me too is forgotten!!
Well, my mom lives with me, 89 with mixed alzheimers and dementia..
I work full time..no carers... she is ok to eat herself, etc. mobile, but does not wonder (yet).. We live in an apartment building and there is security downstairs.. so far she has not made any attempts to leave. security has my numbers..
Today she woke up a bit more strange than before. not recognizing me (which isn't new) but not recognizing the apartment (this is new). She says it looks like her place... by the time I left for work she was satisfied that this was her place.. I said you and I live here for the past eight years.. she said she didn't have a good night and must have gotten confused due to not sleeping well. She slept well, I give her quietipine (serequel) 12.5 mg. at bedtime... I wake up a lot but she was a sleep all night last night. We brought my brother's dog again, he sleeps with me.. The dog is her friend she says and we will keep him a while.. Last time he stayed for two full weeks....
She also is one of those mothers who believe the "son" is the real part of the family. Always asking for him... lately thinking there are two of them, one young and one older. She looks at me some time ask where **** is here... I say I am ****, she says no... she is young and goes to school. I am now 52 and I know she can't recognize me... We go along fine most of the days but some days, she'll look for me, for her mother and grand-mother and the dog too.. then she'll ask.. do we have a cat too? when I say the dog isn't ours, she gets upset.. so I say he stays at our place and at my brother's some time too.
She too asks often as to where here son is... why is he not here for dinner time... why don't I go get him..who cooks for him (living with a girlfriend), "we" should look after him.. he doesn't know to cook, clean, etc. etc.
Well after I left for work this morning, telling her I'll be home right after work.. don't feed the dog, he has already eaten.. taken out, walked. she said ok to all.
I get a call from her at my office line and first thing she says oh good I found you.. you don't know what happended.. there was this other woman here today and told her that this is her place... how come I don't come home anymore.. I of course first said, mama it was me, you had a bad night and can't remember but no way.. so I ended up saying I'll tell that woman not to come any more and I got my brother on line too so we can both hear what she's saying... after agreeing that I will be home after work and he'll visit too. We all hung up... five minutes later she calls my cell number to tell me that she found my aunt and spoke to her and that she was coming home.. i said how nice and I'll see you later..
To cut the long story short.. yes she is more confused with me, the daughter than my brother.. It may be a cultural thing too but then she has been living with me for the past 18 years.. Last 2 years have been bad but before was so so.... my brother lives very close by and visits once a week, sometimes twice and calls once or twice a day... Lately she's thinking she has 2 sons because she had a young son and this one is older now..
I suppose seeing the same person is more confusing day in and day out than the one she sees once a week?
First I was getting upset..that was year and a half ago.. so everytime she asks for her daughter/mother/others I reply not here today, don't know where they went, or gone with friends or something like that but when she wakes me up at 3 o'clock in the morning to ask where her daughter is, that is scary and having difficulty getting her back to sleep... this happened a few times and hope doesn't happen to often.
So for those of us girls, it is what it is I guess...
Have a nice afternoon/evening where ever you girls are and the sons too
