My mom is doing something very annoying lately. She will get ready for bed and get all tucked in, having taken her medicine, done everything she needs to do and then we all say good night and I go on the other side of the house to my room and my dad goes into his office, which is next to my room. But, oh, about a half hour later, as I am sitting down with my laptop doing whatever I'm doing, my mom calls from her bedroom for one of us to come there. I just saw her. What could she possibly want now? The other night, she was hungry and asked me to bring her some cereal. So I told her to keep the box in her room so when she gets hungry, it's right there for her. She thought that was a good idea, so I journeyed back to my room. Last night, she called again, about a half hour after "going to bed," and this time I went over there and she said that my dad didn't put the walker close enough to the bed, so I pushed it over to the bed. I said, "Ok, mom, now go to sleep," half-kidding and half-serious. It's like the child that is constantly asking for something after putting them to bed - milk, having to go to the bathroom, etc. She and my dad have a walkie-talkie thing-a-mi-jig that she can talk into and my dad hears her if she needs him. So she does this every night after she is supposed to go to bed. My dad is getting really aggravated, so I am left to go over there to see what she could possibly need. Apparently, the sleeping pill isn't kicking in or strong enough and that's why she lays awake, probably wondering what she can ask for next.
This afternoon, I came into the kitchen and mom was making "her" dinner. I asked her what she was doing and she said that we have been eating so late that she would try eating earlier - it was an "experiment." I said that we would just eat earlier and my dad growled something from the den. Apparently, she woke him up to see if he was ready to eat. He wasn't. But since she insisted on eating earlier, I continued to make dinner for everyone. Her theory was that if she eats dinner earlier, then there is more time from when she ate until when she goes to bed, and maybe that will help her fall asleep better. Whether her theory is right or not, it's silly and a pain for me to have to make meals twice, so I said we're all going to eat at the same time. So we all ate together and boy, was that a joyous moment. My dad was particularly unhappy about being woken up and was very crabby at the table. He kept yelling at Kita which I was getting mad about, so I quickly ate and cleared the table in lightening speed. He went back to his chair (where he wanted to be in the first place) and fell back asleep.
I have to figure out how to get both of their hearing checked - it's driving me crazy. Neither one of them can hear me, much less each other and I am constantly saying or asking the same thing twice - as they are. Maybe I need my hearing checked too. I feel like an interpreter, telling my dad what my mom said and vice versa. I try to start out loud but that doesn't always work either. I'm learning that if I say "Dad" first before the sentence, then I have his attention and can continue on, although he still doesn't always hear me. But I also think he has selective hearing because he hears things he's not supposed to hear when I'm whispering to my mom. My father refuses to go to the doctor, for any reason, so that's a wash right there. My mom would go, but that just means another doctor appointment I have to schlep her to.
Surgery on her left hip is now scheduled for September 14 and the pre-op is a week before that. In addition to all of this, she just found out she has Vertigo, which is a disorder that causes you to be very dizzy and she finally got medication for it. For a woman who was extremely healthy her whole life, my mom is sure acquiring a lot of problems. I guess that is inevitable as you age, though. Hopefully, after she heals from this surgery, she'll feel well once again. If that does become the case, I figure, my work here will be just about done...
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