Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Mental Confusion

Mental confusion was far more of a problem Tuesday evening than any Presidential motorcade. I arrived around 4 PM to pick Patti up for ‘Chinese carry out’ at home.

She heard my voice in the hall and, though unable to see me, was most excited and eager to confirm that she was a grandmother. (???) She “knew I was picking her up to go see Megan’s babies!”

As I had just left our only 16 yr old daughter doing her homework and not even pregnant to my knowledge this was an interesting conversation.

Logic failed to help dampen Patti’s excitement because even when I tried to explain that Megan was still ONLY 16 and not even pregnant. Patti offered that maybe her babies had babies.

From past experience when Patti gets totally detached from reality like this (gets “totally random” as Megan calls it) it is best to just distract her. The way MS causes her mental process to malfunction it is impossible for some one on the outside to get it back on track. I have found it helpful if you can get her thinking along with you on a different track about something else then somehow the brain ‘reboots’ like a computer.

I had two chairs on a dolly to switch out with some in her room. I involved her in playing a game of pushing the dolly while I pushed her chair. It was more like a demolition derby and she was soon howling with glee

I think people in wheel chairs have a suppressed desire to ram things!

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