Sunday, December 07, 2008

Are You A Good Lion, Or A Bad Lion?


Mom called me into the bedroom this morning because she woke up with pain in her tooth. (We've moved up the appointment with the oral surgeon from Wednesday to this Monday to have it extracted.) I went and got the antibiotic and pain pills for her and asked if she was able to sit up and take them. She was in bad shape and needed help sitting up, drinking, etc. She was also confused, not sure how to drink from the glass and wondering if she was home.

I managed to get her upright and seated on the side of the bed. My brother had dropped in and he came in to help. To distract her, he mentioned the stuffed lion (pic above) that sits on a chair next to her bed.

Mom: [Scowling at the lion.] Stop looking at me.

My brother talked about how nice the lion is and that he is just like the other cats we have in the house.

Mom: [Smiling at the lion.] He's so cute. I just love him.

4 comments:

Greg said...

This is what I call a weathervane exchange when it happens with my Mum - I can get contradictory but genuinely felt statements out of her depending on what I say immediately beforehand. Last year the inconsistency frightened the hell out of me, now it's something expected.

Still, I find myself worrying which story is the truth whenever it comes up (does your Mom truly resent or love the lion?). It's like something from Physics - trying to confirm her opinion affects that same opinion. Trying to establish the truth can change the truth.

Sorry to wax philosophical (or quantum mechanical) about a cute story like this.

"Not sure how to drink from the glass" - ouch. Yup. I'm seeing that too. There's definitely something topological going on.

This isn't the first entry where your Mom has been upset by someone looking at her (I'm thinking about your Basketball story 'Perception is Reality'). I wonder what's going on there? Is she slightly paranoid about people judging her?

Regards as always

Greg

Gavin said...

Greg--Ha! Funny that you remembered the guy on television story. It happened again last night watching a show called "The Soup" where the host was "looking right at" her!

It was a funny night last night for TV watching. An old episode of Star Trek was on...the one with the monster that has suction cups to suck the salt out of humans. Anyway, the monster is revealed at the end and then the next scene is the Enterprise in orbit over the orange planet below.

Mom: I don't know what the hell kind of joint this is with crazy people flying around the universe.

citygirl said...

This reminded me of my friend's mom (who also had Alzheimers). Sometimes, she'd look at the tv and think it was a mirror. If there was a closeup scene of one person, she look directly at the tv, run her fingers through her hair and fluff it up and remark "geez, I don't look so great today". But the worst is sometimes the person she was looking at on the tv (or in "her mirror") was a man!

We went through the loss of using a cup too. Weird eh? We used straws for while and that worked and then Mom had trouble with straws so we went back to cups but had to hold them for her and prompt her to sip as we tilted the cup up. Somedays were really bad where she take a sip and then not swallow properly and end up coughing & choking all over the place. I felt sick when this happened.

This loss of ability to use cups got me particularly worried because I could see there wasn't enough staff at the facility to sit & help her drink enough fluids everyday to keep hydrated. We did have to hospitalize her once because of dehydration. Scary cycle of events.

Greg said...

I guess it's too late for Abrams to include that "crazy joint" line in the new Trek movie - it looks like it would fit in. I'd watch a show where your Mom was a TV Critic.