Take the good with the bad

A wee catch up on this weeks visit back home.

Mum really doesn't speak much nowadays ie its hard to get a conversation out of her, just the occasional repetitive sentences. So my newest thing with mum is laughter.

If mum isnt engagng then its time to pull out the laughter card, ive no idea why this gets her engaged but as soon as i start to do a laugh mum gets involved and ends up in stitches - it can last for a good hour or so.

Mum's phrase is 'I cannae take this' and tries to get up off the couch to leave the room as if its too much for her 😂

Nothing specific has happened i've just started 'laughing' for no reason at all, but it gets mum smiling and keeps her happy.

Dad took advantage of this and had an early bed - usually he uses this time to talk my ear of about politics, so I welcomed the early bed lol.

So we had a good night thursday night.

Roll round Friday morning and as we know with Dementia its not going to stay that way. The first hour or so was fine , but the dreaded act of getting ready to leave the house appraoched and you can sense mums mood change.

Trying to help mum shower and dress is challenging, but its a challenge we dont shy away from as it needs done. It can take up to an hour but once its done its done.

This morning though mum got quite aggressive and started to punch out at me.

This is not mum's fault, I don't see her as knowing what she is doing or even doing it on purpose. I stand back for a moment and try to talk calmly and emphasise I am helping her so we can go out for the day.

Eventually we were both ready and awaiting Simon (my wee brother, mum's favourite lol) Ofcourse as soon as Simon stepped foot in the house she was all smiles 😃

We went for lunch and bought some new clothes and DVD'S, one of which being - SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL

We managed 15 minutes before I had to leave for my train home - mum was in stitches in the house and in the car I asked her about the film and she couldn't stop laughing, at one point she even said 'Can you stop talking about I cannae handle it'

This is the most coherent sentence mum had said in the past 24 hours.

I think my moral of this story is that Dementia at it's difficult times is so hard to cope with and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but at the same time we have to learn to embrace the amazing moments it gives us with our loved ones.

We have to talk about the good and the bad but always make sure the good outweighs the bad. I've attached a video of mum still laughing about the fight scene in the film

https://vimeo.com/228416212