Why are you crying? A conversation with my Mother

I hear her crying. I go to her and ask, “Mom, why are you crying?”

“I don’t know!” She says and stops crying.

I would like to know why she is crying, but it does no good to ask because Mom does not know the reason she cries. Part of the cause is depressions. I know she swallowed the pill she gets for depression because I watched her put the pill in her mouth, drink the water, and swallow the pill. Another reason for her tears is Alzheimer’s disease.

Mom suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, but she does not realize that is the problem. Mom has short-term memory problems. Mom has anger issues. Mom is depressed. Mom takes medication for everything. The medication sometimes helps, especially with the agitation and anger issues. The medication slows the progress of the disease, but it does not cure it.

If Mom cries too much, then I have another pill I can give her that will help a bit, but when she takes it, she wants to sleep. Most of the time distracting her helps the tears.  Sometimes she will stop crying if I give her one of her stuffed toys or a doll. Sometimes giving her something to eat helps, the problem here is the calorie intake. Mom now weighs 140 lbs. and if she eats too much high calorie foods, she gains weight she does not need.

Then there is the issue with the high fiber foods, because she is on a low fiber diet. I have to watch her food intake to make sure that she eats a well balanced diet with out too many high fiber or high calorie foods. Watching is a balancing act and then there is the problem of getting her to drink more liquids. Then there are the tears and sometimes nothing will stop her from crying except medication.

Toot My Horn Tuesday: Different colored medications

I can tell the difference between two of my Mother’s medications. My mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, takes Sertraline and Namenda. The tablets for both of these medications are oval and about the same size. The only difference, besides the printing on side 1 and 2 of the tablets (which is too small to read without a magnifying glass) is the colors.

The Sertraline, which is for depression, is a light yellow tablet.  The Namenda, which is one of the Alzheimer’s medications Mom takes, is gray. This morning, Mom dropped the Namenda tablet and it fell into the folds of the blouse Mom was wearing. When the C.N.A. came to give Mom her bath, the tablet fell out of the blouse. When I looked at the color, I knew immediately that it was the Namenda.

This is something I never dreamed I would know or be worried about; when I was growing up, I did not consider being my mother’s caregiver and having to know the difference in the colors or the sizes of her medication. Until Alzheimer’s disease began stealing Mom’s memory, she took her medication without assistance. Now I am the one who has to make sure she takes her medication on time.

I just thought of another advantage to knowing the difference in the colors of the tablets. I can write a description of them. That sounds like a good writing exercise. Write a description of my mother’s medications as well as my own.