Descent into Alzheimer's Disease

I woke up to a beautiful, snowy morning. I had plenty of running around planned, but as the snow kept falling, I began question getting out into the weather.

Chris had found a lump in Tana’s ear a couple of days prior and I had a vet appointment for her at 4 P.M. Just about the time I was ready to kick back and enjoy the morning with a good book, the phone rang.

It was the nurse from Facility calling to tell me Mom had two ‘episodes’ that morning. She thought they were TIA’s even though the aide had described them as seizures. After the ‘episodes’, Mom was definitely NOT herself. She was very unresponsive, although awake and walking.

Chris decided to go with me to check things out and to make sure she was okay. When we arrived, she was restrained to a chair in the kitchen, half asleep and leaning over the mess of food in front of her. The aides got her up and changed her, as she was wet and dirty. She was okay, as far as being alive; but she was not okay as far as being herself. She didn’t even have a smile for me or Chris and seemed totally oblivious.

The nurse explained that they were keeping her restrained because her walk was very wobbly and they didn’t want her to fall. We talked things over, and even though the nurse said she didn’t think the doctor would DO anything, I should take Mom for a visit. I agreed and she called and got me an appointment for 3 P.M.

Time wise, there was no way *I* could keep both appointments. Chris had to work, so he couldn’t help out. I didn’t want to cancel Tana, because I was genuinely concerned out the quickly growing lump. Mom is more important than a dog, of course, so I had to take her.

I called the vet’s office, which is also an animal hospital, and explained the situation. They agreed to let me drop off Tana.

So I rushed Tana over and sped back across town to pick up Mom and hurried to the doctor. All this time the snow continued to fall.

Well, hurry up and wait was the name of the game, as usual, and I had to pace with Mom for 45 minutes before they called us back. She had an appointment with a doctor she had not seen before, because her normal doctor (Dr. Handsome and Young) is always off on Fridays. Coincidentally, that’s the day we always need him.

Eventually the doctor walks in and says, “Welcome back!” I manage a weak smile, since we have never met him before. I explain about the episodes and he asks if Mom usually acts like she’s acting. I say, “No.” and then he asks me if Mom has any memory problems! Umm, I understand that he must not have read her chart, but Mom is in the latter stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Did he really think that if she had been a normal person yesterday, but today she was unresponsive and walking into walls, totally out of it, that I wouldn’t have rushed her to the ER?

So I told him she had Alzheimer’s. He said if we wanted a definitive answer about the episode, tests would need to be run at the hospital.

The he listened to her heart and told me to bring her back in 3 - 5 days. All that jumping through hoops for the doctor to spend less than 5 minutes and tell me nothing I didn’t already know.

The nurse told me he wouldn’t do anything. She was right. So why did she persuade me to take her? As futile as it was, it did seem like the right thing to do.

HOWEVER, the doctor’s office has a no cell phones rule, so I had to turn off my phone and I missed the call from the vet.

He said that Tana had a double ear infection and a blood clot, or blood-filled cyst, or something like that. She needed surgery and he needed my permission.

By the time I called back, he was too busy to take my call and it was too late to do the surgery.

MEANWHILE, I took Mom back to Facility and told the aide that the doctor said not to restrain Mom all the time, but to go ahead and restrain her to eat like always. The aide was all over me about Mom’s hair being shampooed. [ I’ve continued to shampoo Mom’s hair myself and finally the day shift girls said they would switch her shower time to days and they promised to make sure Mom was showered and shampooed twice a week.] So the aide was all defensive and telling me how she always shampoos Mom’s hair and she doesn’t want things being said about her.. blah, blah, blah.

I said, “Look, I don’t care who does it or doesn’t do it, I’d just like it done. Her hair is dirty much of the time. I don’t have to tell you that. You see her more than I do, so you already know it. I’m not trying to get anyone into trouble, I am just tired of Mom’s hair being dirty.”

So here we are back from the doctor with serious stuff happening, of which the aide was fully aware and she is attacking me about the old, tired, hair-washing issue.

So I get out of there and go the back way to the vet so I will miss the 5 o’clock interstate traffic in the wet, snowy weather.

I arrive at the busy vet clinic and wait my turn to talk to Dr. Animal. He says Tana’s ear infection caused the other thing to happen. The thing that needs surgery. I have not even seen Tana scratching at her ears or shaking her head, but I am filled with guilt because she is overdue for her grooming visit. Maybe if she had been clipped and bathed a month ago none of this would be happening. I feel terrible.

But it’s too late to do the surgery today, so he draws out as much blood as possible with a needle and then injects something into her ear. He tapes her ear up across the top of her head and then puts this plastic sheath on her. It’s around her neck and goes out like a cone to guard her ears and to keep her from scratching the bandages off. Tana is not happy.

He gave me some medicine to put in her ears. She keeps trying to get the thing off her head. She can’t get up and down the steps to go outside, because the cone catches on each step. I carry her to the yard and put her down. She scoops up big heaps of snow with her plastic sheath and I have to dig out all the snow and dry it with a paper towel after each trip. Poor, poor Tana. I am not a very good mother.

ANYWAY, I call Facility to see if Mom ate her dinner after I took her back. The hair-washing aide answered the phone and told me she ate a little, but they couldn’t keep her in her seat, so she didn’t eat much.

“No, Charmie told me they weren’t restraining her anymore, so I didn’t think we were allowed.”

She was so busy telling me what a hair-washing professional she was that she didn’t hear the one thing I had told her.

Mom's asleep now. I know everything is going to be okay, but I hate all this stuff. I wish my Mom could be healthy and vibrant. I hate this disease that is eating her brain and stealing her piece by piece.

Psalm 4:1 <<To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David.>> Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.