Merry Freakin' Christmas (or Happy Flippin' Holidays)

When we were kids, when we'd get into some argument on Christmas (inevitable) Dad would yell, 'Merry Christmas, Dammit!'  Dad loved the holidays, and as all of us do, he would want the holidays to be perfect.  

Right now the holidays have gone sideways for us.  Mom no longer has a real concept of Thanksgiving, and keeps asking me when I'm coming home.  Shit, picked the wrong time for me to come home and the wrong holiday.  Even with a cheap flight, it costs me around $500 to go home as I need to get a rental car, gas, food, etc.  Maybe I'll try to steal home for 3 or 4 days.  

With fronto-temporal dementia, the person is unaware they have dementia.  Lovely.  Voyageur has done a fabulous job of getting home health care in Mom's house one day a week, Mom doesn't think she needs to have anyone there, she's not sick, and doesn't understand our worry.  F'ing lovely.  Worse than trying to do an intervention on an addict.  And Voyageur told me their last grocery trip included buying $13 worth of ice cream.  Seriously?!  We can't give that shit away to homeless folks, well we could, but they would have to eat it right away.  Mom's going to eat all that ice cream?! And Voyageur is THE one that is able to steer Mom away from frivolous purchases, I'm ok at it, but if Mom has her demented mind set, that's it.  The tactic we use is distract and move on.  Get her interested in something else and move her away from whatever it is she is set on buying in the moment.  

There are times I wish Mom had cancer rather than dementia.  I know how to be a caregiver for someone with cancer, dementia - well, we learn daily.  Shit, hourly.  And it changes.  Constantly.  The best I can do is to try to keep up.

Well, today is a full moon and tonight a lunar eclipse, so hopefully that explains the $13 worth of ice cream ;)  

Yo Voyageur - pen to paper grrrl :)