One Month

Mom and Dad have been here a little over a month now. All in all, it was the right decision. I don't know how much longer Dad could have handled things on his own. He is happy and more relaxed. 

For the most part, Mom is not happy. Well, I shouldn't say that. She has good days and bad days. She has happy moments. BUt she also has a lot of anger and a lot of confusion.

The other day, she demanded a house key to the condo (even though it is empty) and 10 minutes after I gave it to her, she wanted to know why she had the key. She couldn't remember what it was for.

She gets obsessive about certain things on certain days.There are times when she obsesses about the things she left at the condo, although she doesn't remember what they are. She doesn't sleep because she is angry with either Dad or I, but can't remember why she is angry. If she is angry with me and she can't sleep she makes sure she lets me know. If I ask her why she is mad, she can't tell me, but she wants me to suffer! (or so it seems)

When I am blind sided I tend to react badly- I say the wrong things and it makes the situation worse. When I can anticipate something being brought up, and can think ahead of what I might say I do better to keep things on an even keel.

My brother sent me an email that contained the following:

Hi Sis,


There was a short item about Alzheimers on NPR this morning. NPR.org/ In short, a happy or sad experience may be forgotten 5 or 10 minutes later but the feeling lasts longer.

Love you,

This makes sense to me after seeing how Mom reacts to things. (Thank you Bro)

It seems like I apologize a lot to Dad- for not being able to say the "right" things to Mom. Dad keeps telling me he has had a lot more practice.

I wish I could know what is going to set her off and make her angry. D says she feels so lost and so bad she doesn't want to be happy and looks for things to make herself unhappy. Maybe that is it. I don't know. All I do is pray pay some more that she will be happy.