Posted 11/28/18
Had a pretty good
visit with mom today. She was less anxious than normal if somewhat quiet. She
was a tad silly too. Her morning saw a bad bath experience on a non-bath day
after failing on yesterday’s bath day necessitated a second try. She struggled
on piano today. Piano songs skipped and melded into super song mashups, so they
were still fun and we still sang along as best we could. She also wasn’t
coloring well/much either, but she seemed chill even without it…
Summary: A truly mixed bag.
4 thoughts today:
1. Brain Bandit Babble- It is very interesting to me how Alzheimer’s patients huddle together and “talk”. One scrambles to communicate something and another tries at the same time. Neither really finish a thought or typically even seem frustrated. “3B talks”, as I will call them, can be a little challenging to listen to since it happens all over the place, at varying volumes, and you never really know who to listen to. If you have spent time in nursing homes in general, you probably know the sound, but in a memory unit it is more pronounced. My advice: love and affirm them and let them do their thing. Don’t be condescending. Don’t stress if you don’t understand. Think of them like young children just learning to communicate. What is cuter than 2 babies “talking”?? Like that. 🙂
2. I asked mom today “How is your memory doing?” Not sure why I asked. She said “I used to look around. I guess that wasn’t best”. (Paraphrase). She didn’t have her bundle today. No tote or quilt with stuff in it…just a stuffed purse. Maybe she is settling in? 🙂
3. Food mixing. Sigh.
I love my pre-teen divided plates. I keep my foods in their own little spots.
No touchy touchy… Most of the Sweet 17 that eat without assistance mix their
food and eat it. Mix it a lot! Mush it together.
:(Mrs. B, one of my many
favorites, stuck her angel food cake in her orange juice today. (Gulp)
Hard for a food neat freak to deal with, but they like it, so let it go unless
it is dangerous or makes them not eat. (Eek) I expect brains struggling
functionally struggle to interpret taste too.
4. God bless the staff there. The sounds, the smells, the challenges. They sure seem to love the Sweet 17 and mom. They do their best day-in and day-out, it seems. Talk about a “danged if you do, danged if you don’t” kind of job! Most try hard and treat it like a calling, not just a job. It would be very hard for me to do their job without taking every loss extremely personally. Thank them and do nice things for them when you have a chance. 🙂
Good times at the memory unit 🙂
#EndALZ
