[Tues morning]
It's hard to put this past week into words. Part of it is trying to understand and relate to what is going on with Gerry (Zoe's mom who has Alzheimer's). Reality is very different for Gerry. Tuesday Zoe and Gerry went up to Oak Harbor with Kim. Kim is a friend of Zoe's and has been doing work for Gerry for over two years. While Zoe was inside shopping, Kim and Gerry waited in the car. Soon Gerry started asking Kim questions that made it obvious that she didn't know who Kim was. Thursday we took Gerry to a neurologist. He was somewhat confused since Gerry seemed quite normal and bright and didn't look her 81 years. But after some questioning it became clear that she had almost no retention. She also didn't remember that she had a son and two grandchildren. Several times during the past week she would be fine and then, minutes later, she would be confused and agitated. She would "know" that she was supposed to be going somewhere but couldn't say where. Or she would say she was missing her things and would start searching through all her drawers in an infinite loop. She couldn't say what she was missing but she would keep looking since she knew that she was missing something. The plaque in the brain slides around shorting things out. She has been better the past couple of days but there has been a dimishing of capacities. Gerry gets worse and then gets better but she doesn't get back to where she was.

[Tuesday evening]
I was ready to post the above just before noon. Zoe and Gerry had gone to Oak Harbor to get their hair done. They had only been gone a few minutes when they came back. Gerry was wobbly and a little out of it. She was shaking a little. I ended up taking her to lunch and being with here while Kim was shampooing the carpets. She didn't realize that she was home and that her bedroom was in the next room. She keeps trying to pretend that everything is alright even when she isn't quite sure where she is. It's been a trying week.

[Wednesday morning]
It's been a strain on Zoe to see her mom like this. I was ready to post the above last night and ended spending the time holding Zoe's hand. This morning Gerry was cheerful and alert and her legs weren't even hurting, as they usually are. I've got some work to catch up on and hope to have more posts up later today. There are some good ones.

update
30 minutes later she heard Zoe's voice from upstairs and was surprised that Zoe was here. She was shocked to find out that Zoe was here because she lived here. "Why didn't someone tell me?" And so it goes.