I've had enough time to talk myself out of the piece I was going to write today. Although I still think I should write it, I'm not. Why? Only because I don't want to give it any more life than it already has. Oh, and I'm not going to say it anymore, so just assume it was a crappy week unless otherwise stated.
My mom's health has been declining at what seems to be an accelerated pace lately. She goes into these somewhat catatonic states from time to time, and this week was full of them. The first time it happened which was a few weeks ago, I was going to call an ambulance, because I just didn't know what to do. With the pandemic going on, I realized that since she wasn't really distressed, I would call her doctor instead to see what he thinks. He got back to me very quickly and stated it was actually a normal process in the decline of dementia, or should be the escalation of dementia, either way you know what I'm saying. The last two days in particular have been rough. Friday she was wanting to leave the house and go home, which she really has no concept of anymore of where that actually is, since she is home. She also kept asking about her family and I had to tell her that her husband had died. This is always a hard one to tackle especially when she is in an argumentative state. No matter what I say, she deems it a lie, and I just have to roll with it and gently convince her that it is the truth. When the truth finally sets in, she goes through all the emotion of losing a love all over again. It's heartwrenching to observe all over again, since I already lived through this the first time. Since she was argumentative it was exceptionally tough to get her to eat, she also hadn't slept the night before, which made it exponentially worse. I was finally able to calm her down later in the evening and get her to sleep, that was after a very small meal of what I could finally get her to eat.
The next morning I woke her up and she seemed in much better spirit, but at some point in the middle of her shower, she went into a light version of that catatonic state. I was able to bath her and get her to stand up and help her out of the shower to get her dried off and dressed, but it was very difficult to do. Her responses were only physical and they were, well I can't even explain how they were. I guess this is the best way. When she goes into the catatonic state, you can see that she is there, but it's as if her very essence draws within itself and hides at the back of her mind. Now, when it's bad, there is no response what so ever, but on this day, there was minimal physical response. Normally her limbs go stiff in this state, but this time she would lift a leg a little and loosen it up so I could do the rest. I was able to get her back in bed after that, and brought her shakes and water with her pills. I'm guessing with the lack of sleep from the day before and the impact of those emotions she felt all over again, that she needed time to process it all. I left her to her bed and would poke in every once in a while to give her more water an coax her into eating small items. At about 2 in the afternoon I was able to get a decent response out of her, and managed to get her to the living room for some food. She was still tired but was more back to being herself. All of these experiences are very new to me. Everything with dealing with this is a first time event, so I've asked for help form some people, and some have helped out. Her doctor has been the most helpful and I appreciate that greatly. He calmed me down about these episodes, so that I have been able to deal with them for the most part. It's hard though. I truly hope none of you ever have to experience someone close to you having dementia. It is life altering.
After she was up and about, I was able to follow through on the plan I had for us, which was postponed because of the morning events. I wanted to get her out of the house, for a little while, which is getting tougher and tougher, and I also wanted to see something that I had put in place a few weeks ago. Get ready, this is going to be about Pokemon, so you can skip to below the nest pictures if you want to just avoid the nerd talk.
Several weeks ago, while I was at the record store, I nominated it for a Pokestop. If you don't play and you are still reading this, when you hit level 38 in the game you are able to nominate locations for Pokestops. Those are locations where you can spin a disc in order to get more balls ( to catch Pokemon ) or berries ( they make catching Pokemon easier ) or even stickers ( which you can attach to gifts for friends ) and revives (when you battle with your Pokemon the feint and you need these to revive them to health ), oh and also potions ( they give your Pokemon energy after the feint ). I had heard that this whole process of approval can take a year or even longer, so I was shocked to receive an email only a few days after nominating it saying that it had been approved. I had my first official Pokestop, but I couldn't go to see it until yesterday. I looked around the shop while I was there and told the owners about it. They were really excited and said they had asked a friend to do it ages ago. Here's the thing about Niantic and the Pokestops. Their idea behind them is to get people to actually visit these places, and that creates traffic to the area. You have to bee within 80 meters of the location (used to be 40) in order so spin the stop. My hope, and I'm sure it was theirs as well, that that stop will bring in more costumers that didn't even know that place existed. Ok, finally here are the picture so we can get back to other stuff. I have to mention that the one of the map shows several stops and gyms (gyms are locations where you can battle other Pokemon to clear the gym and place your own Pokemon inside in order to earn coins based on how long you defend it). The blue location icons are the stops, and the one near the top with the white ring around it, is a brand new stop. By the way if you didn't know, that white ring signifies a unique and new location, so if you play and see that you can get your buddy a new location heart. Remind me next week to explain buddy hearts. I think I did a poor job of that the other week. Anyway, that new stop on the map is the record store and my stop. The second picture is the picture disc at the location.
Ok, now for normal stuff. If you skipped to this point, you missed out on so much good information. Ok, I got a picture of Ri Ri Popcorn Face, which is officially her new full name. She was looking at me with her little snuggle tooth hanging out and I couldn't resist a picture. She has a bit of an underbite so this happens from time to time when her top lip gets tucked under and it's always adorable.
How could I not fall for that goofy girl? Morty and her get along great now. They finally started playing together in the yard. The rough housed a little inside, which really isn't ideal, but when they went outside they would kind of ignore each other, but this week saw the first time they actually played together outside, it made me happy. I have gotten them to stop the inside stuff though, so I'm very happy about that as well.
I had an idea for a new story come to me. This was inspired by Halsey. She released a short movie along with her album and I finally got to watch it this week. The movie is based on the album, but the album was written with this movie in mind, if that makes any sense. Basically they go together and the music works for the most part as a narrator. The movie gave me an idea to tell that story a little more and put my own spin on it while expanding beyond where it ended. I've only written a few notes so far, but I'm hoping to sit down this week and knock a few chapters out. I have the basis of the story in my head, and have the idea of the ending, but it's still in a fog. It's there, but it only hints of what it actually is. Normally as I've told you the ending hits me first. The idea of having a beginning with no clear end isn't new to me, but usually when that happens I can't always find my way to any ending. Well not one that seems truly right to me. I know I can get there, but when I feel like it isn't right to me, it feels like it's pointless to put it out there. Anyway, I'm going to start this week and it will maybe come to me, if it does and I feel that things are going in the right direction I may post a chapter. I have no idea if this is going to be short or long form yet. I'm sensing long form, so to me that means at least 15 chapters. We will see. I'm excited about it, and this is the first time in a long time I've been excited about anything.
There is so much more I could write about this week, but it's time for Favorite Thing of the Week, which happens to be a song, but it's more that just that which is why it is FTOTW instead of FSOTW. This happened not too long ago, maybe a week or so, and of course it involves Dave Grohl, the person who is better than any of us, an we don't deserve him and his talent. The Foo Fighters were doing a festival in Japan and there was another artist on the bill, so they learned a song, and at the very last minute asked that artist if they would perform this song to them, and they did. This is where I would normally tell you the title of the whole thing, but I think the video should speak for itself, so here it is.
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