Mother in law myth

[bunyip]

Or, it's all Americas fault.
MIL was entering the early stages of dementia and making some claims to the problems with the world but the one that stuck out was flooding, we were having an unusual amount of rain and floods and she came up with her own conspiracy theory, it is all the fault of America with the space programme, they put these space ships on the moon and the legs punched holes in the surface and let all the water out, so there you have it, it's all your fault!!!
I was also a communist as I had a red tie.
There were others but dementia can be priceless at times.

 

[cqaigy2]

Ha, that is priceless! You better not put on those red socks with the red tie, you commie socialist. :laughing:

 

[Jstpssng]

It's a nasty disease which takes your loved ones from you even though they are still sitting in the same room. You do have to look at the light side sometimes.
You communists are the true cause of the flooding though; everybody knows that the moon landing was staged by a bunch of unemployed actors which Nixon hired to divert attention from Watergate.

 

[robbyr]

Been dealing with a mother in law who has dementia for a few years now. But you Australians don't know how to spell program.

 

[bunyip]

But you Australians don't know how to spell program.

I get pulled up on it a lot but it stems back to my university days when we were judged and assessed on spelling from the Oxford Dictionary, most spell it program, I am just stubborn.
As an aside I know the downside of dementia, it got my Father in the end but he just accused people of stealing things that he never had or had given away years earlier, he often called me by my brothers name and could never remember my wifes name although we have been married for 35 years.
My fear now is what has been released from Mars and when will it arrive?

 

[robbyr]

Blessings to ya. My MIL has lost items like her eyeglasses and false teeth several times. Can remember things from her youth sometimes but not what we did ten minutes ago. I started a thread on the subject awhile back. Feel free to post your experiences.


https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/front-porch/378310-dementia-b__ch.html?highlight=

 

[bunyip]

Short term memory loss can be measured in seconds in some cases but the long term memory can remain unaffected, the brain is an extremely complex piece of gear and discoveries are continually being made, we did some research years ago on the effects of a full moon on intellectually disabled, some are subject to change during this phase and I put forward a theory that they can perceive minor changes in gravitational pull that we can't, like animals exiting an earthquake zone before it hits.
Unfortunately we couldn't get the funding to explore this further with measuring apparatus so it remains unfounded but I am convinced that they lack the ability to function like most of us but can perceive things that we can't and the behaviour could be because of the fear of this unknown feeling of being possessed.

 

[Birdhunter1]

My grandmother had dementia in her early 90's and while there were some funny moments there were alot of truly sad moments that I don't wish on anyone having to take care of a parent or grandparent.
One of the funniest, my wife and I had been married three years and we were at my grandma's 90th birthday party. My wife was stick skinny and just starting to show she was pregnant and when she went up to get a piece of cake my grandmother, who that day had no inhibitions, looked at her and said 'are you eating for two or something.' She said yes.
My grandmother said 'who's baby is it.' My wife said 'Rick's'
Now a side note my dad and I have the same first name and the family always called me Ricky and not Rick.

My grandmother scanned the room and gave my dad the look of death!

My dad felt the heat and then my wife went on to explain it was mine and not my dads, but for about 15 minutes or so grandma was on the war path.

 

[Alan W.]

My grandfather suffered from it. He was always sure someone had moved into the woods behind his house and were causing him grief.
He loved me taking him out to eat but the conversation would always end up about the people in the woods. As you know there is no way to convince them what they think is not real. So one day in the restaurant I told him when we got home we would get the guns and kill every one of them. He was satisfied and dropped it, but I wonder what the other patrons thought.

 

[k0ua]

Our MIL saw all sorts of people up in the woods at night. She could tell you all sorts of details about what they were doing.

 

[prichard]

My mother had similar paranoia, Alan.

That was really the worst of the dementia, her fears were very real to her.

But back to the topic there were some absolutely hilarious time with both her and dad.

My uncle had no idea where he was or anything but was always laughing and smiling and having a great time. If I get it I sure hope I get that variety.

 

[BHD]

we were at a family gathering with my MIL, and my SIL told a joke he had heard,

a guy was looking out this window and saw a car was driving down the road and it hit a rabbit and the rabbit was knocked into the ditch along side of the road, the driver saw that and backed up and went to the trunk and pulled out a spray can, and picked up the rabbit and just covered the rabbit with the spray, and then laid the rabbit down on the road and a few seconds went by, and the rabbit jumped up and rand off down the road but would stop and wave back at the guy, this went on as long as one could see the rabbit, the guy was happy and threw the can in the ditch and took off in the car,
the guy watching out the window when out to see what was in the can, and found the can of spray and it was labeled "Hair spray with permanent wave".

the family smiled and then my MIL said she had heard about that stuff on the tv news that morning, and went on telling us that she thought it must be amazing stuff we all about split a gut,

 

[Travelover]

This brings back a very sad memory, though I guess it is funny in retrospect. My FIL's dementia progressed pretty fast and he was placed in a nursing home. One day my MIL came to visit him and he greeted her with another dementia patient whom he introduced as his new wife. Ouch.

 

[Jstpssng]

When my father was in the early stages he went down to get his haircut at the same place he had been going since he was growing up. It took forever for him to get back home, and my mother was starting to get worried. When he walked up the driveway and into the house she asked "what happened to your truck?" He had forgotten that he drove to the barber shop, and walked 5 miles home just as he had when he was a teen.

 

[bunyip]

When my father was in the early stages he went down to get his haircut at the same place he had been going since he was growing up. It took forever for him to get back home, and my mother was starting to get worried. When he walked up the driveway and into the house she asked "what happened to your truck?" He had forgotten that he drove to the barber shop, and walked 5 miles home just as he had when he was a teen.

I did that when I was about 21

 

[4570Man]

My mother had similar paranoia, Alan.

That was really the worst of the dementia, her fears were very real to her.

But back to the topic there were some absolutely hilarious time with both her and dad.

My uncle had no idea where he was or anything but was always laughing and smiling and having a great time. If I get it I sure hope I get that variety.

My Grandma passed away this year and suffered with Alzheimer’s for about a year. She also did that. Some of the things I can think of was she was convinced all white cars were government spies out to get her. She continually unplugged her cable box then complained it didn’t work because she thought the government was spying on her through it. She thought grandpa rented the truck to Mexicans to sleep in and worried all hours of the night about that. That later progressed to Mexicans in the woods, garage, and spare bedroom. She hoarded up huge collections of junk mail because she thought it was important documents. She only trusted one of her sons to take care of that. It’s a terrible disease with that’s much worse than what I listed.

 

[bunyip]

My father cut my brother out of his will and I received everything, there are only the two of us, my brother was made aware of this and to save any legal disputes I took everything and split it when it was all settled.
Fortunately there are no death duties/taxes here.

 

[ultrarunner]

I take it one day at a time... Mom has better days and not so good days.

I have noticed she is not as filtered as the Alzheimer's progresses... the other day there was a huge woman... really huge and mom said the fat was just hanging from her so others could hear at the super market...

They don't call it the long goodbye for nothing...

 

[Travelover]

.........I have noticed she is not as filtered as the Alzheimer's progresses.............

Had a real problem with this when my great aunt was in a nursing home. She was always a racist, but once the dementia progressed she started saying really terrible things to the black staff at the nursing home and her care really suffered as a result. We eventually had to move her to a Catholic nursing home where the staff was predominately white.

 

[ultrarunner]

Lucky for me... Mom has always been kind with a big heart... but she had no compunction saying the lady was fat...

If someone visits... she will ask them a dozen times in a 20 minutes if she can get them something... not having remembered she had already asked.