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Baby Monitor Redux

Oh, how I wish I knew what was going on with Mom. As soon as she goes to bed, she starts talking . . . saying the weirdest things. Tonight, we're back to "You're so good Lord. Help us." And, "Won't anyone help us??" "Help us, please. I love you so much. Please help. Nobody will help me up."

So I think she's awake, get out of bed and quietly open the door and go in there. She's a cheerful little bird when I wake her. "Hi, Maggie! What time is it??" Or whatever. This time I asked her if she wanted to get up -- I'd just put her to bed an hour ago -- and she said, "No, I'm okay." So I told her I loved her, would see her in the morning and closed the door.

Two minutes later, she was talking away. Much of which I can't understand. When I can understand it, it's kind of scary sometimes. Right now, she's apparently talking to one of the cats or her own dog who doesn't stay with us.

WTF is going on at night when she dreams? She often sleeps during the day, and outside of an occasional, "Maggie! Help! I'm falling!!" she very rarely says anything at all when she naps.

She's fairly stable health-wise right now. I just don't know what to think.

I thought about shutting off the monitor, but my cousin suggested that, if she really thought she needed help and I didn't hear her? She might try to get out of bed (climbing over the bed rails).

This is the strangest thing I've ever experienced. Not to even mention that the monitor distorts her voice, and she sounds like she's auditioning for The Exorcist. Jesus.

I imagine they're just very vivid dreams, and her dementia has dropped a filter that causes her to talk in her sleep all of a sudden. I hope most of them are happy, but I'm not at all sure.

Well, she's quieted down for now. Think I'll watch a little TV and take some Benadril.

Thanks for the blogging ability. It's almost as therapeutic as a girlfriend. Ha!
 
Maggie, Just an interesting thing someone showed me,
Benadryl and several OTC sleep aids are the same active ingredient, just twice as much.
Unisom SleepTabs, Nighttime Sleep-Aid Tablets | drugstore.com
Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) Drug Information: Description, User Reviews, Drug Side Effects, Interactions - Prescribing Information at RxList
You talking about your Mom having trouble sleeping reminded me of something from my
childhood. I had a grand Aunt who was OLD when I was a boy, she had been an
active participant in the temperance movement.
In her old age, she had trouble sleeping, and kept a Whiskey bottle by her bed.
She insisted she did not drink, but took her medicine like a big girl.
 
That's so cute!!

Thanks for the tips on sleep aids. I really appreciate it.
 
Unless the sleep aids are for you, I recommend against using them. In my experience, and the experience of those I corresponded to on a dementia board, they will only add to your mom's confusion

After my mom passed, I was going through her things and found a bunch of notes with a similar theme of something terrible going on. Some were not addressed to anything in particular, but others I figured out were written to people she had seen on TV and two were to Paul Simon

Towards the end of her lucidity, she became delusional about TV and the music I played for her. She didn't realize they were "one way". She would get dressed up for The Ellen Show because they would pan the audience and she would see all the people and she didn't want them to see her dressed in a house coat or a robe.

When I played a Paul Simon album for her, she heard the lyrics "I am just a poor boy, and my story seldom told..." and she started suggesting I talk to Paul and help him with his career. :lamo
 
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