More about Mawmaw

I'll try to keep this as short as possible, but it's hard with everyone not knowing the back story.

About 5 days ago she comes to me telling me her leg is just 'thobbing' (what she calls throbbing) and she has no idea why.  I make her let me look and, hey, you've scraped the skin off a patch and it's infected.  When did you do that?  Oh, about a week ago.  *Sigh*  Treated it at home for two days (over the weekend) and then took her in.  Her dr. wasn't available, so had them get her in with mine.  LOVE that man.  Prescribed her some stuff to help heal wounds on diabetics and called me out in the hall to find out what the other dr. had been doing about her obvious dementia issues.  NOTHING.  I've been asking, begging and doing everything I can to get them to test/document, etc.

So, my dr. is now her dr.  We've been back for a few more appts. and have more to go, but at least I feel like we're making progress.  Yay!

He gave her a short test involving some memorization, answering some questions, drawing some shapes that overlapped, etc.  Will get the results from that next time.  He also did quite a bit of blood work.  Most of it came back fine, sugar (A1C) was fine, so was iron, B12, liver function and a bunch of other stuff.  Cholesterol was a bit high but nothing he's worried about at this time, especially because she hadn't fasted for that blood draw because we didn't know they were going to draw blood that day.

What he did find was that her Vitamin D is practically non-existent.  Bad news in that you need it, but good news in that it might explain a bit of the memory, mixing stuff up, getting confused stuff.  I had given the nurse a short letter to give him before he came in the room giving him details on some of the stuff she does, the stealing stuff, what I call organized hoarding, telling lies about how she's treated, trying to sneak out of the house by asking neighbors to take her six miles to town and drop her off (no, she couldn't direct anyone back to our house, has no cell phone and has no idea what our number or address is), etc.  Explained that she, I think, made up her medical history to a certain point, etc.  I KNOW she lies to doctors about stuff because I bust her on it at darn near every appt.  She won't come out of her room unless you practically drag her out (unless you promise to take her to her precious Walmart, then she'll beat you to the car! lol).  Wants books to read but refuses to go into the library and pick some out, etc.

He's putting her on a prescription Vitamin D med. to work on that.  I told her, see, there's another reason you need to get out of your room and come outside with us, so you can get more Vitamin D. She then tells him how this just doesn't make any sense because "I'm an outside person, doctor.  I LOVE BEING OUTSIDE!"

Lying.   Through.   Her.   Teeth.

Yes, I busted her.  She got all mad, made annoyed noises and then made up an excuse for herself.

It's too cold here.

Always.

Yes, you read that right, it's too cold in this state for her to go outside.
Ever.
Summer of over 100 degrees......too cold.



Right.  That's the issue.




Will tell you more next time.

Last hair update

OK, hubby got to see my hair today when he ran home at lunch.  He said it's different, but he likes it.

*Smart man, huh?*

Mawmaw happened to be standing there when he said it and I could see her looking at me.  Now, she's been in the same room with me about a gazillion times since I colored it and I KNOW she never noticed.

So, she loooooookkkkkkkkssssss at me then waits until hubby starts to leave the room and says:

Now, Tina, I have to say something.  I see you changed your hair.  I liked it better the old way.

I told her that that was fine, it's not her hair.  She walked out.

Then I turned to hubby and said this:

I made her a hair appt. for next week with Sheila.
Remind me afterwards to tell her she looks like a surprised poodle.

(She gets a TIGHT perm and her eyebrows colored super dark brown and every hair on her head is gray,
so her eyebrows are QUITE noticable.)

It's not an easy thing

I've known hubby's grandmother since I was a teen, but of course I only saw her every now and then during that time.  So while I've known her for a long time, I don't know her previous personal habits or preferences.  I only know what they have been since she moved in with us.

Can I just say that it's very hard to have to regularly go to someone and try to tell them nicely and without insulting them or hurting their feelings that they need to bathe.  Sigh.  I don't know if this is something that has come along with age with her or if she's always been this way, but I can tell you that it gets very old and after two plus years of doing it, you'd think that MAYBE she might begin to realize that she needs to take a bath every once in a while and that even though her sense of smell is diminished (had to have a doctor help prove this to her because she thought we were all over reacting about her perfume and lotion applications), the rest of us do NOT have that issue and our sense of smell is just fine....and people smell when they don't bathe.  I'm not super picky, right now she's bathing roughly once a week simply because I'm not up to having the argument (that it almost always turns into) more than that, but, really, it ought to be routine by now, if nothing else.  Before you ask, I'm right there when she gets in or out of the tub, so it's not because she's worried about falling in there alone.

