In 2007, Mum's symptoms of dementia first became very noticeable in the form of unusual behaviour such as barricading doors, tying up gates with handkerchiefs, calling the police all the time to imagined intruders and obsessing over her two cats. But even years before that, she'd made bad judgments with money, selling her house to a conwoman for $100,000 less than it was worth and wasting money on employing tradesmen to carry out unnecessary work. She only became seriously forgetful in 2010.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Mum Comes Home
Mum has been living at my place for several weeks. During the day, she is mostly quite good, but in the evenings and at night she can be awful. Tonight I thought she was in bed but I heard something bashing on the wall. I went in and she was standing in the corner of the room banging on the wall. I asked what she was doing - she replied, "Every night a woman gets into the roof and tries to get into my room." I am really not sure what to say to that. I have kept her off psychiatric drugs until this point in time but I'm starting to think something very strong is in order. The ethical problem is, all these drugs shorten your life. Alzheimers is so much like schizophrenia.
:( I thought drugs made them act that way-now I know better.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar problem. I found most elderly people are very polite so at night I put a big note on the wall that said "We are sleeping and we will see you in the morning and we love you !". I watched on the monitor as my foster mom went to bang on the wall and door. It was really cute because she saw the sign and very politely said "oops" and went back to her room and sat in her chair looking at pictures for a while then went back to bed. She never banged on the doors and walls again as long as I put up the note at night.
ReplyDeleteI thought drugs made them act that way too, Peaceful! Anonymous, the note on the door is a great idea. If Mum wasn't legally blind and unable to read, I would be able to do that. It's a terrible shame she can hardly see.
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