From June 16

It’s been an interesting week or so. Last Sunday, Lexi Kate and I left for a trip to NYC with her dance studio. I was slightly worried about this, as anything out of the ordinary really tends to send GranGran’s dementia into orbit. My biggest prayer was that she wouldn’t also get a UTI while I was away. That would’ve probably sent Jeff over the edge. I had a sitter here during the day with her, and Jeff took care of her at night. Day 1 seemed to go off just fine. Day 2, Gran had locked herself out of the house within 30 minutes of Jeff leaving, disrupting the whole camp car pool saga. They had daily medicine battles. But, Jeff handles that so much better than I do. I get frustrated, wanting her to “understand” why she takes it a certain way. And, battle that with the fact that just 2 months ago, she was supposedly handling this on her own. I keep thinking how did she forget all this so easily, then I realize, she wasn’t taking it correctly then either. I just didn’t see her doing it….
Since I have been home, she has been giving me 10 shades of hell. It’s like I have to pay the price for leaving her here. Her big issue has been the “take over the master bedroom plot” When she first moved in, she was pretty direct in just telling me she wanted that room. I was pretty direct in letting her know that wasn’t an option until she started paying the mortgage. Her new plot was a passive aggressive plot of trying to switch. When I got home from NYC, she went into this state of not remembering which was her room and also saying, “why did you switch rooms with me? You sleep in whatever room you want? Where is your room? Put me wherever, you can have the room you want? I’m sorry I’ve been sleeping in your room this whole time, you can have it back.” I constantly responded that she was in the right place, and we were in the same bed we’ve been in since we moved in…. I want to believe that it truly is dementia related, but I find that hard to believe as she has been on this battle since Day 1. I don’t think she is confused about her room, as we painted it a similar color her room was in KY, and she has all of her furnishings exactly like they were there, minus a plastic chair….. Saturday night, we had a community movie night. When I came in about 9:30, she was already in bed…. In my bed!!!!! I kindly woke her up and explained she was in the wrong room and needed to go to her room. Then, I went outside and laughed so hard I peed in my pants. I guess she figured if she couldn’t out argue me, she’d just join me. The mischevious side of me wanted me to leave her there, and let Jeff crawl into bed with her and give them both a heart attack. Instead, I went outside and told Jeff what had just played out. I almost always go to bed before Jeff does, and he comes into the dark room and crawls into bed. I just couldn’t get the image out of my head of her rolling over to a big, hairy man in bed beside her. I still laugh just thinking about it.
Another funny is our 8 month old puppy is in heat for the first time. I was worried about explaining this whole process to my 6 and 8 year old. Turns out, they are less concerned than my 81 year old…. She just keeps saying, what is wrong with her? Does she feel bad? Is she sick? Is she having seizures? Nope….. In case you don’t remember the lady times, you feel like crap on a stick as your uterus is break down and seeping out of your body. Mixed with the fact that dogs instinctively want to breed during this time, she is simply going from laying on the couch with her tail tucked between her legs, to “dancing” with every thing in the house that doesn’t move before she gets to it…..
Oh the joys!!!!!