New Developments

I haven't posted much about my Mom recently, but we are having some interesting moments. I suspect that the underlying cause is lack of oxygen, but it, also, may just be extreme age.

Over the last several months we've been treated to amazing stories of large black spiders filling her room with webs. No one else can see these spiders. There are no webs. But Mom is constantly swatting at them and wiping webs off of her clothing and other belongings.

More recently, she has told us about some lady who comes into her room every morning at 3 a.m. and takes full body x-rays of her after waking her from a sound sleep. (The last x-ray on record was in December due to pneumonia.)

Last week, Mom told Sir Nottaguy that an aide was cleaning her (Mom's) ear out and removed a piece of metal about 1/2" long. (Aides don't clean ears.) Once again, there's no record of anything being done to Mom's ears for over a month, when her doctor removed some hard wax.

It's becoming rather difficult to listen attentively to Mom's stories, and not allow my tell-tale face to show the disbelief. I've never been good at "poker face" responses!

I've tried proving to Mom that there are no spiders, because I! AM! TERRIFIED! OF! SPIDERS! And does she really think I would willingly put myself in her room if there were any there???? She says I'm just trying to make her believe she's losing her mind. But she will have me know, she is perfectly sane and she's not going to fall for it!

I've taken her to the nurses' station and looked at her medical records with her, but she says I'm just helping them cover up the truth.

So, I'm starting to adopt the "smile and nod" approach with her. I listen. I smile (or frown depending on what's expected). I nod.

I still check with the nurses to see if there is anything I need to know, although they are really good about calling me about everything! Basically, we are just making sure we are all hearing the same odd stories and making sure there is no grain of truth to any of them.

Oh, the fun times of caring for Mom!