Bad Bad Night

This is the worst night that we've had so far. We have been 2 1/2 hours trying to get Mom to bed. She was fine all day, but didn't nap much at all. She had therapy and the nurse both in today. She ate fine all three meals, but after supper, I left her sit at the table while I cleaned the kitchen. At 7:30 I started trying to get her in to her room, to watch tv or go to bed. She was convinced she was going home. I don't care how much I explained that she lived here, even showed her magazines that came here with her name on them, she was not staying. She was going to get in her car and drive home. Finally, I picked her up and put her in her wheelchair and took her in to her room. She sat in that chair for 20 minutes, when I finally got her to sit on the bed. But then she started picking up "stuff" and said she was going home. About that time Tim came home. I was ready to take her outside with her stuff and let her see how dark it was. Tim wouldn't let me. He got her to sit at the table and told her that he would look at her car in the morning, but she needed to stay here tonight. He finally convinced her to let him walk her in her room, where she sit on the bed and went through her purse, at least 6 times. Then she found a New Testament that I think used to be Grandpa Hunts. She had already "worked" on the cover, peeling the layers of paper apart. So she went to work on that again. I finally asked her, after about 10 minutes, why she was doing that. Her answer was, in the most serious tone she has, it must be the whiskey! I don't think my mom has ever touched a drop of alcohol in her life, but I could be wrong! I had been at the end of my patience until then. I started laughing, almost in tears! She just stared at me and I said, "Mom you are so funny." She answered, "I don't think I am." It is now about 10:40 pm and I finally convinced her to lay down. She is in there praying. Why does she make sense when she prays, when 5 minutes before that, nothing she said made any sense? She has a doctors appointment tomorrow. I am not even sure what to ask for. I would like to have some medication, that would help her relax after supper. It seems when it get dark, she turns into "Rainman." She was beyond Rainman tonight. Up until the whiskey comment, she was not being very "funny' at all. She was mad at me, but responded well to Tim. He did have to call her Mrs. Hickey a couple of times. I think I messed up again tonight, because I try to reason with her. Then she gets agitated. I guess you can't reason with the unreasonable. I wonder...did they give her some "medication" in the nursing home to turn her into a zombie? That is what she was, every time I went to see her. Now, that I have her at home...I believe I am seeing the Ruth with Alzheimer's. The real, unmedicated person, who is scared and confused and sometimes belligerent. She is no longer a zombie...but I'm not sure I can handle who she really is. Maybe tomorrow will be better.