Sketchy Memory
Thanks for asking for an update Shannon!
Grandma seems to be doing well. We visited with her on Sunday and had a really good visit. The kids really enjoy going to see her and I think she really enjoys seeing them. They had just gotten new little Easter trinket/toys that they were playing with and they pretty much entertained the whole (small!!!) family area. The other patients seem to really enjoy the small people who visit.
Since we were in town we decided that we would take the kids to the Circus. We had missed the one local to us and the girls had expressed interest in going. This would be their first circus experience! So after visiting with Grandma we headed downtown. After the show Spencer really wanted to go back and see Great Grandma. That was all he could talk about once we got back to the van. Every time we've been to visit and leave he begs to go back to visit her again. Some days we do plan multiple visits, but not this day. We had to convince him that it was her bedtime and we wouldn't want to wake her. It took some serious convincing! Not to mention, we really needed to get (a late) dinner and get home ourselves.
Grandma continues to make progress. We'll likely know more after the meeting with the staff tomorrow. She is participating in her therapy, which is great. She's eating again and able to feed herself. They are able to get her in a wheel chair and we are able to get her out of her room to visit with her. Even better, she's able to hold a conversation with us. There was a time when I wasn't sure she would be able to do that again.
The trick with the conversations though is figuring out where her mind is. It is pretty easy to go with the flow. Because of our history, we know what or who she is talking about. It mostly all makes sense but it isn't always relevant to current happenings or she'll blend the past and present. Just recently she told my mom and aunt "What would you two do without me?" Grandma loves genealogy and she has immense knowledge about who is who and how everyone is connected. I can't keep up with her!
She can tell you where she is at but I believe there is still some level of confusion. Just last night she was able to tell my mom where she was (name of the place) but she thought she was in her hometown and certain people were waiting at her house for her to come home. In reality, she is still in my parent's home town, I'm fairly certain that at least one of the people she mentioned passed away several years ago, and she likely won't be going home anytime soon.
Last weekend she thought the other patients/residents were Carie's family and we were there to visit them. She's visited with Carie's small family many times and knows who they are. I don't think she fully grasps that she's one of many patients at this facility.
Initially, after her sudden turnaround, she was focused on Christmas and I'm not convinced it was the most recent Christmas. She was worried about how much dressing and fruit salad she needed to make. At some point we then talked about upcoming birthdays and how we celebrate her birthday and Spencer's birthday together. So now she's worried about making birthday cakes. We tried convincing her to not worry about it and how we would simply love it if she was well enough to be there... we would take care of the cake! She then went on a tangent about making my brother a birthday cake and told him she was going to make him one. His birthday was a few months ago.
This weekend she brought up her parents and their farm, all of which has been gone for years. She talked about taking our kids to visit them at the farm.
But then she'll ask questions about really relevant current events and it blows my mind. So I believe we are still on the "time will tell" plan.
Grandma seems to be doing well. We visited with her on Sunday and had a really good visit. The kids really enjoy going to see her and I think she really enjoys seeing them. They had just gotten new little Easter trinket/toys that they were playing with and they pretty much entertained the whole (small!!!) family area. The other patients seem to really enjoy the small people who visit.
Since we were in town we decided that we would take the kids to the Circus. We had missed the one local to us and the girls had expressed interest in going. This would be their first circus experience! So after visiting with Grandma we headed downtown. After the show Spencer really wanted to go back and see Great Grandma. That was all he could talk about once we got back to the van. Every time we've been to visit and leave he begs to go back to visit her again. Some days we do plan multiple visits, but not this day. We had to convince him that it was her bedtime and we wouldn't want to wake her. It took some serious convincing! Not to mention, we really needed to get (a late) dinner and get home ourselves.
Grandma continues to make progress. We'll likely know more after the meeting with the staff tomorrow. She is participating in her therapy, which is great. She's eating again and able to feed herself. They are able to get her in a wheel chair and we are able to get her out of her room to visit with her. Even better, she's able to hold a conversation with us. There was a time when I wasn't sure she would be able to do that again.
The trick with the conversations though is figuring out where her mind is. It is pretty easy to go with the flow. Because of our history, we know what or who she is talking about. It mostly all makes sense but it isn't always relevant to current happenings or she'll blend the past and present. Just recently she told my mom and aunt "What would you two do without me?" Grandma loves genealogy and she has immense knowledge about who is who and how everyone is connected. I can't keep up with her!
She can tell you where she is at but I believe there is still some level of confusion. Just last night she was able to tell my mom where she was (name of the place) but she thought she was in her hometown and certain people were waiting at her house for her to come home. In reality, she is still in my parent's home town, I'm fairly certain that at least one of the people she mentioned passed away several years ago, and she likely won't be going home anytime soon.
Last weekend she thought the other patients/residents were Carie's family and we were there to visit them. She's visited with Carie's small family many times and knows who they are. I don't think she fully grasps that she's one of many patients at this facility.
Initially, after her sudden turnaround, she was focused on Christmas and I'm not convinced it was the most recent Christmas. She was worried about how much dressing and fruit salad she needed to make. At some point we then talked about upcoming birthdays and how we celebrate her birthday and Spencer's birthday together. So now she's worried about making birthday cakes. We tried convincing her to not worry about it and how we would simply love it if she was well enough to be there... we would take care of the cake! She then went on a tangent about making my brother a birthday cake and told him she was going to make him one. His birthday was a few months ago.
This weekend she brought up her parents and their farm, all of which has been gone for years. She talked about taking our kids to visit them at the farm.
But then she'll ask questions about really relevant current events and it blows my mind. So I believe we are still on the "time will tell" plan.
posted by Sonya at 4:47 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like she's doing so much better. As for the memory thing, she sounds exactly like my grandma did. My grandma said things like she and her sister were going to miss the bus, etc. She was talking about when she lived in Toronto and she hadn't lived there in years and years. I think they were real memories and she was just confused about where she was, what year it was, etc.
I hope she continues to improve. How cute that Spencer wants to visit her so much.
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