Dear Lily,
I can hardly wait to hear how your mom is doing. And how you are doing.
I have a few other things to share that I hope to note now, while my mind is in fair working order. Don’t wear yourself out reading. You likely won’t need it for a while.
When mom becomes more coherent, you may notice changes…physical, mental, cognitive and emotional. The hospital will help work on the physical, and a Speech Therapist at some point for cognitive (I hope). By mental, I mean anxiety and depression.
I can only speak for myself, but many others hear have also mentioned emotional issues. As I said before, mine have mostly been helped by Duloxitine and Self Control, but they are still there, just that they lessened to the point I can handle them better.
At fisrt I felt guilty for how much time and attention I took from others, for not being available for my children and grandchild, for living when others did not.
Later, I felt useless, a burden, and was angry I did not die because it might have been easier and I might have been with those before me. Many of us have odd dreams now. (That burden thing is what caused the depression).
Most of my physical issues come from anxiety. Not in the way one generally thinks of anxiety. I have vision issues that cause me to not know where I am in space. I could be standing on my head for all I know. Even that has been worked out to the point I can ignore it and get around. Noise, lights, patterns and movement bother me, but I am acclimating to them for the most part. It is the unexpected that causes the most problem.
In the early days in hospital, I can’t tell you enough how nice it was to have someone hold my hand or lotion my feet and legs or just massage my extremities a bit. I hear it helps with later movement as well, to keep those muscles moving even if someone else has to do it. (Ask Dr. first please about lotion and movement, due to upcoming scans or blood pressure issues).
Just food for thought.
