Capturing the Moments

For a period of time, my mom has been in a very good mood, and quite interactive. It suddenly happened that she was walking non-stop with her walker and had lots of energy. I would turn my back, and she would be zooming off to the kitchen. When episodes like that happen, sometimes I feel that I am going crazy with this disease and feel like she does not have it and something must be wrong with her diagnosis.

Just few days prior to the election, she did not want to listen to Hindi songs or her chilled Buddha Bar music, she wanted to hear the news non-stop. I turned on YouTube and she observed a lot of political commentary as well as 2020 Presidential debates and from 2016. She recognized Hillary Clinton, and I asked her “What is the name of her husband?” and she cheekily answered Mr. Clinton. When she would see Donald Trump on stage, she would laugh, but she would laugh because she sometimes cannot remember his last name, and calls him “Donald Duck”.

The morning of the election, she was awake super early like 2am and wanted the tv on. She was in a very jovial mood laughing, and when the caregiver arrived, she asked that her finger nails be painted blue (pronounced the French way) and toe nails red. Never has she ever pained her finger nails, but she wanted to and kept staring and them for several hours, looking very fascinated with them. By the time the polls closed, she did not want to sleep, she refused. She was determined to know who won the election. With a lot of resistance, she went to bed but was agitated all night.

From that point on, we I experienced challenges with her, and felt we quickly traveled back in time. She forgot how to walk, and her brain was not connecting with her left leg. She slept for 20 hours, and usually when she does that she wakes up a bit better. She woke up the next day still very out of it. I started to stress that something happened, but when the Home Health Nurse came to check on her- she reassured me everything is ok and her vitals are very good.

Within a few days my mom snapped out of it, and was smiling non-stop. Even now when asked, “Who is the President-Elect- she says “President Biden” or “Joe Biden” Little things like this are small victories that she remembers.