I have been dealing with my mother's illness for several years and now have several friends dealing with their mother's health issues. We are all in our 50's and our mothers are in their late 70's or early 80's.
One of the moms has now withdrawn somewhat from her family. She no longer calls her children or wants to venture out much which is most distressing to my friend. This behavior makes my friend and her sister feel as if their mother does not really care about them or her grandchildren. She also makes inappropriate comments at times. This past year they have noticed their mother who used to be meticulous now often wears the same old "comfy clothes" and many times the clothes are stained. Beginnings of something? Probably but nobody really wants to bring up the subject. Their Dad does not seem to notice or if he does has not said anything.
Another friend is going through the end stages with her mom who suffers from Parkinson's, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and now esophageal cancer. Not only is she dealing with all the losses these diagnosis bring, she is traveling back and forth three hours one way and trying to keep up with her own family back home.
Another friend happened to mention in an email that her mother's memory was slipping big time. She said she was in a car accident so they took her keys as her driving is so bad. She commented that the latest thing she was doing was confusing the portable phone for her TV remote. "Isn't memory loss normal as we age?" she said. I told her not this type of memory loss. When you forget how to use something that you have been using for quite awhile that is a problem. I encouraged her to bring all this to the attention of her doctor and get her tested.
My other friend's mom was becoming very forgetful and repetitive. Recently my friend noticed a big improvement in her and came to find out that she was now on thyroid medicine as her level was low. She was shocked at the difference that made. If only all our mothers were fixed so easy!
This is just a sampling of all of us out there dealing with aging parents.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
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Mothers are one of our God's greatest gifts. And it is so sweet of you that you really love and treasure your mom so much.
ReplyDeleteI felt sad for your friend, because of her mother's memory loss was due to the car accident. It's not easy dealing with these kind of situations because my mother also was in a car accident too and sadly, she died. I want to feel her presence always so I went to Dallas dent repair shop and I let them restore my mom's car.
Well anyways, thanks for the wonderful post
Marlene:
ReplyDeleteMy article did not make it clear. The car accident was a result of her impaired cognition.
I am sorry about your loss.
Thanks for commenting.