A Senior Smörgåsbord

The Dream Master worked to squelch my mom's fears related to her visions, especially "The Man."  He is gone and my mom's blood pressure is decreasing steadily.  Thank God.

Her hallucination of this male figure that she believed molested her has been put to rest.  I hope for good.  Mom didn't want to have another ritual to banish him to Hell for all eternity like we did with her hallucinations of the 2 Evil Bitches.  She was afraid of retaliation from "The Man's" mob.  I think in her mind, this guy was a mob boss who liked my mom.

Every day my mom and I go in the pool that my sister gave us.  Thank you Ann if you are reading this post.  It's helping Ma a lot.

I read last week that folks who suffer from Lewy Bodies Dementia will often enjoy things that they enjoyed before Lewy took hold of their minds.  My mom loves swimming around in our pool, we had one at the house that I bought before I met my husband.  The pool always made her feel good; it still does.

Now that she's lost nearly 100 pounds she looks so darn cute in her swimming suits.  Yesterday I noticed my mom's waist, something I didn't know she had because she's been obese for most of my life.  Mom loves putting on a bathing suit and sitting on the patio in order to get warmed up for the pool.

My mom wants to learn how to swim, she never learned because she was always afraid of the water.  The last 2 days she's been relaxing in the water and able to float.  She hangs on to the kick board and I help her to  get in the right position so that she can propel herself through the water on her own power.  She did yesterday as she laughed and giggled like a little kid.

It was fun.

The benefit:  My mom's blood pressure is more stable and normal.  Normal blood pressure keeps the visions away which keeps her blood pressure low.  Exercising in the pool is great medicine.

Now that my mom is doing OK, I'm worrying about my Aunt Jay.

Wednesday night she called me and said, "Susan, I need help."  God, I never heard Jay ask for help.  I was ready to jump in my truck and drive to her house.  She said, "I need cat food for my cats.  Jess was supposed to take me shopping but didn't."

I then asked, "Do you have food for you to eat?"

Jay replied, "Well, not really.  I do have peanut butter and celery.  I used the last of my oatmeal this morning.  I have a little bread left."

Oh my God, I was sickened.  My little Aunt Jay, the aunt who never had children, the aunt that I wanted to be like, was STARVING TO DEATH!

I told her that I would be there in the morning with food for her and the cats.  I raided my cupboard and packed her a care package.  I made her a couple of sandwiches and a container of the gluten free spaghetti and meatballs that I had made for dinner the night before.  Fruit and nuts, chopped vegetables, pasta, rice and some dark chocolate bars were included.

Jay told me that her nurse practitioner upset her when she told her that she needed help.  Jay thought she was telling her to go to a nursing home.  Jay called me all worked up.  Fortunately, I was able to calm her down and assured her that she'll be OK as long as she eats.

Monday Jay has cataract surgery.  She is worried and scared.  My cousin who lives in the house with her is supposedly taking her to the hospital on Monday morning.  I would like to take Jay to the hospital and wait for her.  Jay is recovering at another cousin's home.  I would love to have her here so that I could take care of her and show her how to cook nutritious meals for herself.

Jay is so frail.

Jay saw my mom yesterday and was floored by how good my mom looks.  I told Jay that I'd love to bring her to our Naturopath Doctor because he has helped my mom to feel good.  Jay was always the health one.  She walked all the time, to the market, to her bank and especially to her church.  Jay always had money.  Now, she lives like a pauper.  It breaks my heart to see her living alone with no one to care for her.  My Jay, how did this happen?!

Today, my mom, my MIL and I will pick up Jay and bring her out to lunch.  We'll go to her favorite restaurant where she goes every Friday for fish.  She still follows the old Catholic rule, no meat on Friday's.  I tried to tell Jay that it's OK to eat meat, especially in her case... I told her that it's more of a sin to not feed the body when it's starving than to follow an old rule that was dis-guarded from the Catholic living rules when I was still in Grammar School being taught by nuns.

Tomorrow and Sunday I'll bring Jay to my house.  She needs eye drops put in her eyes 3 times a day for 2 days before her surgery.  I am going to see if she'll just stay here for the weekend, we have an extra bedroom.

The last couple of days and the next few days will be a Senior Smörgåsbord of fun.