Interesting therapy session with-82-yr-old cousin

[TerryJ2]

My life is so weird.
This morning, P called my cell ph to ask me to bring along the black, formal French dress she gave me. She said it was hanging out of the right side of my bottom dresser drawer and she saw it when she was here 2 wks ago for a tea party. (I threw a birthday party for my 90-yr-old friend, Catherine.)
People, I have 15 steps.
No way did P walk up those steps.
Plus, she had a caregiver, E, who would have never brought her upstairs to use the restroom.
Plus, I don't have a black, formal French dress.
And if I did, I would not leave it hanging out of my dresser drawer.
I left a msg for E, who returned my call and told me P told her the same thing and no, they did NOT go up 15 stairs during the tea party or at any other time.

So, today I took P to her talk therapy session.

Somehow, we got to talking about difficult child (oh, I remember, my cell ph rang and I jumped because I thought it was difficult child, wanting to come home early from school with-a cold. Mean mom, mean teachers, every one is sick, so we made him stay. He's already missed 3 days and cannot miss any. I mean ANY. It is a huge liability.) Anyway, it wasn't difficult child but the conversation went that way and the therapist continued talking about difficult child and resources, and routines, and systems, and how it sounds like some things are working and some are not, and I have to take time for myself ... it got to be over 1/2 hr and finally the therapist said, "Well, the reason we're talking about this so much is because, with-your permission P, because I know it's confidential, P said that she is worried about you and all the stress you're under."
"And I don't want to be a burden," P added.


"Have I been complaining a lot?" I asked.
P said "No, I am very worried about you."

Alrighty then.

I can't help but be amused. She's going through rehab and I can't believe half the things she says, incl "a man in a white hat" who pushed her down when she first go to VA, and a black, formal French dress in my dresser, and then she remembers to tell the therapist that she's worried about me.

Very sweet. I think.

Now I have to be careful about what say to her. I mean, I've told her way too much, just chatting, thinking she'd forget it all ...

 

[mstang67chic]

Hmmm. Maybe I should get YOU the card I bought MY cousin to cheer her up. The front has a picture of a little girl in a toy plastic pedal car and she's obviously yelling. The cartoon conversation bubble above her head says PICK A LANE @HOLE!!!

When you open the card, the inside reads....Wonder if the kids listen to you? Yes. Yes they do.

 

[susiestar]

It can be very surprising the things that people with impaired or different memories remembers. After spending some volunteer time with patients at the hospital when I was a teen, and being told some pretty amazing things, my mother cautioned me to never ever tell someone with an impaired memory anything I would not want shouted over a loudspeaker at a nice lunch with my grandmother and all her friends. I pretty much use the same rule for facebook and many other computer things. It has saved me countless times.

LOL about the dress.

 

[Fran]

Terri, I'm just dying to see what a formal French dress looks like. rofl.

 

[TerryJ2]

LOL!
I'm tempted to get a better description, but I don't want to bring it up again ...

 

[Hound dog]

LOL

Hmm I'm with Fran, I'm dying to see that dress.

Perhaps that was a bit of an old memory of hers creeping into and overlapping present memory? I've spent most of my life around the elderly.......it's not uncommon even in those who don't have big memory issues. I mean c'mon, all those years tend to run together at times...........and perhaps the birthday party you have for your friend triggered the overlap.

But don't let her fool you........she's taking in far more than you dream she is......some may get lost along the way.........but you'll never know which bit of info will be the part that is lost. LOL

Sweet that she is concerned about you, and enough so to bring it up with her therapist. How on earth did you get her to go to a therapist?? mother in law was determined at the mere mention of one that 1. they were full of Bull.....2 She was on her way to being committed. I'm not sure we ever convinced her otherwise. lol The best I got from her was that it was nice to have medications that kept her from feeling anxious 24/7.

 

[DammitJanet]

Come on folks...You would NOT believe how confusing delusions are! Simple little things that are sooooo normal become completely different things when you are not in your right mind. Lets all remember my twins!

I also thought I was walking home from the hospital every night and getting back every morning somehow. I thought I heard doorbells and insisted that the nurses answer them. I thought I had two rooms in the hospital and that I was walking between the rooms. I couldnt walk! It was simply that the sun was rising and setting.

There is so much more but that is just a peak.

 

[Star*]

I want drawings.........Terri IS after all an artist.

 

[TerryJ2]

ROFL!

All right, I'll find something ...

In regard to I got P to therapy, it was HER idea. She is a former actress and dancer, and it is tres chic to have a therapist, my dear.
Lucky me.

My goal with-the therapist was to talk P into staying here forever. If she moves back to NY, it's over. I cannot maintain any level of care long distance.
Everything we've done would be down the tubes.
Her goal with-the therapist was to talk about the death of her husband, her broken tailbone and broken hip, and the man hin the white hat who pushed her down and broke her tailbone. (He doesn't exist. She fell on her own.)
So, the therapist has been trying to get P to understand that she's not getting any younger and that to plan for old age doesn't mean you curl up and die. It just means you change your financial plans, make sure you have great health ins., and use a walker, as well as a caregiver. Many other things can stay the same. In fact, with-all those things in place, you won't have to be alone and that will alleviate much of the depression.

So, I'm working on drawings ... (thank you all for the distraction; difficult child was home sick again today and only got 1/2 his dose of Imiprimene and he was so awful I am ready to buy a gun. I needed this distraction. Wait, I already said that ...)