The days are getting shorter

Mom is sleeping much longer these days, but we are waking her up by noonish and getting her into her chair to feed her. With me, she eats more quickly, because I keep reminding her to wake up and eat. With the caregiver, who just lets her sit and doze, it can take her 2 hours, or more, to eat. I’m not sure that it’s a good idea to let her just sleep with the food in her lap, but, at almost 83, I’m not sure that I’m right about pushing her either. So we just go along and try to keep her happy and fed and warm. 

One of her grandson’s is coming tomorrow, for a long weekend with her, and I am hopeful that she will wake up and participate with everyone while they are here. Kids do seem to waken her heart and mind, and her grandkids are especially precious to her.

We have stopped giving her all the gel pills that she had been taking. They were mostly things like fish oil and coconut oil, to help stave off the advance of the disease. When she almost choked on one the other day we decided that there’s much less likelihood of staving off anything at this point and a much greater likelihood of her choking seriously on them. So we are down to giving her just the medicines proscribed by the doctor and the few chewable tablet vitamins that she’s been taking. 

Her blood sugar is staying well in check. We give her a cookie or a cupcake for dessert most nights to keep her sugars up during the long sleep. She is eating little enough now that she would drop well below the danger line if we didn’t give her that little sweet, or some applesauce with corn starch in it, to finish off the day. At almost 83, I figure she’s entitled to end her day on something sweet, and that’s that!  

But we do brush our teeth every night! My mom wouldn’t let me get away without brushing and I’m not going to let her do so either! What goes around, ends up brushing back around later, I guess!