4.23.2012

Monday "Memories" With My Mom

The Adventures of Caring for a Mom With Alzheimer's Disease
     Like the old Chicago song says, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"  Well, yes!!  And does anybody really care?  Well, yes again!!!  Imagine having no sense of the day, date, time, month or even year.  After struggling with all kinds of clocks and calendars, I decided to make one more attempt at helping to orient my mom with her sense of time. 
     I found this little beauty (shown below) on Amazon.com and decided this would be my one last effort to help my mom hold on to her sense of time.  As you can see, this is a large electric clock, which illuminates quite brightly.  No glasses or lights on necessary. 


     Now, instead of frequent phone calls to ask the day, date, time or month, I am getting frequent calls thanking me for the clock.  My mom loves it and even said sometimes she just lays on the couch and stares at it!!  Ha!!  She probably does. 
     Previously, her friend, Sue, had loaned us a "day clock".  That worked for awhile, but my mom would "forget" to refer to it on the wall.  A few years ago, she had also used her cell phone for awhile, but that was an expensive way to keep track of the date and time and often would get "misplaced". 
     Maybe now she will not say she is going to watch "Saturday Night Live" every night.  I'm not sure she really stays up that late, but she likes to talk about it.  The bottom line is that this is helping her feel more in control and that is a good thing.   
     I teased my mom that now people will be calling her to ask what time it is!!  I hope she will be able to use this for awhile, but the reality is this could also become confusing at some point.  In the meantime, the happiness it has brought is already worth it!!!
(Thanks for taking the "time" to read this!)




2 comments:

Kerri said...

Boy, it sure looks big and bright! I'm glad your mom is loving it. I love your sense of humor.

Arlene - Caregiver ordinaire said...

Wow! Nice idea! Great job. :)