My Mother's Journey With Dementia

I found a blog today written by a dementia patient.  Its nice to read things from the other side, and some of her insights I can understand.  I can almost feel my mother is in the same place.

Dementia Blog

Reading body language is a skill I am losing. Earlier in this illness, I could feel a disconnect between what people said and did. When their words and body language didn’t match, I would always believe and respond to the latter. For several months now I have asked those closest to me, “Are you angry?” because for reasons I cannot explain, I read many expressions as “anger.” The irony of all of this is that asking repeatedly if someone is angry leads to them being angry, which reinforces my concerns. I also am fighting feelings of paranoia and anger at strangers. It is very tempting to walk away from all of this to a quiet calm place that doesn’t actually exist.

I remember when we were dealing with my grandparents that had Alzheimer, and how our parents promised us that when their time came?  They would not fight tooth and nail the same way.  WELL see!  LOL!

I know at least two of my grandparents were both very individualistic, and loved their independence.  They were both successful business owners, and very intelligent.  Its hard to watch the person you love start to lose the aspects that they cherished about themselves.  It has to be very frustrating to realize how you must have help now.  Their stubborn side of course did fight, but to be honest?  I can't blame them at all.  I won't say it wasn't frustrating from the other end okay?  I can empathize I suppose would be a better way of putting it.  I tried to place myself in their shoes, but I have to wonder if I do a very good job with my mother at times.  Its much MUCH closer to home now.

I noticed with conversations with my mother that she is struggling with her television remote.  She has called AT& T a couple of times, because she felt there was something wrong with her service.  It wasn't my mother's cable television, but my mother's dementia.

I did a google search for 'television remote dementia' or 'television remote Alzheimer', and I came up with a company called Flipper.  I saw the ad originally on the Alzheimer's association website, but it wasn't really clear as HOW this remote could help my mother.

So I did another google search, and this time it was for 'flipper remote control'.   Once I found their site there was a video that was started right away.  I can't tell you the sigh of relief I had when I watched it.  I wanted to share it with you today.