By: Community Magazine | October 1, 2021 | Letter to the Editor |
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To say that Covid-19 changed the world in 2020 is a given, but it personally changed my mom’s life and mine forever. At year end, the call I dreaded receiving from my mom’s senior living community came, “Your mom tested positive for Covid.”
Things were going well with her recovery until dehydration landed her in the hospital, and then my nightmare began. I had not able to visit her in her facility or the hospital due to the Covid lockdown. Mom did not understand why I could not be with her. She did not want to eat as nothing tasted good, so my brothers and I were dropping off her favorite foods to entice her to eat. She continued to drop weight that she could not afford to lose. She refused to take her heart meds, which seriously had me freaking out. Her mind frequently reverted to her earlier years, and she would go on a verbal rampage which made me feel like the world’s worst daughter.
What I was told by her care staff was that my mom developed rapid onset dementia from Covid, and there is a hope that she might recover her mental state in time. I hired two twelve-hour aides to help mom in her small independent living apartment with the hope that she would snap back to her old self. What I got was stress beyond healthy levels where I woke up each morning with a knot in my stomach to learn of the latest fiasco that happened. I was receiving texts from the aide, the aide company and the nurse from the facility and calls from my mom screaming at me to get these people out of her apartment. I was on the phone with the social worker daily from the facility trying to understand what to do as unable to visit. By mid-February, it became apparent that she needed 24-hour health care.
This transition was even harder, my mom took her animosity out on my brothers and I, by tossing items that had meaning to her.
The social worker and my friends suggested I find a support group to deal with the stress of my rapidly changing life as she progressed with her dementia. What I found was this great weekly virtual support call run by Alzheimer’s Association Greater New Jersey Chapter and specifically by Robyn Kohn, Director of Programs and Services.
This weekly call brings other caregivers in touch with key members from the Alzheimer’s Association Greater New Jersey Chapter. This call has been a lifesaver to me to deal with the stress of dealing with my ever-changing mother.
I signed up to volunteer and participate in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Belmar on October 3rd to support this great organization that helps families deal with the tragedy of this horrible disease. They have offered words of wisdom to me in supporting my mom. There is no way I can ever repay the Alzheimer’s Association Greater New Jersey Chapter for their free support!
Michele Battista
Colts Neck, New Jersey
