Apache

by Apache
(VA)

Am taking care of elderly mother with dementia. Sister has cancer and has been through several chemotherapy treatments and I don't feel like I can ask her to do much more than she does. She tries and does what she can but I really think she does not feel as well as she pretends, so I don't ask her for extras.

The constant repetition is what gets to me most. She will ask me 5 times within an hour what we are having for supper. She will ask me every half hour what day it is and if we have anything we have to do. I try to get her interested in things...TV (she can't understand what they are talking about), newspapers (she reads an article and can't understand it so I have to read it and explain it to her).

She does not remember that she ate breakfast, lunch or dinner...or what she ate. She calls me all day long...."Where are you?"....and I have to stop what I am doing to go answer her, if I yell from where I am, she doesn't hear me.

I feel so helpless to help her. She wants to cry all the time but depression medications with her heart medications are out of the question.
I feel like an entertainment director trying to keep her busy and happy.

I gave up my career, to take care of her rather than put her in a nursing home, and have no regrets about that. I just need someone to talk to every now and then and do not want to burden my friends. I guess God really does not give us more than we can handle and he created this website for me.

Thanks for listening.