Wednesday, December 26, 2007

First Christmas went well.

Yesterday was the first Christmas I have not spent with mum, and it went well for both of us. Mum spent the day with her sister and had a lovely time and I spent the day with my family. It is just not possible for me to get down to see her as I need to save money for her next trip to hospital (was supposed to happen 2 weeks ago!).

Mum always had breakfast with us, a big cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato, fresh squeezed juice. so I rang her while I was cooking breakfast. She was having a good day and was quite on the ball which was nice.

She will be continuing on the Aricept, her results over the last 6 months have been good on it. I think the biggest change I noticed was less word jumble and easier word finding. This reduced her frustration a lot and so the crying episodes stopped as she improved.

She is still confused though, and still has her bad days, but in general she is much happier now. I think she feels very safe where she is and the staff give her lots of love and affection which always helps.

Mum has made friends with another resident and they go for a 'walk' each day together. She often can't remember his name but he is a lovely man, very old fashioned and quite the gentleman. I am glad for her that she is making friends. Her social life is busy, with bus trips, concerts, craft, singing and a myriad of activities that she usually can't remember. It makes it much easier to know that she is busy and as active as possible, much more like the mum I remember.

Thankyou all for your kind comments on my last post, it has been such an emotional experience, and I am unable to share it with any siblings. My husband and children are wonderfully supportive but I don't like to burden them with too much of the family memories. Also sharing with you all is different, although we have never met I feel like you 'get' where I am coming from as only another carer can. So thank you :) and happy holiday wishes to you all.

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