Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2006. As you can see, Mattie was in the kitchen building a structure out of tinker toys. The funny thing about Mattie was he followed me around. If I was working in a particular room, sure enough, he was also there. My kitchen wasn't very big in the townhouse, but we always made Mattie's creative play work! Prior to having Mattie I really did not take much interest in cars, trucks, trains, planes, the outdoors, and Legos. However, I got up to speed quickly and now I prefer being outside to inside on most days.
Quote of the day: Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life. ~ Anne Roiphe
My grandmother was a very kind, sweet, and gentle soul. She was a born caregiver and took this role seriously without ever complaining. Truly remarkable. My grandfather died from colon cancer before I was born. So by the time I was on the scene, my parents and grandmother were living together in the same house. As a child I thought everyone lived in a multi-generational household. I am glad I did, as I learned a lot from my grandmother and in many cases viewed her as a second mother.
I had the usual routine today, of getting up early and getting my dad washed, dressed, and downstairs for breakfast. Peter then took my dad to the memory care center and I drove my mom to Rockville, MD for neuropsych testing. It was about a 45 minute drive each way. I was invited into the session with the psychologist for the first hour. She asked both of us questions about my mom's medical history and issues we are noticing with movement and cognition. Naturally I observe issues very differently from my mom. I expressed to the psychologist that this is hard to have these frank conversations with my mom present and I tried to make my mom understand that what I was sharing was out of concern and the responsibility that I feel I have to ensure her safety and quality of life. I liked the psychologist a lot and ironically she happens to be the daughter of my neurologist. She was easy to talk with and I could see she made an effort to relate to my mom and views herself as a strong willed woman too. So the therapist and my mom were in good company. After I left the room, the psychologist tested my mom.
My mom underwent neuropsychological assessments for an hour to identify the extent and severity of her cognitive and behavioral impairments. The testing determines a pattern of relative cognitive strengths and weaknesses, which indirectly yields information about the structural and functional integrity of her brain. My mom completed standardized tests to evaluate cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, language, processing speed, visuospatial, and executive functions. After the test was done, the therapist told my mom she did well. We shall see what that translates into when I get the report. But what I do know is cognitive testing on paper doesn't always equate to actually working with the person in every day life.
I say this because my dad may know who the president is, what month it is, and even the season. Therefore on assessments he can look higher functioning than he is! However, if you ask him whether he ate lunch yet, or what he ate for lunch, or where he went yesterday and he will have NO IDEA! NONE!!!!
The test measures eight realms of function through self report. This is done by evaluating a more complex set of behaviors like telephoning, shopping, food preparation, housekeeping, laundering, use of transportation, use of medicine, and financial behavior. The higher the score on the scale, the better the functioning.
I am happy that all the testing is behind my mom now and it is my hope that the neurologist will enlighten me to the issues I am seeing. I am just stunned with the fact that my mom was walking just fine in April of 2021, but by November of 2021, she was hunched over and taking small, shuffling like steps.
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