My Grandma is Sick

This isn't going to be one of those funny, sarcastic posts about the ridiculous things that go on in my life. However, it has been on my mind for awhile and I decided to let y'all in. For several months, we have noticed that Grandma has been repeating stories or can't always hear what you are saying. I get it. She is 80 years old and she is allowed to laugh politely even when no joke has been told. If you make it to 80 and are still able to help me pick out wedding bands because "you don't want me driving all that way by myself" you can pretty much do anything you want. However, there have been some significant issues that we have discovered over the past couple months that made our family wonder just how bad her memory was getting.

Apparently, she has been spending a lot of money on things that don't need to be fixed. First, someone knocked on her door to see if they could take a look at her furnace. I was actually surprised that Grandma let this guy in, but he told her she the furnace needed to be replaced - and she paid for it. Then someone called her from the Honda dealership to remind her to update her warranty. She paid the $2000 - she hasn't owned a Honda in over 2 years. So, these details are a little disturbing. My aunt and uncle keep an eye on her and told us that she was in some sort of car wreck because there was a dent in her car. She has no idea how it happened.

So, my aunt took her to the doctor. What Grandma told me is that they wanted to check her eyes. Apparently, there was more to the story. The doctors administered a test to determine whether she should be driving based on her comprehension and memory. Simple questions like asking her to remember a word for a minute. She scored a 15 out of 29. So, she is not allowed to drive....except she still was. She told me that she could "see" just fine and she was going to only drive at night. Eventually it got to the point where my uncle was scared that Grandma would come home to find the house burned down from leaving the oven on, or something of that nature. They suggested she move in with them. Now, my aunt and uncle have 3 boys - 2 11 year olds and one 6 year old. They are busy, but I know how much my Grandma loves spending time with them. They also keep her on her toes. So after a lot of anger (she is stubborn, my Grandma) she agreed to move.

Right now she is "vacationing" with my parents for a month, and I asked her to come visit Mike and me in Dallas to explore the city. She told me she would have to think about it. :-) I can't imagine how this feels to someone who is slowly recognizing that they are losing their memory. My father told me a story the other night involving an issue from his childhood that was never resolved. My grandfather passed away in 1992, so my Grandma was the only source of the memory left. When Dad asked her what happened, she told him that the issue never occurred.

We watched my other grandmother deal with very bad dementia before she died. I think it gets to a point when the person afflicted doesn't realize how out of it they are...it is harder on the ones around them. So, keep her in your thoughts. This woman is a fighter, and as she has gotten older, has become more of a "person" to me that just my grandmother. She has an identity and a very memory filled life and it is scary to think it can be so easily washed away. So, that's what's going on here. Hopefully there will not be a lot of posts about this in the near future.