"Mom.Mom.MOM!"
Cathy yells.
Bernice finally looks over. She's not deaf but occasionally she forgets who she is.
"Mom,
I had my eye operated on." Cathy points to her eye and the new bifocal lens
in the off chance Bernice has forgotten what an eyeball is. I start to roll mine.
Dementia is
a misunderstood disease. Even the nurses are confounded by what Bernice does
and doesn't understand. It leads to many patronizing gestures and comments
which irritate the hell out of me because having witness Bernice's smile when
we enter her room and her frown when we leave it, I'm convinced she's being marginalized.
Still vivacious, empathetic and social she's every bit the person she was before
dementia robbed her of memory and articulation. Yes, Bernice knows what an eye
is. She knows the word 'mom' and she's heard her daughter speak. But that doesn't
stop the alarm and disbelief.
"You operated
on Mom??"
No comments:
Post a Comment