Exquisite Disasters

I wanted to avoid this account of my dealings with Alzheimer's disease turning into a sad collection of stories about a loved one slipping away. That's the direction I felt it was going after we came home from Christmas camping, so I decided to take a break. I must admit that between then and now there probably have been some funny stories relating to my MIL's Alzheimer's disease, but I have been unable to find the humor in them until the last few days. I do remember some stories that I found funny, but they were of such a personal nature that I would never publish them on the internet, even without names. One of the aspects of Alzheimer's disease that I find so hard to confront is the loss of dignity, and I never want to contribute to that with my words here.

Lately, the manifestation of false memories has mostly revolved around places that my MIL has "definitely been before," or people who she has seen already "for sure." There is a new focus since Christmas, and that is aluminum in all shapes and forms. Last week FIL was driving MIL back home in the rain, and she insisted that if he were to stop, we would find aluminum knitting needles in the gutters, because they would have washed down from where all the people who are collecting them have them stored. Yesterday, she insisted that her teeth hurt worse when she's using her aluminum knitting needles, as opposed to her plastic ones. At dinner last night, she used a spoon (probably not aluminum) and after she pulled it out of her mouth, swore that it had magnetized to her tooth.

These delusions are so interesting to me because she has been explaining that someone told her she should get more aluminum into her body, and the fact is that Alzheimer's disease has historically been connected with aluminum, but exactly opposite to what her delusions are telling her. Alzheimer's patients have been encouraged to avoid aluminum exposure.

She continues to do well on her additional anti-anxiety medication, and since we came home from the camping trip, she has been more pleasant and less paranoid, although she did tell me this morning that she has figured out that my bathroom mirror lets me see into her bathroom. Hm?

She's been knitting up a storm, as long as I cast off for her. She begins with a small number of stitches and slowly adds so many stitches to the needle, by accident, that by the end of the project the needle is so crammed full of stitches I can hardly cast off without slipping a ton of them. Every piece comes out bell shaped. She told me this week that she wants to name her knitting collection "Exquisite Disasters." which I think is awesome. She maintains her humor, albeit very bizarre sometimes. Just this morning as my FIL was bottling some homemade kombucha, MIL said "Did you see the SCOBY, it's going to give me nightmares! It did gyre and gimble in the wabe." Oh look- another Lewis Carroll reference.