Tag: Memory

More Memory Fun

On top of the stress of dealing with trying to navigate my mother through her constant aches and pains, which run the spectrum between “it’s annoying” and “oh my god I can’t stand it anymore please god help me”, there are fun little nuggets like this.

Me: Are you okay mum?
Her: Why do you call me mum?
Me: Because you’re my mother.
Her: No I’m not.
Me: Yes you are.
Her: Did I give birth to you?
Me: Yes, 50 years ago.
Her: I don’t remember that. I guess it’s true because you’re named after your father. (she walks into the living room) Are there any pictures of you in here?
Me: Yes. (points to a picture on the living room wall)
Her: Oh yeah, there you are.

Isn’t that fun? Aren’t you jealous? And by jealous I mean aren’t you happy that this isn’t happening to you? And when I say this isn’t happening to you I mean it from both her and my perspectives.

Sunday Nana Sitting

My mother doesn’t have dementia, but she does have memory issues left over from the brain tumor she had about 10 years ago.

I got here a little after 6:30. I asked her if she had eaten dinner. She had not. I asked her if she wanted anything. She said she didn’t know. Did she want me to order something? No. Did she want me to make her something? No. She said that she had a big lunch and maybe she didn’t want anything at all. Okay. She takes a lot of meds at 8:00 so I suggested maybe she should have a Boost (it’s like an energy drink geared toward seniors) with her pills. She said that was a good idea.

10 minutes later she was in the kitchen making herself a sandwich. It wasn’t that she changed her mind. It wasn’t that she ignored our little discussion. From her point of view our chat never happened.

Every time I come here I have to tell her how old I am, how old Jen is, how old Harry and Bellana are, where I am going to sleep, that I am going to be working, where I work, how long I’ve been working there, which sibling will be relieving me, which sibling was here the night before.

She doesn’t forget everything. A few examples: She knows who I am married to, she knows who my step kids are, she knows they are going to the same college (or they will be shortly), she knows which channel the Game Show Network and NESN are on. She knows Dad is in the hospital and she knows what’s wrong with him.

I don’t know why I am writing all of this out. It’s stressful and it’s sad, but it doesn’t really add to the difficulty of the situation. It’s just part of how things go. I don’t know. I might delete this later. I don’t know.

She’s complaining about pain tonight but it’s not too bad yet. She’s been up and around and she hasn’t seemed tired, but she just turned off her bedroom light. Maybe she’ll get some sleep. I’m pretty tired, but I am planning on staying awake for a while. TBS is showing Marvel movies. Captain Marvel is on right now. Rick and Morty is hovering out there at 11:00. I already looked up what channel Comcast runs the Cartoon Network on.

Well, I spoke too soon. She just got up again. It’s leg pain tonight. Probably arthritis. It might be a tough night.

Gatsby

My wife and I are watching last year’s film version of The Great Gatsby. I’d heard the movie wasn’t very good, and while its far from great, so far it’s not as bad as I feared.

My problem with it is my memory. I read it in high school, just like everyone else, but I forget almost everything. I actually just picked up the kindle version because I can’t remember which parts of the movie are accurate, and which parts are some Hollywood douche canoes futzing with an American literary classic.

I’ll get caught up soon enough.