Last night we got home from Scouts and she was in bed.  There were no dirty dishes in the kitchen.  I heard her coughing, so I knew she was awake (it was 7:30 pm) so I knocked on her door.  She knew what I was going to say, so she ignored me.  I opened the door and told her I heard her coughing, I knew she was awake and she needed to eat something.  She told me she did.  I asked her what.  She said 'a little bit of oatmeal.'  Mawmaw, there are no dirty dishes or pans in the kitchen, don't lie to me, get up and eat!  She came out of her room grumbling about me under her breathe, but she did eat.

The lies drive me batty.  Lies about eating, if she does eat, she lies about what she ate because left to her own devices she'll only eat sweets (she's diabetic), lies about us to strangers telling them how horrible she's treated and how we don't feed her good food, etc.  Takes things that belong to us and hides them in her room and, of course, lies about it when you ask.  Funny, the ladle was on the counter drying when I left the house with youngest kiddo, you were the ONLY ONE home and it's gone now that I'm back..........WHERE could it have gone, then????

It has not been a good day here with her so far.  Wish me some patience, will ya?

Mawmaw-ism for today

It's a wonderful day today.  We got some needed rain and it's cool with a light breeze.

Mawmaw asked me if it was cold outside.  I told her no, it was nice, but if she was going out to walk around, she'd probably want a light jacket as she gets cold easier than I do.

Her response:

Oh, I love days like this.  I don't like it when it's too hot.  I don't like it when it's too cold, either.  I like it when it's just perfect.  I think if everyone felt like I do, it would be a much better world we live in.



So.
There you go.
She just solved the whole not getting along with others issue right there, it's all weather preference related, apparently.
 lol

Mawmaw-ism

If I haven't made it clear, we love Mawmaw, but there are times where you cannot help but laugh at things that happen sometimes.

Deer season is coming.  Hubby bow hunts.  It's an old bow, but it's served him well and it works and he's good with it, so I'm all for it.  Fills up the freezer.  :)  He and a few buddies have been practicing in the backyard after work a few evenings per week, getting ready.

On to my story:

Oldest child has been sick and was home from school.  I hear Mawmaw call him over to the back door by the kitchen.

She wants to know "What's that thing out there?  Is it an animal?"

Child says:  Yes, it's a deer target.

Mawmaw:  A deer target?

Child:  Yes, they shoot their bows at it to practice.

Mawmaw:  Why doesn't it move when they shoot at it??!?!!!?????

How is everyone doing?

I had some pictures I was going to put up of me drying some tomatoes, but for some reason they aren't uploading, so I'll wait and try again tomorrow, I guess.

No word from the realtor yet.  Sigh.

Today I had to take Mawmaw to a doctor's appoint so we drove 40 minutes to get there only to be told that for some unknown reason they had made her appointment in another city another hour away.  At an office we've NEVER been to.  No idea where it even is.  ????????   So, that was a wasted trip.  Gee, thanks for letting me waste that gas, folks.

I've been working on a small quilt today.  It'll be a gift, so I won't show you all of it in case the person reads here.  I don't think she does, but you never know...lol.

I hope to finish the top tonight and then I can take a picture and show you at least part of it.

We got some light rain today and, while we need it, I can't help but wish it was Texas getting it instead.  Yes, I'm a Texas girl and my home state is literally burning up.  So very heart breaking.   If you've got time for an extra prayer, the firefighters and residents down there can sure use them right now.

Two words

Hearing Aid!


Geesh.   Mawmaw needs hearing aids.  Horribly.  Took her to have her hearing tested a long time ago because I was sick of having to raise my voice every time I said anything to her.

She flunked the test splendidly, both ears.  I don't know how far off those boxes on the test result papers are, but the closest she came to 'normal' was four boxes away for mid range hearing.  Low and high range were at least six away, both ears.

They explained it all to her, practically yelling across the desk at her, of course, but they were VERY nice.  They explained it's just part of the aging process (she never worked a job with loud noises) and that it was nothing she did.  They told her that it had happened slowly over time and since she was living alone for a few years, there was no one to tell her they were noticing it until we moved her in with us.  (Side note, she used to complain about her next door neighbor in the apartments banging on the wall 'for no reason.'  Want to bet it was because her TV was BLARING???)

