Dementia sucks green rabid donkey balls.
After yesterdays 5 hour trip to the ER for attacking the coffee table with her chin (table lost), today’s joy started when Mom whipped her heavy used hospital diaper off, leaving it on the computer chair, and when I handed her a new one, refused to put it on.
So, shes in time out, until she is no longer going commando.
At this point I would rather deal with my 22 year old son.
Maybe she wants to wear big girl panties?
I’m afraid to ask what is up with your son that it is even a contest.
When they were little and had a habit of pulling their diapers off, particularly at night, we sometimes duct taped them closed.
Best of luck with the situation.
I have a 21 year old son, so it makes total sense to me.
I’m sorry you have to deal with this, The Vorlon.
You have my genuine sympathy. It takes a lot for someone to pit their own mom. (Her condition, anyway.)
Arg. That sounds miserable.
Does putting an 85-year-old demented woman in timeout accomplish anything? Can she analyze anything logically?
My sympathies. Poop is the worst part.
I pit that diaper too. No adult should ever have to deal with that, dementia or not. Poor you and your Mom. I am sorry for y’all.
Dementia is a bitch of a disease. I’m sorry you are dealing with this. Is this behavior new? Maybe your mom is progressing to another stage. I would check with her doctor and see if this will pass. I know my mom went through a phase where she got nasty and then went back to her usual sweet self.
I forgot to mention that they topped her up with a litre of IV fluids before she left the ER. I think I found them.
The glue job they did on her chin looks good.
Now to slip away to Wally World for some H2O2 to get the blood off the couch. This is turning into an educational experience. Better living through chemistry!
My Aunt came over and talked her into her Depends. She gets nasal surgery later this month, so I get to pay her back. Why am I thinking of a certain scene from an Arnold movie?
Yep, My MIL went through an incredibly nasty period. She hated everyone and everyone was being mean to her. It lasted less than 2 months. It was trying for all us helpers. Then she sorta looked stoned for the rest of her life. I was slightly jealous.
My mother would go through several “levels” before plateauing. One was nasty, one was paranoid, one was nothing but weeping. They each lasted maybe 2-3 weeks apiece. We knew when she plateaued when she became very placid and sweet with that vacant look.
Og love those who go through the diaper stage. My mother never had that. I think on some level she didn’t want to, so she stopped drinking water and ended up with kidney failure.
We seem to be going through many levels at this time.
She has a hot thyroid, with a TSH “Too Low to Measure”. She is in a shirt, sweatshirt, sweater, sweatpants and a afghan or two, and cold, until she forgets she is cold. House is in high 70’s
Fork use is lost. I have to fly the airplane into the hanger.
Most every bit of clothing is 4 to 5 sizes too big, see thyroid. Endocrinologist next week, I suspect that Iodine 131 is in her future.
I’m baby proofing the house. The folks at the Post Office must think I’m nuts, but since I can’t easily take her out and I cant leave her home, therefor, Amazon has been delivering.
There is nothing that resembles a sleeping pattern–she will wander in, waking me up at 0200, 0430 and later.
Woke up the other day with a blood sugar of 51, went to glug some OJ, and it was gone. Seems at some point she tried pouring it into a ice cube tray on the counter. She was adamant that she didn’t do it. I’m checking to see if the house was placed on a Indian Burial Mound.
Communication is getting much worse: one word in five may make it out. Its like she has a 300 baud modem, and the world is running on broadband.
At this point, I’m just trying to keep her as comfortable as I can, because there is no way this can go on much longer. With her lack of interest in eating and drinking green bananas are off the menu. A quiet pool among the family indicates that no heroic measures would be a good idea. She is getting all the shakes and muffins she wants.
My sympathies to everyone who has to deal with this stuff. My mother in law’s dementia is getting worse but nothing like what I read in these threads - she’s more like the guy in Memento who can’t remember something for more than ten seconds. But she can still dress herself, feed herself, use the bathroom by herself, etc. so I guess I should be thankful that so far it’s only memory stuff.
Vorlon, do you have any help with her?
I’m really concerned because no one can be a caretaker of someone in that state 24/7 for any significant period of time.
You need to be able to get some rest yourself. You need a little time to yourself once in awhile. Are there any friends or family that can give you a break? Local social services? Anything? Anyone?
No, this probably won’t go on much longer in an absolute sense but it certainly could go on long enough to seriously impact your physical and mental health.
If you don’t take care of yourself you won’t long be able to take care of your mother.
Oh god, I forgot the wakeful/ wandering around stuff. We found my MIL in the yard many nights. We got those chain locks and put them at the top of the doors, so we awoke to hearing the door going bump, bump, bump.
Get help, we had several people taking different days and nights. And some in home nursing care. It was a godsend.
Vorlon it sounds disconcertingly like having a toddler in the house. Can your Aunt or anyone else take a few shifts a week, so you can go look at the world?
Broomstick, we have at least 6 different people/groups in and out of here, but things are still getting set up.
Meals on wheels will be doing their thing soon, but I know she will stretch one meal for a week. [On the counter, at room temp if I don’t step in.]
Breakfast this AM was a quarter muffin, and half a cup of coffee. Zonked out on the couch since, waiting on the shower person to arrive. Her new (small!) cloths are in the dryer, going around, to take the place of the 2X to 1X stuff she has two walk in closets full of.
When everything gets up to speed, I’ll have a few hours to run errands and do the shopping, but I wonder if that will happen before the endgame.
The rest of my day has been blocking telemarketers and other assorted idiots. Can I call in a strike from Project THOR on them? Please???
I hope I am able to kill myself before I ever get to the point where your mom is, or that my wife or one of my kids keep their promises to kill me instead of letting me exist like that.
You’d put a dog down…