Confabulated Confusion

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you all, it's been really hectic at work and I couldn't in good conscience blog when I needed to be working. But things have calmed down a little, so I figured I'd give you the usual update on what's new.

DD--she has been "confabulating" (that's what the fetal alcohol experts tell us to call it, anyhow) up a storm and it really gets on my nerves. I correct her when something she says is a blatant lie, and I've been "catching" her so often, I wonder if she ever says anything truthful lately. She had a friend over this past weekend, and her friend asked me how many dogs we have. I said, "We have six dogs." DD's friend turned to DD and said, "I thought you told me you had NINE dogs!" And DD said, "Well, I was counting my 'real mom's' dogs, too." So I said, "You know darn well your real mom only has two dogs. Do the math. I don't think you're telling the truth." And so then she said, "Well I was counting Sadie, too!" (Sadie is our neighbor's dog, who lives 1/4 mile away!) I told her she didn't make any sense and left it at that. But then in the car, DD told her "friend" that she is "going out" with a certain boy, who we know is in the 6th grade. We called her on it, said, "You aren't going out with anybody." And she said, "Yes I am, he never said we weren't!" ARGH. I'm hoping that new med increase will start working soon, but I don't think there's a med that will help with the "confabulation" and sometimes I just want to be really rude to her and tell her that EVERYBODY can see through these lies and it's probably a big part of why she doesn't have any good friends. But of course, I just save it for some time when I'm in a better mood, where I can say, "hey, let's practice keeping our stories straight, ok?"

I talked to my mom today. She was upset because she couldn't find her "beeper" (that she uses to summon the aides at her assisted living facility). She told me that she couldn't find it anywhere, and somehow she had gotten the attention of an aide, who helped her look, and after a lot of searching, they found the beeper IN THE BOTTOM OF MY MOM'S BEDROOM SLIPPER THAT SHE HAD BEEN WEARING ALL DAY AND WAS STILL WEARING. Quite unusual for my mom, as she had no idea how the beeper got in her slipper, and no idea it was there. Then she told me that she also had a problem with finding her partial (dentures). So she called a helper again, and they looked for her partial, and it was in the little denture bath thingy all along. Also very unlike her. And to top it off, she took the wrong pills today again, before the aide showed up to supervise. I'm scared and worried about her. I'm not ready for this. And the fear in my mom's voice when she said, "It's like I just lost my mind today", it breaks my heart.

And DH. Today when I talked to him on the phone, his voice had that slow, thick sound to it, like he was talking in slow motion. I told him "your voice sounds funny." I had actually forgotten that that kind of speech is a symptom for him. He said to me, "Yeah, I think I'm going backwards a little, I keep having mood swings, and I don't want to do anything except watch TV." So I suggested he take his evening meds and he didn't want to. But he finally did.

And all the while, I'm stuck here at work. I don't know, I feel pretty helpless when I'm so far away, but sometimes I'm glad I can do something besides dealing with all this illness!