Update on Mom

[Guest guest]

Hi, all...it's been quite a while since I've been in here and posted, although I

do come in and read.

Not being exactly sure where we are in the stages, it would be my guess that

Mom's in the last stages of LBD.

She's unable to walk, can't support weight on her legs at all, can't hold

herself upright in a chair, and has quit eating almost everything but some

Ensure and oatmeal in the mornings. She might eat about a quarter of a

sandwich, or maybe 2-3 bites of a creamy soup for lunch, and most of the time

doesn't want dinner either. Up until the last couple of weeks, she would

request " something sweet to eat " but has stopped that also. You would think she

would lose weight with this, but she hasn't. She still weighs around 200

pounds...

She's incontinent 99% of the time, and I've talked with the hospice nurse about

a catheter. She pulled them out when she was in the hospital about 2 years ago,

but I think she lacks the strength now to do that.

She's become more and more demanding, insisting that she be picked up and placed

on the pot at least 15-20 times per day, but she never urinates in the pot.

We've had her on a med to control bladder spasms (monitoring to make sure it has

no side effects like Detrol did), but it hasn't done much to help.

She can't speak above a whisper now, and with my dad being extremely hard of

hearing, I end up being the shouting translator...*LOL*

I would put Mom's mental age right now (as well as her emotional age) at about 2

years...yet sometimes she will be filled with " righteous indignation " and scream

in her loudest whisper that I'm not " honoring " my mother and will go to hell for

it. I've gotten to the point that I just say " okay " and go on doing what I need

to do. Until I sat myself down and had a long talk with me about the fact that

it's the disease and not my mother saying hurtful things to me, I would cry or

get upset or shout back. Now I just smile and tolerate it and love her in spite

of it. I remember when my children were little, and see her in the same light.

So much of the time, Mom's language makes no sense at all. She will try to

talk, and nothing comes out but gibberish...not even a single recognizable word.

She's obsessive about her purse and her Bibles (three of them that have to be

carried everywhere).

The hospice nurse has told Dad that Mom should be in her hospital bed rather

than propped up in a recliner all the time, but since Mom says she doesn't want

to be in the bed, Dad won't allow it. He'd rather give in than listen to her or

even attempt to redirect her.

You know...as much as I love my mother, I am ready for the ride to be over for

her. Once in a great while she will have a lucid moment, and cry and say that

she never thought she would be in such a state. Her lucid moments, thankfully,

are fewer than 5 minutes a day.

Hope this finds you all in better shape than we are.

Jannis

Daughter of , LBD patient in the final stages