My grandma has dementia. She's had it for several years but it's really been telling these last one to two years. She spent the last two weeks at my uncles new home and since she's been home, she's really discombobulated and her routine is all messed up. For someone who lives on routine and depends on it to function because of memory problems, this is a really bad thing.
Yesterday she drove herself to the hair dresser or her weekly appointment. Now, the doctor told her some time ago it was probably best not to drive. And basically she doesn't except to the hair dresser and grocery. The family down there felt that was okay. My thought was perhaps you all should figure out another way to get grandma to her destinations.
I'm always hearing about old people venturing off and getting lost, dying after being exposed to the elements too long in bad weather. So yesterday she got lost coming home from the hair dresser. This is a place she's driven to on a weekly basis for YEARS! It was so scary; she was lost for over an hour. They finally took her car away. Hurrah!
But I still worry. If she's gotten this bad, how do we know she won't go fetch the mail and forget where she is? Will she catch something on fire because she's forgotten a pot on the stove? This is really hard. She's getting to the point where she may need to have more care than what's being provided. I'm not down there to deal with it. My uncle used to live across the street but he's moved due to his job. That leaves the lady that stays with her and my mother. I guess it'll have to do. I'm wondering if my uncle will take her to live with him?
My uncle and my mother don't get along because they're both cut from the same hard-headed, stubbon as mules cloth. My uncle is just like my grandad was in that there's no other opinion but his own and if you try to have one you're just plain wrong. And to that effect, there's only one right way to do things and that's his LOL! That's off topic anyhow. I'm worried about my grandma. She's more of a mom to me than my own mom and helped raise me for many years. I usually don't think about it much since she's not close by but it's going to be hard to say good-bye to her and it's happening bit by bit.
1 comment:
Denise, just wanted to give you a hug. I watched my best friend's mother deteriorate with Alzheimer's for many, many years. She was like a second mother to me and it was the hardest thing to watch her disappear over the years. There's no easy way to say good-bye. You can only be there as much as you can (goodness knows you've already got your hands full). But an extra hug can't hurt.
hugs,
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