Don't argue...

Went to a "support group" with my sister last night for Caregivers...Hmmm, so who are we caring for? Well,  my sister's mother ( as we like to call her ) comes to mind...BUT we find out that we care for more than her , or we should care for more than her, like maybe OURSELVES! There's a thought.
So there was another set of siblings and we are told that we are all lucky to have sibling support and we also find out that "their" mother is the same kind of mother as "our" mother. We went to Leeza's Place which is a place where there is support for people who "care" for their parents as they age and face the challenges of memory loss, confusion, lack of concentration, wait a minute! Are we still talking about our parents, or us???

Some have Alzheimer's or Oldtimers, whatever you want to call it, or Dementia or what we medical people used to call OBS or Organic Brain Syndrome-What? Who the heck knew what that meant anyway? Hello! It means they are OLD, OK?

I personally think that as we get older, we lose brain cells, like maybe every time we brush our hair, brain cells are attached to the fly away hair that we lose....I'm just saying...one Woman's theory. And tonight's word or theme is "positivity" Well, I would say that we are positively looking at the same thing happening to us! Yes, because Bonnie Sunshine told us that 55% of our makeup is genetic! Ah crap! The "odds" are not looking so good, folks! Hey Bonnie, hope you got some ideas for the other 45% we are tying a rope and hanging on here!

Am I gonna start to hallucinate, too? Well, we now learn that we are not supposed to argue with her, just let her be delusional...hmmm, we've been trying to redirect her to the truth or as we say "reality" and she gets all fired up when we don't agree with "her" reality! At first, her delusions were strange, but more pleasant and less terrifying. She told us that "someone" came into her room and took her address book and changed names and crossed out other names and just screwed the whole thing up! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the "new" handwriting is hers...Then! "someone" drew black circles around the faces in all her photos...Sounded a lot like "The Great Teddy Bear Incident of 2009"  the one where "someone" came into her room and drew black magic marker circles around her little stuffed teddy bears' eyes. Well, come to find out, "Old" people start having a little trouble with their vision, which could be the answer to some of this delusion.

But then, "someone" came in and get this! They REDECORATED her room! Wish "someone" would come to my house, Mom! So turns out, we should just agree, and say "Wonderful job, I like what they've done with the place" instead of "Are you nuts, Mom?" Someone also brought her a brand new sewing box, too, and when she showed it to me, all I could think was "that's the same piece of crap you've had for 12 years" but this time I just nodded and said "Very nice"

And now the kicker... it seem's that certain medications ( Gee, like the one I told them to discontinue, Oh, 5-6 weeks ago!) will cause these poor old souls to actually have hallucinations in the first place! Are ya kidding me? I knew that Serroquell was some bad stuff--Some people call it Silly-quell...So these people that we trust in the ALF to take care of all these old people don't know Jack or Jill about the side effects of the pills that they are giving to them! As a nurse, I try to trust until you earn my distrust and son of a bitch if they didn't earn it...I don't trust any of them...I want to yell at them and make them take Silly-quell for punishment! "The idiots are running the asylum" comes to mind and that about sums them up!
But, not to worry, I only have a 55% chance of having the very same thing happen to me when I get to be an old woman Well, if that's the way it's gonna be, then I positively refuse to grow old gracefully!

So if you should survive 'til a hundred and five...