Descent into Alzheimer's Disease

Josh went TDY to Luke AFB, Arizona for two weeks. Right back where he started. When he was born in Luke AFB hospital some 20 years ago, the first thing my midwife said after his arrival was,

“Look, a new recruit.”

Quite a prophetic little bit of humor. My ultrasound had indicated (but not a sure thing - OBVIOUSLY) that I was carrying a girl. When Josh made his appearance I was utterly shocked.

“A boy??!?” I asked incredulously.

“Yeah, a boy. Do you want me to put him back?” was the absurd reply.

As I gazed down at my baby boy, I was filled with love and I never really yearned for a girl again. Baby boys are quite wonderful and my (then) husband was thrilled, too. A son. Our son. What had been a rather hard and rocky marriage became closer than ever and began to flourish because we had this precious baby. I loved him with a love that went beyond anything I had ever experienced before. In my opinion there is nothing in this world that compares to being a mother. We have surely had our ups and downs over the years, but we ascended out of our battles and somehow managed to end up as allies. Now he is a dedicated mama’s boy. *smile* Aren’t ya, Josh? Joshie?? Joshua??? Where’d he go?

Mom has not been doing well. She has been cantankerous for at least a week. She’s been refusing to change clothes and sometimes to take her meds. The other morning, I had to crunch her pills up and put them in ice cream and then feed her the ice cream! She sat there barely opening her mouth, so that most of the spoon’s contents tumbled off with each attempt. She wasn’t being hard to get along with intentionally, it was like she forgot how to open her mouth. Scary. The respite workers were unable to get her to shower despite several tries. This morning she wouldn’t put her shoes on and shoes are her favorite thing. There was a reprieve from the slump this evening, though. I stopped at Food Lion to grab a few groceries after picking her up. She saw the doughnuts and perked right up.

“Look here!” she exclaimed, her entire demeanor changed.

“Would you like a doughnut, Mom?”

“Yes!”

I let her help me pick out four. She was so cute. Such a simple pleasure. I brought the groceries home and we ate a doughnut instead of dinner. I made some coffee and we enjoyed our naughty treat. I’ll feed her a sandwich later. She was joking and laughing and seemed like her old self. She says things that don’t make sense most of the time, but we both laugh joyously like we’re sharing the funniest stories.

Someone sent me to a website that described the 7 stages of Alzheimer’s and it seems like Mom is in stage 6. That’s not good. If she has to be in a stage, I wish it was one rolling along the Oregon Trail. She could handle a few attacks from wild animals and savages. She would have at least a slim chance of victory over her enemy.

Psalm 60:12 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.