They put some sample hearing aids in her ears after they'd calibrated them to her loss.  Then they explained it all over again.  They asked her if she could hear them OK, talking in a normal voice.

Then they asked me to talk to her in a normal voice.  Then they told her they were going to have me talk to them in the voice I have to use to get her to hear me at home.

I did.

She jumped.

I explained that all of us have to practically SHOUT at her to get her attention and then she still mis-understands what we say a lot of the time and that the hearing aids would help her be safer and hear better, but also help us because we can talk normally.  Plus, she hears one or two words and fills in the rest with what she *THINKS* you said, or what she *WANTS* you to have said and some conversations are a mess.  The kids sometimes give up completely.

She wouldn't agree to them.  Told the lady she didn't think her hearing was that bad, that basically she didn't care if we had to yell, she wasn't wearing them.  It was not a money issue, they have a great 0% interest payment plan for one year that made it VERY affordable for her, because she's saving money each month by living here instead of having her rent payment and own utility bills plus she no longer does the random crap shopping she'd go do when she got bored.

Can't make her get them, can't make her wear them.  The elderly can be mighty selfish, let me tell you.  I could tell you stories to make your hair curl.

But, we love her.  So, we continue to yell at her.  lol

This morning she went in the kids' bedroom (I have no idea why) and comes out holding a pull-up.  Youngest wears a pull-up at night.  We've explained over and over to her that if it's not wet, he wears them more than once.  It's clean, he puts it on after his bath, all he does is sleep in it and they are expensive.

She comes to ask me if it's still good as she found it on the dresser top.  I told her it's fine, it's still dry, he'll wear it tonight again, just put it back on the dresser.

Oh, OK.

I just walked into the kitchen and found it in the trash, where she dumped her coffee grounds all over it.

*Sigh*

It finally happened

As I've mentioned, my husband's grandmother lives with us.  She's lived with us for over two years now.  As you can imagine, there have been ups and downs along the way.  I'm happy to say that when she moved in with us she was on 8 prescription medications as well as several OTC meds.  Today she's on two prescriptions meds and one OTC as needed.  It's amazing what having someone (me) make you eat regularly and take your meds on schedule (and without overdosing, which is what she was doing) can do for your health.  We've been very happy seeing her physical improvements since moving in.  It's a battle as she doesn't want to eat unless it's sweets and I have to tell her to bathe every few days, getting her to get up and walk around (she's VERY stable, no walker or cane) to keep her strength up is another battle, but there are plenty of laughs to counter balance those issues.

When we moved her in with us, she had been living in low income housing.  We moved her stuff to our house one truck and carload at a time, cleaning out obvious trash as we went.  She had a very hard time turning loose of things, as older people sometimes do, but we were able to convince her that she didn't need the clothing she wore 20 years ago when she was 100 pounds heavier and other things like that.

I wish I had thought to take a picture, but she had what I deemed the closet of coffee.  For some reason, she had bought can and after can after can of coffee.  The big cans, the ones that are like 30-35 ounces.  I have no idea how many cans were in there, but there were a LOT.  We gave a few to her neighbors, we gave some to family members, we gave some to family to take to work, we gave some to our neighbors, we gave one to the mail lady, we put them in unlocked cars in random parking lots, and we kept some.  We moved to a new state and some came with us.

I should say, she's the only one in this house that drinks coffee.  She drinks one to two pots worth of coffee a day which sounds like a HUGE amount, except you have to realize that she brews it SUPER strong.  The smell will knock you out.  She puts enough scoops of coffee to brew 10-12 cups but then only puts enough water for 2-4 cups.   She uses quite a bit of coffee daily, as you can see.

Well, it's been over two years, with tons given away, and she FINALLY ran out of coffee from the closet of coffee.  I saw that she was out and knew she'd have withdrawals, so I bought her some more the day after she ran out.

A few days later she tells me she thinks she's getting a cold because she's had a horrible headache the last few days.

*DING* goes the light bulb over my head.

Mawmaw, why didn't you make you some coffee?  You're having headaches because you haven't had any caffeine and you're addicted to it.

How would I make any coffee?  I'm all out.

I bought you more the next day!

I never saw it, honey.

That's because I hid it so well.