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Signs. (My Mom’s Alzheimer’s)
Dementia symptoms show up in varied forms. Some are hardly noticeable, others present as previously submerged personality traits, many simply seem quirky, some are downright dangerous, some are hilarious. Several of my mother’s traits seem to trace back to some basic beliefs she holds about herself.
Mom’s increasing habit of wearing three and four outfits all at once can be traced to her love of fashion and her pride in her appearance. When she was well, I would joke about the fact that I could go to her house at seven in the morning and find her dressed and wearing high heels with no intent of going anywhere. In fact, if she could be talked into going out, she would then choose a different outfit and change before leaving the house. The devolution of that is the multiple outfits all at once and the heels despite a faltering gait.
Long ago Mom displayed the habit of traveling around with items lots of us would leave at home. Her purse, or handbag as she calls it, would be filled with everything from toiletries and impractical items to sentimental pieces such as defunct watches, old photographs, and the like. On the continuum that tracks the path of dementia, this habit has grown from quirky to concerning.
“Mom, why do you have the house phone in your bag?” I used to ask. She would laugh it off and give me semi-reasonable reasons for having…
