But we are going through the same as everyone else obviously!! Basically I'm writing for myself (Neal). I'm married to a Spanish lady who's mother, 83 years old has been diagnosed with Dementia. She started going down a little about 8 years ago, but in the last 12 months has declined rapidly. We were living in the UK, but we had to come back to Spain to look after her (my wife has no surviving family members here to help) and live with her. I'm here really more as support for her than anything, but I do what I can. We've been here for just over two months now in the same house, and we are beginning to experience not only the forgetfulness and the bad temper, but also "playing the victim", and also story telling. When I say story telling, I'll give you an example. Today, we did have a bit of a barny about the food. We basically do the cooking (when she was on her own, she never used to cook anything at all). She interfered when she shouldn't have, and it all went a bit pear shaped. Now I know that we shoudn't have argued, but we are under so much tension (neither of us are employed, and are desperate to work), hence a mini bomb went off. Once things calmed down, she sat there at the dining table, head down feeling sorry for herself. When we asked her what was wrong, she said that she was leaving because WE had told her we didn't want her in the house. Obviously this left us gobsmacked! THe LAST thing we want is for her to leave whilst she's still semi coherent, so that my wife can enjoy the last few months with her before she goes into a home.
WHat I want to know is, is this sort of story telling normal? Is this going to happen more as time goes on? (By the way, just so you know, she's so damn stubborn that she will NOT under ANY circumstances accept any home help whatsoever...been there, tried it twice......and lost due to not opening the door etc to the helper!!)
Also, what other things can we (not) look forward to? Will she get violent? WIll she sleep more and more during the day? (She already has catnaps in the afternoon whilst sat in her armchair)
Any sort of idea of what's to come would be appreciated so at least we become aware of what's happening.
THanks!!
WHat I want to know is, is this sort of story telling normal? Is this going to happen more as time goes on? (By the way, just so you know, she's so damn stubborn that she will NOT under ANY circumstances accept any home help whatsoever...been there, tried it twice......and lost due to not opening the door etc to the helper!!)
Also, what other things can we (not) look forward to? Will she get violent? WIll she sleep more and more during the day? (She already has catnaps in the afternoon whilst sat in her armchair)
Any sort of idea of what's to come would be appreciated so at least we become aware of what's happening.
THanks!!