10 years ago (approximately) when my mother was first diagnosed with cancer we learned about a new thing: Sundowning. It seems for some patients, their behavior changes drastically right around the time the sun goes down. My mother went from strong and confident to mean and whimpering and pretty much impossible to reason with.

It happened again today. Due to Covid-19, she is only allowed one visitor for the duration of her stay. It’s my sister. She gets to the hospital when visiting hours start and leaves when it ends. My father wanted to do it but he can’t handle sitting in those uncomfortable chairs for 12 hours. If he tried we’d be checking him into the hospital too.

So my sister had to take the full brunt of the sundowning. Both barrels, BLAMMO! It was awful. My mother waffled from inconsolable to telling my sister right off. She called my father once and told him that if he doesn’t come and bring her home he must not love her. So yeah, dad took both barrels too.

We know that by morning she’ll be back to her normal self again, but for the night time? It’s just awful.