Tips For Caregiver's

People with Alzheimer's disease frequently become more disoriented after dark or when waking. Leaving a night-light on in the bedroom may be helpful.

~WebMd

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas Day

Every year, we spend Christmas Eve with Mike's family and Christmas Day with my family. So on Christmas day, I bathed Muddear, again dressed her in "going out" clothes...wig and glasses included and we headed to my mother's house. Upon arrival, Muddear was greeted by my family and thus began the festivities.

We had dinner, traditional cold-weather holiday food - turkey, dressing, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, etc. and Muddear ate and ate. This is always a plus as you know what a picky eater Muddear can be. At one point, Muddear expressed that she was cold and I placed a blanket over her lap, which seemed to satisfy her need for additional layers. I became a little worried when several times throughout our visit Muddear asked..."when are we going home?" While not a good sign, I remained optimistic. Thankfully, Muddear did not throw a fit as she has done in the past and we were able to have another joyous family-filled Christmas Day.

We arrived around 2:45 and returned home by 10:30 - a great time was had by all, or so I thought. The next day, when talking to Sharon about her Christmas (you know Sharon works every holiday, but Christmas) she told me about her conversation with Muddear. According to Muddear, we took her to a house with NO heat and forced her to stay there and freeze! To wit, she was not happy about it. Sharon said she tried to explain to Muddear that we would never take her somewhere with NO heat, but Muddear would not hear it! Even going so far as to say..."you don't know how they treat me when you are not around!"

Later that day, when Sharon was about to leave, I went into Muddear's room to ask Muddear how she was doing. Muddear's response...

"I made it through Christmas!"

3 comments:

Jane Carlstrom said...

So glad she made it through Christmas and that you were able to have a day with family and fun. With my very elderly parents as with my grandmother before them, it has been helpful to me to keep the comment "it is the disease speaking, not -insert the name here-" to allow me to let go and not be hurt by the comments. It seems you too are able to do this, and not falter in your love and self confidence. You are one amazing woman! Hugs, Jane

njm said...

Jane,

I have to be honest, the first year was very difficult. To cope I journaled, wrote a book, and later discovered blogging. It was during these times that I began to see how truly bizarre and often humorous some of the things were that Muddear would say. That was when I came to terms with the impact of the disease on her mind and was able to absorb the comments unscathed! :-)

Your continued support is appreciated!

Jane Carlstrom said...

Ah Nikki, you are so welcome, you truly have done so nicely with finding personal ways to cope and continue on in this journey. Hugs, Jane