Health (part 2)

I have not been able to work in my studio this week due to the extreme heat, which is fine since I've been unproductive anyway. On Monday, I went for an hour walk on the riverfront with my friend, Linda, whose 85 yr. old mother has Alzheimer's and is in a memory unit. I told her about Leola always saying she wants to go home, even when she's not sure where that is. Linda said before her mother went into the memory unit, she was living in her own home (which she had lived in for years) and she still packed bags to "go home". She and her siblings decided it was a desire to get back to a childhood home still in the the memory bank. I felt better after hearing this. Every time Leola says she wants to go home I feel guilty like we are keeping her here against her will. Even if she were at home, she would probably be saying those words since the "home" she remembers no longer exists.

Leola is declining fast. I've noticed she is having more difficulty finding words. She asked me for a basket and I asked her if she wanted to wash some clothes. After a few exchanges, I realized she was trying to ask me for a suitcase, but she had forgotten the word for it. When we did laundry, she couldn't recall the word for dryer. These are just a couple of examples of hundreds of words she can't remember. Of course, this doesn't stop her from talking!

She's lost the concept of time. Some days at 4:30 in the afternoon, she will get ready for bed, then laugh at herself whe I point out the time. She is also getting more and more OCD, perseverating on certain subjects and rituals.

Yesterday was a bad day. She didn't feel well and complained of back pain. She's complained of this before and it seems to come and go. For the first time, she said she didn't want to eat at dinnertime. Sitting was painful.

Jon spoke to her doctor and instead of waiting 3 weeks for the oncology appointment, he scheduled a bone scan to see if the cancer is in the bone. That's what the oncologist would have done anyway. He also prescribed a low does of an anti depressant to possibly help with the OCD, especially given her history of mental illness.