Something Cute

I only have a minute but really wanted to share something sweet from yesterday. Alma's great mood continues and I am grateful for the break from tears and anger. Sadly, with the good mood comes some additional delusions as it really does appear that she has declined slightly in her cognition. Sometimes these delusions can be quite amusing.

Yesterday, after Wrenna softball game, I was in the kitchen making dinner and Kaiya and Alma were sitting at an island we have. We were chatting casually and out of the blue Alma says, "Oh I can't wait until my hair finally turns white". Kaiya and I looked at each other and I said, "Alma, your hair is already white." She said, "It is?" and seemed to believe me. After contemplating for a few moments she decided to check it out for herself and went in the dining room to look in the mirror. All of the sudden we heard, "Oh my!!! It really is beautiful and white! I am so relieved!" as she started laughing. I have never seen anyone so excited to notice that their hair is completely gray and it was a very sweet moment to witness.

It's been a while...

I know it's been over a week since I have posted anything.  My daughter was on spring break last week and Alma was in respite care again so I could spend some time with Wrenna. I do want to say that I intentionally did not let a lot of people know she was going back. I did this because the last time she was there, the staff stated that she would become very depressed after a visitor. Due to the fact that it was such a short stay, I wanted to see if her not having as many visitors would make a difference. It really did.

I'm not sure where to begin to get things up to date here. I will say this, prior to her second respite stay at Emeritus, Alma was really having a rough time. Upon returning home from Easter spent at my mother's house, Alma had one of the biggest "tantrums" (can’t think of a better descriptive word) that we have experienced so far. It went on for about an hour and ended with her crying herself to sleep. It was the night before we were to take her to Emeritus so you can only imagine my concern about taking her. We did inform the staff upon arrival of her recent behaviors and the director stated that this could be a sign of a possible decline. I would imagine a decline would cause some pretty extreme mood swings in anyone as they would be resisting that change.

When I picked her up this past Monday, her mood was considerably higher. She was happy to see me and our whole week has been fairly uneventful. She even went to Adult Care yesterday with no incident. That being said, she has appeared more "out of it" than she was yet more lucid in other ways. One minute, she can tell us what she was doing five minutes earlier, the next she is having a delusion. For example; she thought she went to the bathroom in the backyard (she did not) and seemed to think this was a perfectly normal thing to do.

I do have a lot more to add to this. I have had a couple of very hectic weeks and have barely had time to complete a thought. Hopefully, after this weekend, things will mellow out again and I can get back on track soon.