Considering how crappy yesterday was, today was a pretty good day. The cable guy was here around 11am to fix what he didn’t fix when he was here on Tuesday. While he was here working I did notice that the interruption and constant in/out of the apartment seemed to get Miss Cathy pretty worked up though. She’s usually very easy going about workers being around, being friendly and chatting with them. Today she was different, maybe she was feeding off my energy because I made no bones about letting the guy know how unsatisfied I was with his wok and made him change several things to suit me and not to make it easy for him to finish he job early so he could leave and move on to the next unfortunate Comcast cable customer.

She was visibly jumpy because when the technician had to check the phone line it was constantly ringing. And he was running new cable wire all over the apartment, which meant that I had to move furniture so it became quite the obstacle course, making it hard for her to move around. I think that just his being here for so long (about 2 1/2 hours) really messed with whatever routine mom had established for her morning. Just yesterday she seemed to be excited about a shopping trip she’d planned to take today with Adele but when Adele called she cancelled saying that she just “didn’t feel like it anymore”.

The phone and internet had been spotty ever since before she came home last Saturday and I’d hoped to have it fixed soon after she got here but it’s just been a long series of phone interruptions for her and lost time on the computer for me. I knew form the reading that it’s very important for Alzheimer’s patients to have routine, stability and comfortable surroundings and seeing as how Miss Cathy hasn’t really lived in her own apartment sine this all began in January the last thing I wanted was to have something as basic as the phone not working to be an issue. You’d think it’s not such a big deal but who are we kidding-I’m totally dependent on my internet and thank god I have my cell phone or I’d go nuts and I’m not elderly with any issues so you can image how upsetting this has been for her. When the phones would go dead she would think it was the phone at first “Maybe it needs a new battery” she’d say. Then she would just get disgusted with the Cable Company and rant about what it was that they weren’t doing to fix the problem-and I really couldn‘t argue with her.

But, the problem was fixed (or so we hope) around 1pm so I was able to get back to work and Miss Cathy was so worn out by it all that she went back to bed for a nap.

I kept a promise to myself to go to the gym after I finished working, to walk off alittle anxiety and pump some iron to rid myself of some of the negative toxins that have accumulating in my system. I’m convinced that some of the fat my body is holding onto is a direct result of all the stress and anxiety-that and the mounds of food I shuffle in my pie-hole every night….but I digress.

When I got back from my workout mom was up and in a better mood, she went into the kitchen and fried up some fish for dinner so I had no choice than to join her for a meal. I had planned to chill out in my room but it was much nicer to sit down with her and eat. The fish was alittle overcooked but hey, it was still good ole southern home cooking.

I helped her with her shower later and she confessed that last night she had alittle accident when she got up for a late night tinkle. She couldn’t get her adult diaper off in time to urinate so she soiled the rug in front of her commode. I told her it was not a big deal, that it was good thing she had her “depends” on and that she made into the bathroom and onto the rug and didn’t wet the bed or the carpet.

She wondered out loud if it was better to not wear the “depends” because maybe it was the diaper that was slowing her down. I suggested that she keep it on, try to get to the bathroom at the first sensation that she feels she has to go and if she can’t hold it in then to just go into the adult diaper and not try to pull it down.

She nodded her head so we’ll see. It is a lot, for her and me and today I had enough distance and calm to see that we’re both doing our best-that’s all anybody can ask.

Later I tiptoed into her room to turn off her TV and lights and she called me back into the room to give me a hug and to thank me for “everything”. She asked if we could go shopping for the things she wanted to get so that she could give Adele a break, I said,”Sure.” So, it looks like we’re gonna go on our first shopping trip together.