Sometimes you have to watch what you say

From the moment I awakened I knew this was going to be a bad day. The previous evening, Mom, my daughter and I were in Mom's room talking. I brought her a cup of tea and said good nite. My daughter and I went to our separate rooms.

The following morning, my mother still had not come out. I knocked on the door only to discover that her door was locked. She implied that my daughter came through the door into her room and rearranged her stuff. There is no pass through between the 2 bedrooms.

Later that day, I gave my mother her Namenda which doubles in dosage this week. When she asked what was it for I stupidly said, "your memory". I could have just as easily said something abou one of her prescription doubling. My mother went on a tear that lasted the entire evening and caused me to call the toll-free Alzheimer's Association helpline. That number is 1.800.272.3900.

I spoke with a very soothing woman who advised me to take a deep breath, calmed me down and then had an MSW call me back to help me with some techniques to calm my mother down. They also promised a followup contact the next day.

I made Mom and I each a cup of tea. Her's was laced with her Seroquel so she could rest. She continued to rant for several hours and said she wanted to leave and go back to Charleston. She believed that she could walk there. It was obvious that she is in complete denial about having Alzheimer's disease.

Once she calmed down, she asked if she could spend the night so she could leave in the morning.; she even mentioned going to a nursing home. My nerves are so fried, I'm ready to let her. I did come to the realization that it didn't matter what I said. If it wasn't this, it would be something else.


The entire series of events with the medicine began at 7:45 p.m. It is now 1:45 am and she is not sleep yet. God I am so tired *sigh*