My mother was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2010. This is a blog about coming to terms with her absent mind.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Goodness me!

Where did the time go?

I suspect that a weekend away plus having to catch up with my OU course and submit a CMA by midday on Monday may well have something to do with it.

But also, as Jon said on his wonderful blog recently, no news means that things have been relatively calm and quiet and after a year-long white knuckle ride it's quite pleasant to bimble along for a change if I'm honest. This does mean that there's not much to blog about and I'm sure you would get rather bored with endless updates about the same things.

In Ma's world things are quite busy. She still hallucinates a lot and spends a fair amount of time looking for someone/doing something she's been 'told' to do/asking me where people have gone/talking to the 'others'. She's rarely very distressed by any of this although she is constantly on the move trying to resolve things. A lot of her conversation doesn't make any sense (random or made-up words feature heavily) but I try to gather the gist so that I can either agree with what she is saying or sort out what she needs. It can be a bit hit and miss though unfortunately.

The dementia community team came to see her yesterday and due to the level and frequency of her hallucination the anti-psychotic drug has been increased. This is a slightly contentious issue so if I don't see a big improvement in the next week or so I will be giving them a call. There is hope that this will also temper some of her aggression - usually when attempts are being made to get her dressed/undressed, fed, bathed or any other situation where she doesn't want to do what she is being asked. A couple of mornings have been a bit of a nightmare but I worship at the altar of Vanish Green Top which deals with everything magnificently.

The day centre continues to be a hit. It is wonderful to see her walk off quite happily without a backward glance when at home I barely get 10 seconds before she comes looking for me. I am firmly convinced that it does her the world of good to be away from here and mixing with others. And of course, I do enjoy the time off.

The back bathroom now has a new shower and flooring so we are able to shower her safely and easily even though she's not very keen, another huge personality change which is hard to get used to.

Only 8 days until H arrives. Cannot wait.




2 comments:

  1. I wondered why I seemed to be getting more hits than usual. Thanks for the mention! Sarah and I have been having a good laugh at the thought of Mum and Ma in the caravan on your drive. Couple of webcams and we have a brilliant tv show!

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  2. Write up the treatment now and pitch it to Channel 5!!!

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