Jumping for Joy

Thank you God for the gracious gift of my mother.  Tonight uplifted my spirits and brought me to such a joyous state.  After my mother has refused to take anymore medication, she is unbelievable.  Ok fellow individuals with a loved one with alzheimer's-I need some answers.  My mother stopped taking risperdone, her b-12, her pain medication, and her namenda (well she takes it when she cannot remember words).  Despite this, she is better than ever.  Yes her mood swings are horrid and explosive.  yes her mouth is destructive and vulgar. And yes her catastrophic reactions are longer and crazier than ever.  However, she is back.  She actually laughed tonight and cracked jokes.  She got into the tub and out of it by herself.  She washed her hair her body, her face.  She talked with amazing clarity.  She was able to read some of the Bible. She could operate the air conditioner and the fan.  She even asked why the faces looked funny on the tv and if I could zoom it in and out to fix it.  She explained how the risperdone made her feel like she was locked inside her body and she was dying inside.  Everything felt like she was struggling to make sense of her world and nothing was real.  At times, she was so much like my mother that despite only having two hours of sleep last night, I was excited and invigorated.  After the day I had, it was a treat.  Kids got up at 7:30 after I fell asleep at 5 (due to every critter and child waking up sequentially one after the other).  Off to VBS and then I toured different schools for Kenzie.  I stopped to visit with my uncle who edited my home video to make a dvd after many failed attempts on my end.  From there I picked up the kids and headed home.  My father was at my house working on my dishwasher-the poor guy hurt his back and it pained me to see him having so much difficulty.  After getting the kids settled, the neighborhood kids all showed up for an impromptu birthday party.  So there were 7 children all gathered around eating fast food and cake.  No nap time for the children.  Jason came home early and took the little ones to the children museum while I cleaned up and made dinner.  Out I left at 6:30 to bring groceries to my grandmother and dinner for mom and dad.  Get to mom's and spent the night bathing and enjoying Center Stage.  Mostly enjoying her company.  If you ever wonder why I list the events of my day, it is not to demonstrate how busy we are-it is for me to keep track of what I do and when I do it.  I am increasingly becoming more forgetful-forgetting to visit someone I said I would, forgetting items on a to do list, forgetting to bring things to people, etc.  I can barely remember what I did on Wednesday and it is through this blog that I can track my life.  See tomorrow I have to visit Mrs. Fischer, bring leechies to my uncle's house, bring my mother over for a play date (Dad does not know this and I can picture his smile as he reads this tomorrow morning-Yes you may actually get some alone time in your own house for a brief moment tomorrow morning :)
Back to my mother-She went to the doctor this week and they found gallstones in her gall bladder.  Her reports also mention a weak heart with a systolic ejection heart murmur and arrhythmia.  I am curious to talk to her doctor about all this and am wondering what the effects of this will be.  I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and be praying for me-it is finals week and i have lots of schoolwork left :)
Oh one more amazing thing happened this week.  My husband was outside in the pool area with my children.  Mackenzie was swimming and connor was playing with the water.  Jason went to latch the gate (20 feet away) when he hears a splash and looks over at the pool  There is Connor in the water being pushed by the current in our pool.  Mackenzie swims over to him (no swimmies) and puts one arm around his waist.  She manages to keep both his and her head out of the water and swims to the edge of the pool where she holds on until Jason gets there.  This all takes place in less than thirty seconds with Jason there the entire time.  With the pool and so many fatalities, we are very diligent to watch our children near the pool.  The amazing thing is that Mackenzie kept her cool and managed to "save" her little brother.  When she did the lessons for swimming at the YMCA, they spent a week teaching water safety and how to rescue someone.  At the time, I chuckled as I watched these itty bitty children trying to help the instructor.  I thought to myself that this was over the children's head and how impractical.  I know see how wrong I was.  Mackenzie retained all of it and applied it perfectly.