Anyone that knows my Mum will tell you that she has always repeated her stories, which is true. You could tell her you’ve heard it a million times and she’d just swear at you and continue to the end. There are now only a few stories left and most have merged together or are completely made up by her confused brain.
This, for me, someone living with her, is by far the least annoying thing about repetition.
Every time I wear my pink leggings with a green dress that has pink in it, mum will say “Those trousers go perfectly with that top, they pick out the pink in it!” Every single time I walk into the room, it makes me not to wear it lol.
Every time I wear my t-shirt that says ‘It doesn’t get Eddie Vedder than this’, and every time I walk into the room, she stops me, reads it out and then asks me to explain. I no longer want to wear it.
Every time I am in the shower and she uses the toilet (which is every time, I don’t have uninterrupted showers or even wee’s anymore) she will say “Will me flushing the loo affect your water?” I can’t no longer want to shower though lol
Every time I wear my pj’s that have writing on – yep – no longer want to wear them.
These are some of the little but constant things that drive me insane. It’s like when you try to start a conversation or tell her a story and wish that you hadn’t, even though you know how important it is to keep her as engaged as possible.
Tonight the hardest is living in a 3 bedroomed house with someone who can no longer be of any help at all. Just wanting that other person to say, “You’re knackered, put your feet up, I’ve got this!” Bed without dinner is happening way too much cos I don’t have the energy and she doesn’t have dinner. Now I’m sounding really like I’m just complaining so I’ll leave it there for tonight.
I’m aware that I intended this to be a regular diary. However, at the end of a day of living with someone with dementia, the last thing you want to do is sit and write about it, you want to switch off from it, hide from it even. I’m also aware that it would be more helpful to write for 5 minutes every night, keep it regular, keep people informed of the declines, new symptoms and I guess offload a little myself too. So I guess some will be funny ‘Deeisms’ and others will be big moans! You have been warned……..