I haven't updated the blog in a while. There isn't really that much new to report.
Mom continues to slide into the Alzheimer's Disease fog. She is settled in to her new surroundings. She sleeps a lot during the day. She doesn't talk, but she will giggle sometimes. She does not know her own name, has little awareness of passing time, cannot follow a story, a TV show, or a game. Although she smiles in greeting when I walk through her door, she seems unaware of our relationship. If I ask her if she knows me, she smiles and shakes her head. No. Ah, well.
She wanders around at night, as she did when she was with us. She enters other residents rooms and tidies them up -- even at 3 am and sometimes she wakes the resident. The nurses say she is cheerful, but a handful with her wandering. She now has a night-owl roommate that clues the nursing staff in as soon as Mom goes off on an adventure -- so they can intervene before she has the entire floor awake. So far, they have not alarmed her bed, as they don't want her to just stay in bed 24/7. They have put an alarm anklet on her, so if she goes to the door or elevator or other "dangerous" area she sets off the alarm. Because she has swapped night and day, she dozes most of the day. She has to eat pureed foods now, as she can no longer remember to chew her food and chokes at the slightest provocation. So far, she can still feed herself. She cannot dress herself, and wears diapers.
Alzheimer's is such a nasty disease.
