Swimming with Lottifish

Well, the time has come.  Only a few more days until I’m  a married woman.  My Mom is in town and today is my last day at work.  I won’t be blogging until I get back from the honeymoon so look for me again in early October.

Have a great September everybody!

My Mom and I, we’re close.  We talk every. single. night.  (Um, yeah, once I told her that I wasn’t going to call her the next day because I had an audition and she forgot.  When I didn’t call by 10pm she called Chris and when he didn’t answer she was about to call the cops when Chris called her back.  Can you say paranoid?)

Well, with all this talking going on we have little misunderstandings sometimes.   Her first language is French so sometimes the most appropriate words or way of saying something escapes her.  Here are two examples:

1) We were talking about the wedding the other day and she says “So, what are you giving out as door prizes?”  Um, door prizes?!  It’s a wedding Mom, NOT a carnival.  I was very insulated and she had no idea why.  We finally figured out that she meant favors.

2) Last night we were talking about how exciting that it is that she’s flying out tonight (yes, tonight, OMG!).  She says “I can’t wait to see the HUGE people!”  Now, she’s lost quite a bit of weight recently and Chris and I are a little chunky but geez!  No need to be so snarky about it.  When I balked at this comment she had no idea why.  Apparently she meant that she couldn’t wait to wake up to my t.v.  When she visits she sleeps on a blow up matress in front (like 2″ in front) of my 60″ t.v.  She loves waking up to a huge Matt Lauer.  So, yeah, that comment was missing some context when she said it.  She’s lucky I love her enough to try and understand what she’s saying.

Mom, I love you.  You crack me up woman!

My Mother does not have an easy life and recently the onslaught of dementia in my Granma has not helped.

Last night my Grandma found her way outside her apartment building and hitched a ride a midnight down the block.  She wandered around for awhile and then found her way back to her apartment.  She didn’t realize she was home and so called my Mother.  She proceeded to tell her that she was having an important meeting with a man in her apartment.

Concerned, my Mom went over to her place.  No one was there except my Grandma who insisted that my Mom brought 12 orphans with her who were banging on her piano and making a real mess.   My Mom tried to explain that she didn’t have any orphans with her but my Grandma could “see” them.  My Mom finally got her put back to bed and went home.

6 a.m and the paper delivery girls calls my Mom.  Grandma was walking the halls of her building, knocking on people’s doors, looking for some imaginary friends who had their legs amputated.  Mom had to physically restrain her from running out of the building and now they’re at the hostpital.

Apperently, Grandma has a UTI (too much info?) and when dementia patients have those it makes them go extra crazy.  The doctors think they can fix it by tomorrow but in the meantime she’s shaking and scratching herself.

Do any of you have relatives with dementia?   How do you handle situations like this?  You obviously can’t be mad but it’s scary to leave them at home after an incident like this.