Mom's Alzheimer's Journal

9:30 AM  –  Mom came downstairs and had her purse and lapghan that I made for her and was wandering around the kitchen like she was waiting to go somewhere. I asked her where she was going and she replied that she didn’t know. I asked why she had her purse then and she said, “It was there.” She then went back upstairs. 

It’s been pretty calm the last few days other than her normal repeated questions and comments, until……

12:30 PM  –  Mom came in the living room with a request to make a pot of coffee for the gentlemen outside. She said, “If it wasn’t for them, we would either be dead or very sick.” I’m not sure why we would be dead or sick, maybe rabies from the critters? At any rate, I told her no on the pot of coffee and she gathered up a bunch of packets of Splenda and a bottle of creamer. She claimed that she seen them out there with their thermos’ and wanted to bring sweetener and creamer out for them, because apparently they would have never thought to have that in their coffee already or have it with them when going out on a job. So, of course I got another video…

5:10 PM  –  I went out to the kitchen and caught Mom making a pot of coffee and had a spoon, paper towels and Splenda packets ready to take out to the guys, even though she had been outside to see for herself less than 5 hours ago that there was no one out there but a lawnmower. I commented that if I was out on a job, do you think I’d forget to bring my coffee? Hell no! She laughed and agreed that it wouldn’t make sense that if there were guys out there that they would not have coffee already.

7:30 PM  –  Just when I thought things were going to be quiet tonight, Mom came down and asked me, “Didn’t you guys say that you rescued that young preacher?” I guess we rescued him from other neighbors that were not nice.  I tried to get more info, but from what I could get, apparently it’s the same young man she’s been talking about (noted in previous posts) and it’s been a long time ago and she can’t remember his name anymore. She commented that he was young and used to come over and play with my legos. The only problem with that is that I didn’t grow up here and never had any legos until just this year. Maybe there was a young man that came over when Troy was young and lived here, but it sure wasn’t me. I need to try to remember to ask him about it and see if there was a young man that used to come over and play with him.

7:30 PM  –  It’s been a pretty quiet day. Nothing too far out of the ordinary. Mostly just the normal going up and down stairs over and over and over and over again because she forgets why she made the trip (I lost count somewhere in the 20’s her legs have GOT to be tired), and asking the same questions within minutes. No mention of critters or the guys trying to catch them!

3:30 AM  –  Mom has this habit of thinking there’s something wrong with me if I’m sleeping and will try waking me up sometimes. So this morning, I got woke up to a bang. I look up and she is sitting at the desk in the other room watching me sleep. I laid back down and pretended to be asleep, a little while later I hear her say, “It’s 4:00 AM Monday.” At this point I give up and get up. I fixed myself a cappuccino and look around and she has gone back to bed! Damn it! I’ve made notes reminding her that I work nights and not to wake me up before 5:00 PM because she was waking me up throughout the day when I had to work that night. I guess I’ll have to change the notes to say I work nights, but not EVERY night. Just let me sleep! I haven’t posted about this yet because this is the first time she’s done this since I’ve started making notes about it. The note solved the problem for work nights, but I’m off work for 2 weeks and have started sleeping nights instead of days.

9:00 AM  –  Mom said, “I have a mission this morning. I want to take a pot of coffee out to the guys that are catching the critters.” WHAT??? I told her, “If you can find them, go ahead.” I gotta see this! I followed her out and she hollers at them “I’m making a pot of coffee, you want one? *long pause* Yes?” 

5:25 AM  –  Mom sat down on the stairs and said, “I know I just had a birthday, but am I still a member of the group?” Not knowing what group she’s talking about, I questioned her about it and her reply was, “The family.” Her birthday was July 13th. As far as the “group” goes, for some reason, she has it in her head that there’s a large group of people that used live here and there’s still a bunch that live here. I’m typing as I’m talking to her and reminding her that it’s just been the 2 of us here for the last 7 years. It seems she doesn’t think she’s pitching in financially and that it means she not part of the group. She forgets that she’s been on SS since she retired 5 years ago. 

8:40 AM  –  Mom came downstairs while I was in the kitchen and said “If you seen what I seen when I come down…” and shook her head. When asked about it… you guessed it, the critters! So, I stopped her right there and let her know that we are done with Animal Planet on TV for her. I’ve told her it’s forbidden and she has to watch something else. She settled on the Travel Channel. Hopefully they don’t have a bunch of “critters gone wild” type shows! She doesn’t know how to turn the channel, so hopefully she settles down with the “critters” soon by not being reminded of it any time she watches TV (which generally isn’t much). I know it seems mean forbidding a channel that she likes, but something’s got to be done about her critter problem since nothing seems to convince her that there’s nothing outside.

11:10 AM – Mom sat on the stairs and commented about the guys showing up today in the back yard to catch critters. After informing her that no one has EVER been here to “catch critters,” she immediately went upstairs and looked out the window. She called me upstairs to look at the guys and pointed at the lawnmower with a tarp over it again and claimed that it was the guys and there was the stick they were holding (a tree).

I walked out and took a picture at what she’s been pointing at. The “stick” is the tree sapling at the fence and the guys are hiding under the tarp. Funny, they didn’t answer me and one of their feet looked suspiciously like a riding lawnmower tire. 😉 Even though she watched me walk out there and take pictures, which I showed her when I got back inside, she’s still sitting at the window watching as of writing this at 11:35 AM. — She finally walked away from the window at 12:21 PM and was back there a little later.

4:30 PM  –  I guess the Animal Planet crew is out there again. We must have one hell of a critter problem that only Mom can see in order to have a TV crew here for several days in a row!

10:45 AM – Mom is convinced that there are guys hiding under a tarp next to our fence with a stick up in the air waiting for critters and that she’s been watching them on TV! I had to almost drag her outside (I got told “NO it’s too cold out there” and “NO you’ll lock me out!” Yes, she actually thought I would lock her outside in the cold!) to show her that what she was looking at was a lawn mower that was covered by a tarp and the stick was a tree branch. Even after seeing that, she is upstairs again right after coming back inside, looking out the window “watching the guys” because she “knows what she’s been seeing.”

8:00 AM – There must be A LOT of “critters” in the back yard because Mom made the comment that “those guys are back again catching those critters.” Still no one outside, although there was a city truck that went by earlier that was vacuuming leaves. Maybe those leaves are the critters???

6:05 PM – Mom asked me “Are they still out there?” I have no idea what she’s talking about, so ask “Who…” “The people catching the rodents,” she says. News to me! No one was out there. No one has been out there. No rodents to catch out there.

12:30 AM – Mom came downstairs and asked me “Was that you?” I asked “was that me what?” she replied, “That came upstairs?” I let her know that I have been downstairs since she went to bed about 2 hours ago and no one has been up there. She said “Weird.”

— 2:30 AM – She came downstairs again looking confused and searched around the house. When I asked her what was going on, she just said “It’s weird.” When pressed further, she just said “something’s wrong.” I couldn’t get anything else out of her and she then went back upstairs. A few minutes later and she came right back down saying “it must have been a bad dream.” Still can’t get any details about it from her. She went back upstairs at 2:40 AM.