It seems like I have Alzheimer's on the brain.
No, not that way, just the thinking about it, what it is, what it
means, why it behaves the way it does. You know, useless deep
thoughts that mostly have no answers. But all that useless musing did
generate one thought. How long has this disease been eating away at
Mom's brain.
So I started to think back over the past years. I sorted through all
my digital pictures, I browsed through Linda's wonderful family
scrapbook albums, and here is what I discovered.
Christmas 2006. Not so good. Mom goes through a 10 day long bout of
serious confusion, fecal incontinence and generally dismaying
behavior. By New Years what ever it was seems to have passed, for
now, and she is back to her now normal confusion and talking to her
other self in bathroom mirrors.
August 2004. On a Sabbath afternoon when the folks were here at PUC
(Dad was probably working on plastering for PUC), Mom and I went down
to the Calistoga cemetery to take a picture of the tombstone of Eli
Philpott, (stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo killed near Tombstone,
AZ in the troubles building up to the OK corral shootout). Whole
different story there. On that afternoon I spoke with Mom about her
father and how she had the same condition he had before he died. She
came as close as she ever would to acknowledging there was a problem
but in her comments she emphasized that if she just kept walking
every day all would be well.
Christmas 2001. This was the last Christmas the whole family was
together. Kelvin and Brian and families came out from Tennessee and
we all pitched in for a wonderful Christmas at Dad and Mom's. We all
knew that Mom was sliding away. She did no cooking that Christmas, we
did it all from casseroles to artichokes, it was a wonderful time.
Thanksgiving 2000. Dad called me and asked me to cook a vegetarian
casserole for the Philpott family gathering at Uncle Earl's place
here in Angwin. Mom would not be cooking her usual dishes this year
and Dad would be buying the dinner rolls she usually made.
June 1998. Linda and I and Mark joined Dad and Mom on an RV trip to
Utah. I drove our old Pathfinder and Dad pulled the large 5th wheel
camper they had at the time. The trip was interspersed with flat
tires, four wheeling expeditions and normal traveling delays and Mom
was clearly changing in her ability to cope with stress or manage new
situations. She would break into tears over small disturbances and
she was less able to cope with surprises. While at Goblin Valley Park
in Utah, Dad joined my family in a back country 4x4 expedition that
last several hours longer then expected. Upon returning to camp
mother was beside her self with tears and fears that we were lost for
eternity and she would never see us again.
I just got off the phone with Dad where we shared some of the above
history and he thinks the changes were happening well before 1998,
maybe a couple years earlier, at least.
What does it mean? Nothing... and everything... just seems to show
that Mom is on a classic symptoms track and the next phase and the
ending phases after that are not so far off, should not come as a
surprise and... and... oh never mind.
2 comments:
Your thinking set Les and me to thinking...when did we first notice a difference? It must have been in the summer of 2003, possibly 2004, when the "Geezers" got together at Redwood Area Camp that our concerns were intensified. Marjorie asked if she could help me prepare food for one of our communal lunches. At some point, I asked her to take a dish of food to the refrigerator in the adjoining camper. She took the dish, went to the camper, then came out and told the other women that I had asked her to put the food in the refrigerator, but there wasn't a frige in the camper.
Previous to that incident, we had noticed she wasn't reading as was her custom. When I would ask her questions regarding spiritual subjects, she would say, oh, that isn't all that important. (Flag #1), when we would ask about the families in Tennessee the comment was "that is so far, far away, I hardly know who is there". (Flag #2) While we were camping, she kept her sweat pants and shirt on for several days in a row and said that was what Allen wanted her to wear. (Flag #3) and she didn't have the care of her hair in her usual way. She didn't look bad, but it was just different from the usual care she gave to herself.
She also went to town with Allen and returned with three very large packages of macaroni and said I could fix the "spaghetti " for all of us. Previously, when we would communicate on the phone, things would be said that just didn't relate to the rest of the conversation and we noticed she was talking in very general terms like she was wanting to cover all the bases. When we would ask questions, she would say "ask Allen, that's his department".
We visited Marjorie and Allen at PUC when Allen was working there and they were staying in their Casita trailer at the bottom of the hill going to the airport. Allen prepared the food with Marjorie not seeming to notice the procedure. She told me most of her time was being spent walking since she had been ill and she wanted to keep up her strength. I believe this was in 2004 after one of the reunions.
There is no way we can know the pain you are experiencing with your mother, but please know we too are feeling the loss of communication. We believe the last communication of any depth was at Marjorie's mother's funeral. The stress was bordering on extreme and she was fighting to keep "it altogether". What a privilege it was to us to have been able to be there for her to "talk".
Thank you so much for keeping us in the loop. We will continue to keep all of you in our prayers.
With our love,
Les and Janet
Your thinking set Les and me to thinking...when did we first notice a difference? It must have been in the summer of 2003, possibly 2004, when the "Geezers" got together at Redwood Area Camp that our concerns were intensified. Marjorie asked if she could help me prepare food for one of our communal lunches. At some point, I asked her to take a dish of food to the refrigerator in the adjoining camper. She took the dish, went to the camper, then came out and told the other women that I had asked her to put the food in the refrigerator, but there wasn't a frige in the camper.
Previous to that incident, we had noticed she wasn't reading as was her custom. When I would ask her questions regarding spiritual subjects, she would say, oh, that isn't all that important. (Flag #1), when we would ask about the families in Tennessee the comment was "that is so far, far away, I hardly know who is there". (Flag #2) While we were camping, she kept her sweat pants and shirt on for several days in a row and said that was what Allen wanted her to wear. (Flag #3) and she didn't have the care of her hair in her usual way. She didn't look bad, but it was just different from the usual care she gave to herself.
She also went to town with Allen and returned with three very large packages of macaroni and said I could fix the "spaghetti " for all of us. Previously, when we would communicate on the phone, things would be said that just didn't relate to the rest of the conversation and we noticed she was talking in very general terms like she was wanting to cover all the bases. When we would ask questions, she would say "ask Allen, that's his department".
We visited Marjorie and Allen at PUC when Allen was working there and they were staying in their Casita trailer at the bottom of the hill going to the airport. Allen prepared the food with Marjorie not seeming to notice the procedure. She told me most of her time was being spent walking since she had been ill and she wanted to keep up her strength. I believe this was in 2004 after one of the reunions.
There is no way we can know the pain you are experiencing with your mother, but please know we too are feeling the loss of communication. We believe the last communication of any depth was at Marjorie's mother's funeral. The stress was bordering on extreme and she was fighting to keep "it altogether". What a privilege it was to us to have been able to be there for her to "talk".
Thank you so much for keeping us in the loop. We will continue to keep all of you in our prayers.
With our love,
Les and Janet
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