Good news, Mothers day, Americans etc.

Good news.

No more accidents this week so it would appear that the doctor was right. Just need confirmation from the sample.

Mum has well and truly settled into her little house now. Any guests get the full guided tour, including the lovely view of her Jag out of the window. Still a few teething problems with the wardrobe doors but will persevere for a bit longer as things do seem to be getting a little easier.

She loves the walk in shower so we are trying to get a bit of a routine going, Dinner, shower, pyjamas,TV then bed. This will hopefully help us to put out clothes for the following day so we can have a little control over some of the outfits.

Good week in general this week. Fabia swimming with Mum on Tuesday then doing a bit of gardening. While we had the chance Sarah and I popped out for a cheeky pint or two in the evening. Trying to make the effort to sneak as much time alone together as possible.

Up to Rutland Water for a walk on Friday,beautiful scenery but a little breezy as you can see.

Hot coffee and cakes soon had us back to normal.




Mothers Day.


Joined by two of Sarahs three, Sarahs Mum and her Partner, Sarahs Nan and the lovely Gentleman. Sarahs Nan has reached the age of 98 and looks like she has another 98 to go. Mum does enjoy a bit of a do. Flowers, chocolates and wine, as you can see she was carried away with the excitement,

An absolutely amazing bit of beef with all the trimmings followed by Sarahs fruit pies was thoroughly enjoyed by the nine of us.All in all a really good day was had by all.


Americans.


If you get a few minutes spare pop over to this blog, have a read and congratulate them on getting 10,000 views. It offers another perspective on dementia and its care, it is one of the best written blogs I have found on the subject and pulls no punches about the illness.


Beer and Books


Got an email from my local Waterstones this week to see if I am still accepting members for my book club as there is a lot of interest apparently? I think it may be more the beer than the books. I have dropped off as flyer anyway to see how much interest there actually is. If there's enough I think I will start another night. Don't really want to increase the the size of the present one as it feels so comfortable now. We will see.

Words

Words


Never take them for granted. We spend a lot of our time in conversations. Spoken, written, typed even signed. They are all words.


Dementia takes the conversations  away. Sometimes it leaves all the words but no ability to string them together. Sometimes, as is the case with Mum, the words disappear first, leaving the conversations locked inside with no means of expression. This quite often results in bouts of frustration, maybe even anger when she wants to tell or ask something.


Today has been one of those days. Mum was out in the morning with  the respite carer,  visited a garden centre looking at decorations. She is always in a good mood after a morning with Donna, as am I after a morning "off"


Quick visit to see the lovely gentleman for coffee then home. Mum disappeared upstairs for a while, probably to top up the nut mountain while I started to prepare tea. 


We then had a good two or three hours of  Mum trying to tell or ask me something. We just cannot get to the bottom of it. We tried all the usual methods to no avail.


It could be something as simple as her wanting to visit somewhere or something as complex as a desire to learn astro-physics, there is no way to tell. 


Sarah in from work and she can shed no light either. In the end we had to switch to the diversion tactics of food and me acting the fool. This does have a relatively good success rate and worked like a charm this time.


It seems that if Mum manages to convey her thoughts straight away there is no problem, but as soon as she stops or struggles the thread is lost, mostly never to return. I think I will try to bring this up with her tomorrow as it did seem to be something important.


An example from this week,

• "Its red I cant see it"
• What is it mum?
• "Its red, it was in the thing"
• What was it in mum?
• "Its red, you know..."
• Repeat ad infinitum

Anyway she is watching that funny man with the hat (Fred Dibnah) on the telly happy as Larry, so Sarah and I can settle down with a glass and a bit of radio