It's 2011. Granma's 103. Healthy. Not taking any meds. Still able to get around with the help of her trusty walker. Eats good. Sleeps.....well there's the thing. I suppose her sleeping pattern could be worse. She gets up as many as 4 times a night, but that isn't every night. Some nights she's only up twice. That's really the norm....twice a night. And what does she do when she gets up? Well lots of things. Sometimes she gets dressed ....fully dressed, socks, shoes, the whole bit, then gets back into bed. Sometimes she goes to the bathroom, potties and primps. Other times she wanders from family room, dining room, living room back to the bedroom. She has "sundowners" I'm so glad I learned what that was. When she first came to us I didn't have a clue. Her behaviors got weird around 3 o'clock every day. She started getting edgy, fidgety, restless. She'd start moving around the house, from family room, to dining room , to living room over and over again. Finally, like, the last ditch effort, she'd head for her bedroom. It was like she was saying, "enough of this roving around stuff. I'm going to bed" but it was only 4 o'clock. I suppose I could let her go to bed but I was thinking, that if she went to bed now she'd be up all night and into the wee hours of the morning. The deal is.....if Gramas up......I'm up. So I wouldn't let her go to bed. That is an executive decision and I'm stick'n to it. I've learned that if I tell her we have to eat dinner first.....before we go to bed....for some reason that seems to calm her down.
Chuck and I talk about how she processes or doesn't process things. What parts of her brain are working and what parts aren't. How she sees herself and us. Does she know where she is? Does she think she's a young woman? How much can she hear? Sometimes we think she can hear it all and other times we think she can't hear a thing. Is she play'n us? How do you know?
Granma......what's going on up there in your head?
I better stay away from that one. Being in my own head is bad enough.
Happy new year everyone.
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