided to go ahead and do that. While doing that, I found that not only was her old toothbrush in there, there was her NEW one that she opened up when she thought I threw her old one away! I didn’t find mine, so I can only guess that she threw mine away to get even with me. I didn’t dig around in the trash to verify it, but it seems most likely since it’s not anywhere else. But yet, she doesn’t touch my stuff, so that can’t be it. *sigh*

9:00 PM – Mom has come downstairs twice now with a sheet that she took off of her bed and said; “You said this is yours.” My reply: “No. I said no such thing.” I have no idea where she’s getting that idea. I’m willing to bet she’ll be down here again with the same claim.

3:00 AM – I got off work early and when I got home, I found this note:

This is the same toothbrush that she packed in her purse yesterday (along with MY toothbrush and the toothpaste) when she thought Dad and Jerilyn was coming to pick her up. For the record, I don’t bother her stuff, but she can’t seem to keep her hands off of mine. I never know where I’m going to find things when I get home… lol. Every day is an adventure!

Speaking of which. I went to the bathroom shortly after this and noticed the toilet brush was missing. It took a little bit of searching, but I found it in the bath tub, right where you’d expect it to be. Oh my, much more of this fun adventure game and I’ll be questioning my own sanity!

3:30 PM – Apparently, Dad and Jerilyn are on their way to pick Mom up, at least that’s what they told her on the phone. Something tells me that they don’t know that they are. I woke up, probably from one of many of Mom’s trips up and down the stairs, went to the bathroom and afterwards noticed that she had a bunch of clothes, shoes and her purse on the chair by the back door. I looked at her, eyebrow raised, and she said, “Dad and Geraldine is coming to get me.” So I’m like, “Who?” Your Dad and Geraldine. Is that her name.” So I tell her, “No, it’s Jerilyn, but OK. Whatever you say.” She’s still packing things up, including my toothbrush, because she can’t be convince that she’s imagining things.

I don’t know what’s going on with her lately. Maybe she’s not sleeping at night or something, but she seems to be doing a lot of hallucinating lately. Scary stuff!

5:30 PM – Mom thinks that maybe she misunderstood Dad and Jerilyn. The story I’m getting now is that they came up today, maybe to take her out, and that they were coming back to get her to take her to dinner (I’m not sure where all the clothes come into play with this story.) I’m finding it impossible to talk to her. She’s cupping her hand to her ear, so I’m speaking up asking her why she thinks they are coming to pick her up and she says, “I don’t want to argue. It’s not worth getting upset.” FOR FUCKS SAKE! Now I am getting upset! Throwing hands in air, giving up. You believe what you want to, Mom. I’m getting ready for work.

2:00 PM – My next door neighbor just brought Mom home. I guess she had gone over to their house and asked them to call the police because Jerry Fessler left and hasn’t come home yet. — Jerry Fessler used to tend bar at the Eagles here in town. I know Mom hasn’t been there since she was married to Warren.. somewhere around 10 years ago. Mom has asked me to try to find him, but the searches have failed and he may not be alive anymore.– Anyway, Mom said that Jerry leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek and said he’d be right back and that she hasn’t seen him since. As I was out in the kitchen talking to Mom and the neighbor, I noticed that Mom had ALL off her teas laid out on the stove. Who knows what she was doing with that and what set off the concern about Jerry. It’s also odd that instead of waking me up, she walked over to the neighbor’s.

Fortunately, the neighbor recognized that she was having a problem due to experiences of her own with a relative that recently went into a nursing home for Alzheimer’s.

Mom went upstairs and I checked things out in the kitchen. She had her toothbrush and a little jar of toothpicks in a ziplock bag, a couple of dish rags, pot holders, recipe box and 3 coffee cups sitting on what little space she has left on the table. I put everything away and sat down to write this. She’s still upstairs and I’m not hearing anything, so I’m going to TRY to go back to sleep for an hour or two since I’ve got to work tonight…

7:30 PM – Mom just asked me: “What does curator mean? It’s weird, I keep hearing someone talking and they are saying curator.” Well, since we were both in the kitchen and I wasn’t hearing anything but the humidifier and the occasional car going by (which she can hear neither of,) I could only guess that what she was hearing was only in her head. I let her know that it was quiet down here and that it must be in her head, so she decided she was going to go upstairs, after going to the bathroom. It took a few minutes, but she finally went upstairs, so I’m back to putting new laminate flooring in the bathroom, in peace.

Just thought it was worth mentioning since she hasn’t said anything about hearing voices for a while.

5:15 PM – Mom just asked me to help her count some cash. She had some laid out on her bed, but was struggling to try to count it. I guess counting gets harder to do with Alzheimer’s??

In other news, a couple of hours ago, we were both in the kitchen and I had just opened up a drawer that I keep one of my ceramic paring knives in and noticed it wasn’t there. I had just used it last night and she washed it and put it in with the silverware (again.) She seen me taking it out of the silverware drawer and said: “It’s always been in there.” So it said in my normal speaking voice: “No, it hasn’t.” She cupped her ear, so I spoke up and told her, “No, I always keep it here so the blade doesn’t get chipped.” She turned away from me and said: “I don’t want to argue.” I still had the knife in my hand, so I used the back of my hand to bump her arm to get her attention and she turned around and just started flailing her arms at me hitting my arm that I raised to block her. When she stopped, I looked at her and said, “Are you stupid? I’m holding a knife in my hand and you’re swinging your arms at me! Are you trying to cut yourself?”

I’m beginning to think that when she does go into a nursing home, she’s going to be combative and will have to go to one that handles Alzheimer’s patients like that. I don’t think there’s one all that close either. She’ll be lucky to get a visit once every couple of weeks if it’s too far! I hardly talk to her anymore as it is because she either doesn’t hear me, or when I speak up so she CAN hear me, she’s been doing the “I don’t wanna argue,” BS. That’s so aggravating that I’m to the point of just ignoring her entirely. What else am I supposed to do? I can’t force her to get hearing aids. She probably wouldn’t wear them if she did get them. *Shrugs*

Btw, she’s already forgotten about that I think. When she asked me to help her count the money, she acted like everything was normal.