Spend, Spend, Spend

Mom has started her early rising again. I thought when she first moved here it would go away, and it did, but now its back.  I don't know if this has to do with medication, not taking her pills to help her relax at night, or if it some other demon waking her early in the morning.  But she is up and wandering around  at 4:30, 5:00 in the morning, and for someone who doesn't go to bed until midnight and likes to sleep until 8:00, that is too early. You can see how tired she is just by looking at her face.

I avoid her in these early mornings because this is my "me time." The time I can get my coffee and wake slowly. Think about the day, write in my journal, relax and pray. I can hear her in the kitchen and wait until she leaves to get my coffee.

I tried at the beginning, to go into her living room and say good morning. But she does not have her hearing aid in yet this early and it is impossible to talk. Then she gets upset and frustrated and puts in her hearing aid too early. She can't wear it extra hours, it hurts her ears.

She has been on a spending spree- she just has to spend money. Dad and I have talked and we are going to try to take more control of the money and finances. Part of that will be Dad having to tell her "No." She's wearing Dad out wanting him to take her to their old town and go to the mall, go to the coffee shop, go to Sam's and buy stuff she doesn't need.

Mom and I got into it after her last shopping spree at Sam's. If you take one fiber capsule a day and you already have a bottle with 375 left in it, do you really need 800 more?

If you have cases of the small square Kleenex boxes, (and they are on every flat surface in your living areas) do you really need cases of the bigger boxes? Well Mom does. She decided she doesn't like the smaller square boxes anymore. Actually she denies ever having them before.

(I think I may have found the solution for the kleenex problem- I wonder if the church would mind if I parked this in the church parking lot behind the parsonage? LOL)

 
If we didn't live 30 minutes away, I'd start taking things back and not telling her. But that is a waste of time. If Dad can keep her local, it might not be such a problem.

I took Mom out to lunch yesterday so Dad could go into the other town by himself and get his blood work done. He begged me to find a way to keep her busy; he didn't want her to know and he didn't want her company. I made up an excuse and told her she could shop with me for a new blouse for church.

So today, I need to try to make up the time I lost and get some more writing done.

The other night, I ended up calling the Alzheimer's "hot line" (1-800-272-3900)and talked to a counselor who said we (me) need to get control of all of Mom's money in order to prevent a disaster.

That was brought home to me yesterday when Mom came and asked me what kind of new boat did my DH need? She had a catalog with boats in it and wanted to buy him a boat. I explained his boat is just fine, he doesn't need another. She said D had mentioned wanting a particular boat. I told her that "someday" he would love to have a BASS Boat, but he doesn't go out on lakes big enough to warrant that now. She wanted to know if he had a BASS Boat, if he would be able to "keep" the bass he catches. LOL. I tried to explain "catch and release" but I'm not sure it got through.

 When I told Dad about this, he said they had the same conversation. He told me he is afraid that when the condo sells, she will think she can spend all of that money. He is right. I need to call an attorney and get a trust set up. It can't wait for the sale of the home.

Mom has an appointment early June with the neuro/phychologist. I'm not sure what I hope, but it would be nice to be able to make sure she is on the right meds. A diagnosis might help us in the future as well.