Monday Memories With My Mom

The Adventures of Caring for a Mom With Alzheimer's Disease

 

      Well, I took a few weeks off...and it's been busy.  I took care of the annual Medicaid forms that are always time consuming.  I am hoping no news is good news with that.  We count on the assistance that my mom receives and getting her on Medicaid was one of the best things that I ever did for her.

     Being summer and all, family life has been busy and I honestly have only managed to see my mom about once every 5-7 days or so.  I am encouraged that overall her services seem to have improved since my recent issues were brought to the attention of the Med Team.

     Honestly though, a couple of the times that I have dropped in for a visit with my mom, this is what I found....

 

My timing was off and more often than not she had managed to be in "The Don's" apartment for a visit.  I decided to leave well enough alone.  If she sees me she feels obligated to visit with me back in her apartment.  I would rather she spend the morning or afternoon having a companion than to visit with me for 15-20 minutes.  Besides, it gives me a chance to clean up my mom's apartment without her "supervision".

Another day we all dropped in on the way to the mall near my mom's place.  The kids found my mom having dinner in the dining room and were even able to join her (while I again threw stuff in the garbage cleaned up).  I spied them as I came down the stairs.

Grandma was looking pretty good and glad to see all of the kids, of course.  She's always good for a laugh or two!

 



After she ate dinner, we escorted her to the commons area for some evening entertainment.  This was right before Independence Day and patriotic songs were being performed.  The kids got a kick out of how quickly my mom joined in and became alert once the music started...even when she could hear it from the dining room.  She looked content and we felt comfortable leaving her there with the entertainment.

 



 I recently have been in communication with Arlene over at Momma and Me.  She is one of a handful of caregivers I have met through this blogging world and I am so grateful for that.  She "gets it" and always has great insights and suggestions.  Recently, she suggested my mom might be interested in sorting beads by color to keep her busy.  I thought I would give it a try, so we brought them over to her yesterday.  She is off to a good start.  I will see on my next visit if she stuck with it or not.  It is very difficult to come up with things for her to do besides watching tv.  Thanks for the suggestion, Arlene.  I'm sure Arlene wouldn't mind it if you popped over to her blog and gave your support.  Her mom has recently been placed in the care of Hospice and words of support are always nice at a time like this.

 

We told my mom a white lie...that Kristin needed help sorting these beads

by color for a craft project.  

 

     All in all, things have been going smoothly.  I am especially grateful that my mom made it through the 4th of July holiday weekend without any kind of injury, particularly since the last two years my mom has been hurt during that weekend.  Thankfully, I was able to enjoy some time "up north" with my family and did not receive any dreaded phone calls.

     In the next few weeks, I hope to again monitor even more closely how my mom is doing and confirm that her services are being provided to her in the way that I would expect.  By all appearances, things are going pretty well and for that I am grateful.