Mom's Alzheimer's Journal

1:30 A.M. – Things have been quiet for so long, I almost forgot about this blog, until this morning. Mom came downstairs and stopped and stared at me. She finally asked me, “You’re my older brother, right?” Oh man, I guess we’re back to this again. I asked her why she thought that and she went through me and my brother’s names. So, I told her that I would be her oldest Son, not brother. She looked down at herself and asked, “I’m not that old am I?” I just told her to go back to bed. Being up in the middle of the night seems to really make things worse. So, she went to the rest room and came back out going through our names over and over again. Yeah, go back to bed Mom.

8:00 AM – Mom just called me upstairs and said that there was a problem up there. I went up and she was pointing at her desk and said, “Huh, even the sawdust isn’t showing up now.” I asked her what she was talking about and she said, “I was in bed and he was sawing” and she was pointing at her desk. I asked who and she said that she didn’t know who he was. I let her know that she must have been having a dream because there is no one else here. There was a couple of NIPSCO trucks in the driveway about 15 minutes ago, but no one ever came to the door and I didn’t see what they were doing, but no one was in the house but the two of us. Other than this, it’s been really quiet except for the forgetfulness, which I haven’t been mentioning because it’s no longer odd behavior since it’s the new normal.

1:30 AM – Mom came downstairs and said, “You’re still awake! Are you Shannon?” She then introduced herself as “Sandy, Warren’s sister.” (Warren is Mom’s late ex-husband.) When I asked, “Sister?” she corrected herself and said “Wife.” I just told her to go to the bathroom and go back to bed. She asked if I was OK, so I repeated myself and off she went to the bathroom and then went back upstairs. I’m not sure if she really knew who I was or not.

5:00 PM – I woke up and found a note in the kitchen:

7:15: PM – Things have been going so well lately that I almost forgot that Mom had been having problems. I woke up a little bit ago and Mom came down talking to the couch while I was in the kitchen. I heard her say something about “I know you’re awake.” She then walked out to the kitchen and noticed that I was outside and mentioned how she had been hiding upstairs and that she didn’t know how to cook. I let her know that I’m not asking her to cook… she hasn’t cooked for me for years. Then she wanted to know if she was my sister! I reminded her that I was her son. She brought that up again after mentioning that Jeremy, Chris and Troy were her sons also. She mentioned that the “critters” were small mouse-like animals that she sat upstairs and watched.

Now she’s sitting on the steps trying to have a conversation, so there’s more weird stuff to come, like she’s my sister (again). She’s brought up the nursing home several times: “I don’t blame you if you put me in a nursing home.” I’ve let her know that it’s coming soon enough at the rate she’s going. She brought up critters again and getting frustrated, I loudly asked “What critters?” And she answered that they were rats. This is getting to be too much to try to keep up with, so I’ll just end this post with, it’s bad tonight from out of nowhere.

7:30 AM – Mom came downstairs and asked me, “Are you getting rid of some of my stuff?” I replied, “No. Why?” She said, “Because there was a garage sale upstairs.” I swear to you, the laughter was involuntary! She realized that she must have been dreaming, then went to the bathroom and back upstairs. Yeah, there’s NO WAY I would have a bunch of strangers going through the house to go upstairs to buy her stuff. I don’t know how it will work with Medicaid when Mom moves into a nursing home. There might not be anything left of hers to sell or give away to my brothers, myself or Goodwill.

7:45 AM – I got home from work and discovered that Mom had left the bathroom sink faucet on. Who knows how many hours the water was running! I can’t wait to see the water bill for this month… I ended up making a reminder and hanging it above the sink for her to turn off the water when she is done with it. This has happened a few other times, but when I was home and able to discover it pretty quickly.

4:30 AM – I’ve been hearing Mom moving around upstairs occasionally throughout the night, and she just came down carrying a robe and said: “She’s not saying anything.” When I asked who, she stated: “The one that I gave this to.” My reply: “Maybe she’s not saying anything because there’s no one else up there.” So, once again, lack of sleep and she’s seeing people that aren’t there. I will try to go up and get her to go to bed.

4:00 AM – Crap! I spoke too soon. From about 2:00 to 2:30 AM, I heard Mom moving around upstairs. She finally came down at 2:30 and asked me if she could stay here with me tonight. It seems she forgot that she lives here again. I told her to go back to bed, so she went to the bathroom and back upstairs. I would occasionally hear some movement up there, so I know she did not go back to bed. She then came back down at 4:00 this morning and asked where she was. She recognized me and said it looks like my living room. I told her again to go back to bed and she said that she needed a glass of water. She did that, went to the bathroom, got another glass of water and went back up. We’ll see what happens next I guess!

10:30 AM – I’m not sure what’s changed, perhaps Mom is sleeping better, but I’ve not noticed anything really unusual since my last post. She’s had the usual forgetfulness and 1 mention of “critters,” but other than that, she’s been pretty normal. She even took a shower last week without me suggesting it! Hopefully things continue to remain calm as the paranoia and hallucinations were really taxing to both of us.

5:15 PM – Mom asked me: “How’s your invention coming along?” I didn’t know I was inventing anything, but asked her what she was talking about and she replied, “Aren’t you inventing some kind of vibrator that scares critters away?” Hell, it sounds like she’s got more of an imagination than I do, maybe she should invent something. For the record, I wouldn’t bother coming up with anything since we don’t HAVE a “critter problem.” One groundhog nesting under the shed is not a problem. A family of groundhogs LIVING under the shed would be a problem.