What Day Is this?

 

I woke up to a beautiful blustery sunny day. After being sick for the better part of the entire week, it was great to hear the birds singing outside of my bedroom window and to see the sun fully shining brightly. I did a mental check of how I was feeling: No fever…. Check, no headache…. Check, no stomach ache…. Check, No lower back ache…. Well, maybe a little, but nothing a little ibuprofen won’t help relieve. So, surmising that I am feeling much better, I get up to my usual routine. Thanks to Angelo, while I was down the last few days, he stepped right up and made sure that both Mom and I were well cared for.

After breakfast and making certain that everyone’s needs were taken care of, I decided to run my usual Wednesday errands. I noticed that I didn’t have my usual spunk in my step. In between running into different stores, I had to sit in the car to regain my energy. By my third stop, I realized that my stamina was depleted and that I needed to narrow down my errands to just one more venture and head back home.

While driving home, at a red light I began to make a mental note of what I had on my schedule for the next day when suddenly I realized that this day was in fact Thursday, not Wednesday… OH NO! I totally missed an important appointment that I needed to attend on Thursday… today.

Now, as a caregiver of a parent with dementia, I often question, is this the beginning for me? Honestly, I’m not being paranoid. You see, my father also lived with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as his mother and two of his sisters. So,, cognitive disorder is not uncommon in my bloodline. Therefore, the concern is real!

Tell me, do you too question if you’re losing your memory or have the potential of having Alzheimer’s disease when you can’t remember something that you know you know? Or when you can’t find those keys, or your phone, or that shirt that should be in that certain place?

After giving it much deliberation, I realized that my week was thrown off because of being ill and sleeping most of the days earlier in the week to recover. So, once again I gave myself some grace and carried myself to bed for a nap once I got home.

Good news! I didn’t have to ask later, “What day is this?”

Keywords: weather humor, loosing ones mind. accepting reality, frustration and resentment, forgetting, senile senility, aging humor, care for an older family member, dealing with memory loss, stories about dealing with dementia

Hashtags:#aginghumor, #caringforanolderfamilymember, #dealingwithmemoryloss, #storiesaboutdealingwithdementia

The Uncontrollable Remote Control

Mom will go to great lengths to do absolutely nothing. For example,  3 or more times a day while laying on her bed and enjoying her TV shows she accidentally changes the channel or hits the power button and turns off the TV. She surmises that she did not do anything wrong. It's the remote control's fault. The remote has run amuck and it needs to be caught and disciplined! So after fiddling with it in order to make it work herself but then failing she quickly gets out of the bed and searches for someone to fix her remote.  

I dread the day when she can't find anyone in the house to fix the remote and ventures out of  the house.  She would knock on our neighbor's door, and when it opens she will say, "My stupid remote control won't work. Can you fix it for me." Of course the remote control works fine. It's the latest in remote control technology. The problem is for the past 12 months she has not learned how to work it. The poor thing. But it's not entirely her fault. To add to the confusion, some days she thinks the remote control is the cell phone.  

Since she moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania, we had to change cable services. The new service came with an upgraded cable box with remote control. We hoped she would have learned how to operate the new remote by now, but she hasn't. It would not be so bad if she would just put the thing down and stop trying to change the channel with those busy fingers of hers.  So three or more times a day she roams the halls searching for me or Angelo to help her make her remote work. 

Without her television shows she would  resort to staring at the walls and contending with her thoughts, good or bad, and she's not ready for that. So we've tried near genius measures to address her busy fingers and the uncontrollable remote control. For example;

1. We take the remote when she's ready to retire. When she gets up to use the bathroom in the morning we turn on her TV and select her preferred channel with one of her favorite TV shows. This works fine so long as we come out of our own slumber and hear her entering the bathroom.  Of course by noon she is back to looking for her remote to change the channel. 

2. Next we tried taking the batteries out of the remote so her fingers can be as busy as they want to but they do not change the channel, turn away from the cable box, or accidentally turn the TV off. This works fine for a while but at some point she notices it's not responding when trying to change the channel and insists her remote doesn't work anymore.  

3. We even tried buying a whole season of her favorite sit com, but she eventually gets tired of watching the same season all week. That's actually a good sign. It means Mom's dementia is not advanced to the point of forgetting what she watched yesterday. 

At the end of the day, it's a good thing she wants her remote fixed. The fact that Mom is hot on the trail of  resolving the uncontrollable remote control issue indicates that much of her cognitive functions are still very much intact and active. 

So go ahead Mom, do what you must. We're here for you sweetie. Let's get that uncontrollable remote fixed.