Back with us

Well we made it through the holidays. I went down to get my mom, and bring her back up with us. It had been over a month since I'd seen her, and it was, and still is surprising how much this disease has progressed. She stayed with her sister until December, then we went down a few weeks later. Upon arrival at her house,(after a 13 turned 20 hour drive) I was met with the greeting of "we have to go to the hospital to see your brother." Now, knowing my mom, it was just easier to go ahead and say, alright- let's go mom. So that is exactly what I did. When we got there, thankfully they had already transferred him, because I didn't want her anymore upset than she already was. His bike was in the ER, and they wouldn't tell us where they sent him. This of course really stirred my mom, and she made somewhat of a scene in the ER, but eventually we managed to leave and I got her back home. She was quite understandably upset.
What seemed to really agitate her was the bike. Now, I'm not sure why, but I've noticed she gets fixated on one certain thing, and then that's it. It's like, if we can just get past this 'one' thing, she'd be ok. So it wasn't 2 days later she had us convinced to drive back to the hospital and pick up his bike. Anyway, the holidays went on, and with the exception of her eating way too many recesses cups, cleaning up after us obsessively, and yelling at a few inappropriate times, it was al right. We got through it. On Christmas eve day,(and Christmas Day) my brother kept calling, wanting us to come see him. Now, being that he was in a certain hospital that I really did not want to go to, it was hard for me to make the decision to take my mom or not take my mom, but I decided that it would be better for her see that he was doing okay, than to not see him, so, on the 26th, I drove her to see him. That would have been enough in itself, but after he called a few more times, he asked that we take his bike to his house for him and lock it all up as he had left the door open before he went to the hospital. Sure, we can do that- only when we got there, a water pipe had broken behind his bathtub and there was water everywhere. This upset my mom more than I've ever seen her in quite a while. She actually pushed me out of the way when I told her not to go in. So much good that did. Anyway, long story short, the ride to the hospital, which was about a hour away was not a pleasant one, and getting through that day was quite an ordeal.

We made it, and then drove her back up here to New England. She asked are we there yet more than the kids, and the drive was a longer one than I remembered, but she seems fine now, and has been working on puzzles since we got here. She's yelled at my son a few times for not picking up his toys, and he seems to actually listen to her better than me so- that's fine. My older son is aware of the changes in her, but has taken it in stride and is even helping me a little with her. I think it will be good when they go back to school though. It's one thing to be aware, it's another to be with it all day long. I haven't bought her plane ticket back yet, because I want to see how she does and how long we can get her to stay. Only problem is, she only brought medicine for 2 weeks (exactly.) typical. Anyway,I'll figure that out later.

Enough for now, 2009 is going to be a better year I hope!

It's been a while

I know, I've not been posting, but honestly I haven't had to because my mom has been staying with her sister and it's been really nice to have a break. I have to say it makes a huge difference knowing she's being taken care of. The next two weeks will be a testament to see if she's going to be able to stay by herself for much longer. I hope she's going to be ok. I called her phone but her answering machine was full so I couldn't leave a message. That's not a good thing, that means the sweepstakes scam people have been calling her so much they filled up her 1980's answering machine tape. (I think it's 30 minutes long.) How's that for technology???

Anyway, we are driving down to get her in a few weeks. I'll be bring her back up to stay with us again. I'm looking forward to seeing her. It's so much easier when I know she's safe.

I did decide to go to counseling. Having my two immediate family members sick at the same time just proved to be too much. One I can handle- two no.

My brother is still in the hospital and has been since Nov. 22nd. My mom is very upset and doesn't understand why he's still there.

More later. . .