I have so much to write about, I don’t even know where to start. How often does that happen?

My parents left today. It was a good trip but it was a bittersweet trip. There just isn’t any denying the decline in my father’s mental capacity any longer. He could not put new laces in his shoes. He could not get his seat belt buckled 90% of the time. He could not follow television shoes and preferred shows that used repetition and rephrasing like the news and the weather channel. Much humor went over his head. He inferred things that just weren’t true. His dementia hasn’t progressed the way I thought it would. Mom said that what they say is that he has lost mostly “executive functioning and reasoning”. Which means that he can’t do tasks that a person with a Master’s degree should be able to do. His speech has slowed down a lot. He has to stumble to find words. He doesn’t complete some sentences. It was sad. And yet he’s lucid in many ways. We were talking about how he copes with all these things and he said it’s difficult. And I mentioned that many times he’s been “wrong” when he says things and I don’t want to correct him and hurt his feelings. He was quick to tell me he wants family to do that… (although I know for a fact when my mom does it – it sends him over the edge). Anyway… it was a deep conversation. So who knows. It’s just so very hard to practice my coping skill of choice when they are “here”. Detachment is hard when you are living with it day in and day out.

My mom’s judgement continues to concern me as well. My father is having back surgery on Dec 12th. I’m a bit nervous about that… but I’m sure I”ll practice my fine level of detachment. Anyway.. on this trip my father had a few days of high blood sugar and we realized he was getting confused and injecting himself with AIR instead of insulin. He would see a ‘line’ in the needle when he was drawing it up but it would only have a couple of units and there would be an air bubble. Probably because he is a bit shakey. Anyway… finally got my mom to realize only SHE needs to be doing his medicines from now on.

Also convinced her that he needs a follow up on his sleep apnea to make sure it’s correct. He’s sleeping so much I’m not sure it’s right. I also think he’s experiencing a high level of anxiety because of the feeling out of control because of the dementia. So I told mom I think she needs to ask for him to be on some type of anti-anxiety meds. He does take Xanex at night sometimes… but I think he needs to be on it all the time. He seems to really get anxious whenever there is a new situation or he anticipates something new. This seems like it’s actually something they can treat. No reason for him to suffer. I also think he’s got the beginnings of Parkinsons. He was very very shakey a lot. All of it is so hard to watch.

My daughter gained 8 lbs while my mom was here. I know my mom can’t help it…but if you ever want to peel back the layers on why I was fat… you can start square one with my mom and the way she ties giving love to giving food.

Also did have a good time with mom though. They did a great job while we were away in Hawaii. I couldn’t believe how smoothly she kept everything running. I really did appreciate them watching the kids. I need to send her a thank you note.

Dinara had her Audiologist appointment and does have Auditory Processing Disorder… I’ll write more about that later this weekend. There’s enough there for a whole post.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I need to post my Turkey Brine recipe. It came out so wonderful. Really made delish gravy too. It was a nice day. I feel like I have so much to be grateful for in my life. Yes, my life gets so stressful sometimes but what blessings I have in my life.

Today we put up the tree. And I spent an hour playing with the kids putting the trains up around the tree. The Geotrax trains. Gosh… can I just say that I love these trains? My kids all love them too. All of them. Santa is going to bring some more for Christmas!

GeoTrax Picture and Christmas Tree

I’m going to go enjoy some down time and read in bed!!!

Related posts:

  1. Pass the Pizza, I mean Pics!
    2.    If you want to see pics of the group that...
  2. After Thanksgiving Playlist
    3.   Love Has Come - (holiday) - Amy Grant (I...
  3. Managing the Dying Process
    4.    I’m very conflicted. My mom just called...