Stressed Out

Many of my friends are in similiar situations as I am. Our parents are getting older, having more health problems and also having memory loss, confusion and other issues. Sometimes these issues are harder to deal with and more stressful when they are not living closeby.

My 78 year old Mom lives with me and her elderly problems are I am sure worsened by being on medication for over 50 years. She has always had some memory problems and she has always had a tendency to exagerate. Something is "ALWAYS" happening. She has a tendency to worry about things before you would really need to and gets herself all worked up. That of course makes all of her other health and physical problems worse. She will hyperventilate and get all panic-ridden.

Her neurologist does not feel she has Alzheimers but she does have dementia which varies in it's intensity. She hears things. Someone talking on the phone that she hears while she is at a distance from a phone. The church across the street having choir practice (all night) when all is quiet.

Her ears also produce alot of wax which makes things worse since she is also hard of hearing. Her hearing test showed that she hears at over 60Db while the human voice is usually 50-60Db.

Of course she hears me calling her perfectly well when I am not calling her but can't hear me when I am in front of her asking about something. Since things are so real to her, it never occurs to her that it might not make sense.

The worse part is her hearing people that I am no longer close to. Which of course just reminds me of that. I also worry that she might hear something that could cause her to do something unsafe.

I have an elderly cat at home as well who has elderly issues (loudly meowing for something) with arthritis and bone spurs in her spine. The cat needs supplements added to her food nightly and on alternate days in her morning food.

So I am the exception to my geriatic household. With the typical high stress work environment, changable priorities, emergencies, politics, etc, on top of the stress at home it can get extremely difficult to cope. I try to take some time to relax and knit. That helps a bit. Easier to do that than to try to have enough time to watch a complete movie on DVD in one sitting.

Things could certainly be worse.