Hi Buttercup,
The first signs of mum's Alzheimers were when she said Dad (her husband) had come back from the dead, and was in the house. It wasn't so bad at first, she accepted that it was her imagination, but after some months she insisted she was right. He was never there when I visited, he had gone to work, or down to the pub, then she started to ring me to ask if I had seen him, he hadn't come home for his tea and she was worried. At the time, I admit I was irritated by this (Mrs Logical, that's me), but I now realise how upset she must have been. Wish I'd known of this website then, you would all have helped me out and I'd have done a better job.
Then my dad had invited two women and a man to live in the house, she didn't know who they were, and I have never worked out who they might have been. They all slept in the spare bedroom in one single bed, and she even took me up to the room to show me that it had been slept in - no sign of that at all, but her mind's eye could see the bed ruffled.
It's a ****** of an illness, and everyone is different. I worried that mum was scared by these two women and a man, but she didn't seem to be at all.
Since she went into the care home (indeed preceded by 6 weeks in hospital, now all about a year ago), she has never mentioned my dad or these visitors, she once asked me if I had seen her mam and dad (long since dead, and I never knew she called her mother "mam").
I do feel Aricept has stabilised her, but I have noticed recently a tendency to not understand what is being said to her. I have to phrase questions in about three different ways before she graps what I am asking.
But fingers crossed, she still knows me, still likes me to visit, and I'd like to visit her more. I was "taking a year out" from work to do that, but have now decided to resign altogether. I'll get some part-time work somewhere, I'm going to draw my company pension, only small but it will help, and see more of mum. The summer weather means I can take her out for a walk, perhaps even to the shops (I dread the thought!).
Anyway, stay strong Buttercup.
Love
Margaret