My mom--a Thank God update.

The last few days have brought very hopeful changes to my mom's status. She has started to be completely aware of what is going on, although she is still paranoid ("The people in the hall get together and talk about how they don't want to help me.", but she is now remembering what she had for supper, she's going to activities, and holding a conversation with me. Yayyy!!!!

But that's not all.

First: a case of really bad timing.
On Tuesday, when I brought DD to her psychiatrist, I mentioned that some of the tantrums and other behaviors we have been seeing might be due to the situation with my mom. I explained to the psychiatrist what was happening, and she handed me a brochure. Seems that the town 20 miles away recently acquired a geriatric psychiatrist, as well as a geriatric behavioral unit at their hospital--I called them as soon as I got home, as I was thinking that I could get Mom in to talk to the pdoc and we can really start figuring things out and trying to prevent this from happening in the future. It turns out, though, that the pdoc believes that in order to understand the complex subtleties of a person's dementia, he needs to have them observed (in the behavioral unit) for probably 10-14 days. Which is probably a really good thing. It sounds like they are extremely thorough and very attuned.
But for my mom, who has just started to recover from this past month, I don't think it's a good idea. I just can't think about putting her in another "new" environment right now. I sure wish that I had known about this place and this doctor a month ago, though, things might be a whole lot different right now. But all is not lost, because I will now be aware of that resource if I/we need to go that route again.

And now, the very best news of the week.....
They saw enough improvement in my mom to merit bringing her down to her apartment to see how she would be able to manage. She was able to do all the physical things--get up from a chair, lay down in bed, get out of bed, walk to the dining hall, etc. But she couldn't remember where anything was in her apartment. She couldn't recognize the kitchen when she was standing in it. But, based on earlier this year, I kind of expected this. I wasn't sure, though, what it meant.

But then today, we got the word. The nurses from the assisted living apartments did some kind of test on my mom to see if they could meet her needs in assisted living, and THEY COULD!!!!! MY MOM IS GOING BACK TO HER APARTMENT!!!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??????? Thanks everyone so much for your prayers, they must've helped!!!!

She'll be going back sometime next week, I believe. And I and DH will have to be there with her until she's acclimated again....but that's nothing compared to what I thought we were going to go through.....oh, breathe, Carol, breathe....miracle? Probably....