Support

Support

Today, right now actually, my mother is at a support group at L&M hospital for caregivers. See at the begging of the summer My grandma started declining in health. Which actually began this time last year when she was re-diagnosed with a brain tumor. Instead of going through chemo again her doctors told her to do radiation. So that is what she did. She was fine for about 5 months. Then she started forgetting things, losing concentration, she was not able to write very well at all. Then she started having accidents in her bed. She would lay in it for hours until someone went to make sure she was okay, she was a very active person before this all happened. Then she started losing strength in her legs. We had to pull her up out of bed. Then we had to hold her hands a guide her to the bathroom, kitchen, etc. Then she got so bad with not being able to control her bladder that my mother had to start buying her depends. Now my grandma is so bad she cannot get out of bed, have lucid conversations, totally feed herself, get up at all to use the bathroom, or articulate what she needs from us when she moans so loud I am surprised the whole neighborhood has not called the police on us yet. We have to check her blood sugar three times a day, steroid induced diabetes, and give her insulin. My great Aunt and my mother were talking last week on thanksgiving and she said the doctors told her what happened to her happened as a result of after effects of the radiation and that it is fatal. I was a little shocked, but not surprised. My mother has hospice coming in several times a week to help us help my grandma. Since she cannot get out of bed they give her sponge baths and check her to make sure everything is fine. It has taken a toll on me and my mother. My school work has suffered and I am not totally sure I will pass one of my final college classes. The last class being tonight. I got an F on the first test and a D on the second. I hope I get a better grade on the final test we are having tonight and that coupled with my perfect attendance it will help me pass with at least a D or higher. It has taken a bigger toll on my mother. She has barley left the house except to go to work, the grocery store, or her historical society meetings and vfw meetings. We use to go out at least once a week to eat at our favorite local restaurant. We have not been in months. My mom is not even into Christmas this year. By now the house would usually have been decorated and be festive. She has not even gotten the Christmas stuff out of the attic or done any shopping. We have usually talked about when we would be getting our tree. Nothing, yet. I think next week I am going to go up to Smith's acres and get one myself. We have always done this together, but this year I think she needs a nice surprise and since my room is upstairs and the entrance to the attic is in the ceiling I can sneak up there in the middle of the night and get all the stuff down myself. One day next week, after my classes are done, I will decorated the house and make it festive. This is my support to my mother, doing things she does not have to energy to do right now. To help do things I hate to do. She takes care of her mom, my grandma, more than I do (even when we are both home and her boyfriend is home). So I hope the support group she is at right now helps her a little and that what I plan on doing will help make the rest of her year a little more cheery!!!