COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2561
Location: Rapid City, SD | Subject: My Doris
Dex asked about her. Guess I haven't posted about her recently, 'cause the news isn't good. I have established a relationship with the Social Worker at the new nursing home in Amarillo where her son moved her after she fell and broke the same hip the second time. She thought she could get up and walk. When everyone rushed to her room, she kept saying, "I did a dumb, dumb thing!' Mike, her son (my nephew, of course) told me that he moved her from Dimmitt, Texas to Amarillo because the surgeon who operated on her both times, lives and practices there.
The Social Worker arranged a three-way conversation between me, the SW and Doris. I asked Doris a bunch of questions, like how many children do you have; how many grandchildren, etc. I also asked her the same questions about my family. She answered all the questions correctly about her family, but could name only my daughter. Apparently she doesn't remember my 47 year old son, or any of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren. My daughter is my oldest child (59).
She kept saying things like, "I'm delighted with my children." "I'm delighted with my grandchildren. Oh - she also knew her own birth date and age.
I don't have any personal experience with Alzheimers, but somethng Doris does is rather strange. She YELLS everything. She does have a severe hearing deficit, but Ive known a lot of deaf people, and they all talk in a regular voice. Doris sounds, well - demented. Can't explain it any other way.
I had sent her an easy-to-read novel, and when I asked her how she liked the book, she said, "What book?" The Social Worker said something that puzzles me. She first said she was going to ask the Speech Therapist that is working with my sister, to ask Doris to read some of the book in the class. Then the SW said, "She still knows how to read, but the words mean nothing to her. What? How can that be? If a person still can read words, how is it that these words can have no meaning?
I left a message for the SW week before last to call me and tell me whether Doris had received the second book I sent her, which is a picture book of the Black Hills and Bad Lands done by a local photographer. Nancy (SW) called me bright and early last Monday morning and said that she got the book. In answer to my question, she told me that Doris was able to open the package by herself. I asked that because I wanted to know if her brain still directs her hands in various tasks.
Nancy took me by surprise (I wasn't fully awake yet) so I didn't have my thoughts straight, and failed to ask other questions. She did say that Doris was able to open the package, but when I asked if she recognized any of the pictures of our local area. She said that she wasn't actually in the room when Doris got the package, because that was a particularly busy day. I'm disappointed, because I actually sent the book to Nancy, because I didn't want someone to just take it to Doris' room and set it down on a table or dresser. So, how did Nancy know that Doris was able to open the package?
Because of my cardiac incident last December, I'm supposed to avoid as much emotional stress as possible, and stress is chasing me down. There's Doris, and there's dealing with a lot of ongoing health insurance issues, which never seen to get fully resolved. I need a wife! Someone to cook and clean, and someone to be my financial manager and handle all business-related issues. I used to be able to do all that, but it's becoming more difficult, particlularly because I want to concentrate on the book project, and resent alloting so much time to these other issues.
And there's Cam - who's on my mind every minute of every day.
And strange and disturbing dreams. ...but enough of that.
It's late. Gotta start the getting-ready-for-bed process. And it is such an involved process, that by the time I crawl between the sheets, I'm wide awake, and might just as well get up and do something.
Cora |
My Doris
