Mom's phone skills are disappearing, and I hope to eliminate the phone from her room. She is a demon on the phone. She calls WalMart to see if they have her hearing aids batteries, despite the fact she doesn't know what size or any necessary information. I'm sure whoever answers the phone there thinks it's a prank call. And she's constantly trying to call her parents who have been dead for over 60 years...now that's long distance. She tells me that all she gets when she calls them is someone named Harassment. Is she driving someone crazy? I don't know. I have removed her phone book, her personal phone book, and disconnected the long distance service to slow her down. She cannot carry on a phone conversation anymore. She doesn't understand who's on the phone and repeats herself continuously. Often she doesn't recognize me on the phone. I hate to get rid of the phone in her room because my siblings all live out of town and this is the only personal contact that they have.
On the subject of hearing aid batteries, I have put them in the office at the assisted living facility, and they will give them to her when she needs one. Prior to this arrangement, I gave her a care of 10 batteries, and she used them up in a week. Every time she thought about it, she replaced them. Too expensive, so now when she calls me, I send her to the office.
Oh, how I hate dementia!!
I took the phone out of my mother's room a long time ago. Well, it's in there, I call it the phone to "Call Dream Master." He's the one that chases the hallucinations out of her room for her so that she can sleep. Whatever works... ya know?
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago, we got my Uncle Al a Jitterbug phone. It had just 3 buttons and we programmed phone numbers so that he could call us. He felt safe with his cellphone hanging around his neck. He called a few times, pressing the operator who then put the call through for him.