Update

[Guest guest]

Hi All

I have to admit I haven't been all that good recently in keeping up with posts.

They have still been coming to my inbox, but just haven't been reading them.

Have in the past day or so started catching up, there was more than 1000 to

read. I have read posts from 1 December to 10 December so far, and felt the

need to update on how Mum is. For those who don't know me, a combination of

some of my first posts are at the address below.

http://f5.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/AFQCQGLC06FE1OCJ41_kcFbI-PaS6CPyww1YC7PJTGJJFKAJ73a\

LsZ-HW-r62XdULi2NJYkn5hJFAJg3CfVbv6fEfW1hyDI/MEMBER%20PROFILES/Ngutuwera

Mum was away from home from December 24 until last Thursday. She stayed with a

combination of her sister and her son and daughter. This is the first time she

has been away from home for a while, and I was dreading how she would be on

returning, as she has shown lots of confusion after being away in the past. I

first saw her again on Thursday, and was shocked at how frail she appeared, and

how bad her symptoms were. On reflection, I now realise that after caring for

her for the past year I had become used to her symptoms, and the break allowed

me to forget how she was, and remember her from before LBD.

In truth, my lot in dealing with Mum is not nearly as hard as most members in

this group have to bear, and my heart goes out to all here. I will write some

observations regarding individual members when I have caught up with the 800 or

so posts left.

Thought I'd write in the meantime about some of the symptoms as they relate to

the posts of December 1 to 10.

Feeling the cold

Mum is constantly feeling the cold, even though it is the height of Summer here.

The first thing she does in the morning is turn on the heater. I have constant

battles with her regarding wearing warm clothes. She says things like :I've

been dressing myself for all of my life, why should you be telling me what to

wear now " . Having said that, she also gets extremely hot.

Drooling and runny nose

Mum has been drooling for the past six months or so. I also put this down to

her having her head down mostly. She has also been having trouble with a runny

nose, especially when eating.

Obsession

Mum is obsessed with bugs. Any little speck is a bug. She sees little legs on

these specks that are moving. They are everywhere, including in her food, on

her clothes, in her bedding. The pilling on blankets and wollen clothing are

especially bad, resulting in me " throwing out " these offending items. She's

also had trouble with some stairs. The carpet there " moves like waves on the

ocean " as a result of the masses of bugs. The offending stairs are in a part of

the house that doesn't see much light. I put this down to problems with her

vision.

Completing sentences

One thing I have noticed is that Mum's ability to talk has decreased during the

two weeks I didn't see her. She is having more and more difficulty finding the

right words to tell me about things she has experienced recently.

Affection

I note form the posts I have read recently that mention has been made about our

LOs not being the affectionate types. Mum has never been the huggy type, or

been able to tell people she loves that she loves them. She has never been a

touchy type. I remember when my father, her husband of 45 years, died, two

years ago. All these people at the funeral and before gave her hugs. She would

just screw up her face and say how much she hated that. Just an observation.

The cat

Mum had always been an animal person, having lived on a farm for most of her

life. She had many pets, from sheep (what else in New Zealand), goats, pigs,

calves etc. She had always befriended wild cats on the farm also. At the

beginning of last year, a stray cat turned up here. We believe it was abandoned

as it was tame. Mum developed a love/hate relationship with this cat. On the

one hand, she was always anxious that it was fed, and worried where it was if

she hadn't seen it for a while. On the other hand, she was extremely reluctant

for it to come inside. She said it stank (Mum hasn't had a sense of smell for

20 years) and it had bugs. Well, my sister brought Mum back here on Thursday of

last week while I was in away till Saturday. I got a call from t on Friday

saying the cat had attacked Mum. It had left four puncture wounds in her leg,

and Mum had spread blood all through the carpet in the house. t managed to

clean the mess up, and took the cat to the local SPCA.

Me

I had a relaxing time away from Mum for the two weeks. Spent a week in

Wellington on my own, allowed me to think through some issues. The second week

was spent at our bach in Taupo. I had hoped to get some boating and fishing in,

but the winds largely prevented that. When it was calm, there were no trout to

be found. It couldn't have been that I was a bad fisherman.

I still have plans on visiting the US soon. I have had, as a result of

circumstances beyond my control, to delay the trip. I now hope to leave early

February. I know when I mentioned the trip last time people asked where in the

US I was going to be. I plan to spend the time in the Midwest, around Iowa.

:-)

I think about the people on this site and how wonderful you all are. I feel

privileged, and a little unworthy, to belong to a group such as this. I hope

that I can, and am, doing somewhere near a good job caregiving as you all are.

Hugs, and a Happy New Year