I've written before about dealing with Gerry's (Zoe's mom) Alzheimers. Lately it's been a double whammy. My mom, Doris, is 85 and went in for cancer surgery on the 17th. All went well. She had been using hormone treatments to reduce the size of the breast cancer and it worked so well that surgery without any radiation treatments would do the trick. She was kept over a couple of nights because of some blood proteins but is now home and in much better spirits. My brother Terry has been taking care of her. She still has her own apartment but we are going to have to get her into assisted living. She has fallen several times. She can't get back up by herself but has a radio buzzer thingy she wears that brings the fire department. (She thinks they are cute — the firemen, not the radio buzzer thingy.) She hasn't hurt herself but she has been lucky. Terry will be meeting with the Medicaid people about getting her into assisted living. He has gone as far as he can. Mom isn't too happy about the assisted care. I will be helping Terry pick out a place. This isn't going to be fun.

Gerry has been getting worse. She is increasingly fearful in the evenings. I have to sit with her until she is asleep. She forgets that our bedroom is right above her's. Gerry and Zoe had a wake up call Wednesday. At her regular doctor appointment, Gerry's doctor told her and Zoe that she should be in an assisted care facility within the next two months. Zoe is not ready for this. Her doctor is afraid of her falling and she is also getting near the stage where she might leave the house and start wandering. Not good times.