Nothing is Something

I know, it has been awhile. Maybe because, I worked on a perfectly good post almost two weeks ago and as I finished up, I hit a mystery key and in less than a blink of an eye - GONE - nowhere to be found! No draft, no minimized version at the bottom of my screen, no record of it that I could find. I add "that I could find" because it is quite possible that one of my computer savvy daughters would have known where to look and I wouldn't have been so disheartened.

This week what I have to write about Mom is NOTHING. Nada. No change. No drama. I guess that's something after all. So here are a few updates.

1. We had a regularly scheduled appointment with Dr. Birdwell. Mom is healing well. No pain
pills for over a week.
2. 6 month check-up with ophthomologist - no change, come back in 6 months.
3. Occasional nights when we awake to the kitchen light shining in through our bedroom door
to find Mom sitting at the kitchen table. I put her back to bed.
4. Receptive and expressive language is challenging for all of us. She gets frustrated when she
can't tell us what she wants to say.
5. Still dressing herself but not well. Sometimes we have pajamas over clothes or vice versa.
Frequently the top is different from the pants and all are different from the socks. She likes
to be color coordinated and has even in the past hung her clothes according to color.
6. Is very bored. Mom sleeps or sits at the kitchen table. We have found that when we sit there
with her or work in the kitchen, she will sit there. Conversation is difficult because Mom does
not understand what we are saying and she has a difficult time responding if she does
understand us. The minute we leave the room to do something else, she is in bed. Crafty
activities have ceased. We try to give her little things to do to "help out" from her chair at the
table, but mostly she is unable to follow through.
7. Mom likes going places. She and Becky have been picking Julie up from work every day. Joe
takes her to the grocery store (to push the cart he says) but she tires easily. I am quite less
inclined to take Mom anywhere but church on Saturdays after I have personally watched her
shower and put on clean panties and pad. Otherwise, she quite frankly, can smell like a dirty
diaper. Unless I get in her face and stand right there with her, Mom will not change her
underwear or pad. The week before last, Becky let me know that when she told Mom to
change her pad and/panties, Mom had done so. But when I went to Mom's drawer one
morning, I found 3 opened pads that Becky had handed to her and a wadded up pair of
panties stashed under the socks. Becky and I chuckled and wondered how so much of her
thought process is lost, but the devious part is still in tact!
8. Some days it must seem to Mom that my only interaction with her is negative. You can't be
mean to the dog. You can't go outside now, it is dark and cold. You have to change your pad,
you don't smell very good. You have to have some dinner before you have ice cream. Stop
picking at your skin, you have sores and blood all over your arm. There are germs under
your fingernails. Please wash your hands again, you just went to the bathroom. It is NEVER
ending.
9. Joe is clearly not as rigid as I am. And, I don't know if any of you have ever noticed or put it
together, but Mom likes men. Not a newsflash, I know, but if there is a man in sight, she is
there, being sweet, touching, hugging, flirting...It's shameless! I know now that Mom has
always been like this, but it did not affect me. Given now that I know my parents were never
married, Mom was married before and has some mystery history there and some other stuff,
I have pretty much decided that our family was pretty much the "white trash" that Mom
called other people! (boy, I haven't heard that term in years)

So, I have rattled on long enough. Before I turn this into a dumping ground instead of an update on Mom, I'll say that we are all well and blessed and thankful this Thanksgiving week. I have been thinking of Thanksgiving as just a much needed long weekend for me. But Joe brought home a BIG turkey from Kroger's so I am thinking he has another agenda. We do love you ALL.