Brachina Disgorge

Posted On 9 November, 2019

At Alpana mum had her second major “I Just Want To Be Home” moments. I don’t think they’re done with any conviction it seems to be more about a perceived lack of attention or some minor issue that has arisen. This one possibly because she hadn’t, how do you say it nicely, had a movement for 5 days. One of the effects of dementia is that the body stops these normal processes. She will then go through the whole I just want to be in my house in Ringwood because what is happening here isn’t to her satisfaction.

We then have to go through the whole routine. ‘No you can’t live by yourself’. ‘Because you have dementia’. ‘Your doctors have told you. It’s not just us making it up’. ‘Here is a video of you discussing it with your doctor’. ‘You would have to have 24 hours a day carers’. ‘So you would rather be looked after by strangers than your Family’. ‘When you live with us you complain that you don’t get to travel’. ‘So what do you want to do go home or keep travelling?’ This final question is usually met with a noncommittal ‘I’ll think about it’.

The next day we took her on another tour with Sally. This time through the ranges to Brachina Gorge where you can see the fossils. This started badly with mum complaining “What’s SHE doing here” when Emily got in the car. “SHE wont be interested in this only Tess would”. All of this in front of Sally who was horrified. Emily was of course devastated but continued on regardless. For some reason mum has it in for Emily we don’t know why. She’s fine with Allison and Tess but is quite nasty to Emily.

We continued on with the tour with everyone enjoying it including Emily despite predictions. We stopped at Aroona Station Homestead ruins for lunch. On the way in we past a daddy emu with his babies. I went back to take some pictures.

By the time I got back to the picnic table mum, who was still sitting in the car was moaning. It appears that there was ‘movement’ at the station. We made a quick dash in the car to nearby toilets. We got mum out of the car but that was as far as we got. The floodgates had opened, 5 days of it. Mum was holding on to the car door, I was holding mum up through the window, Sally was hiding around the back and Nina was, well Nina was catching the out flow. Unfortunately the bags and wipes that we have on hand for normal times ran out pretty quickly. Sally was ratting through the back of her car to find what she had that could help. I had a few dog poo bags so we were able to bag it all up. Mum was bundled back in the car sans pants but with a blanket to cover her legs.

We continued on our tour. Sally took it well and for the rest of the tour was making poo remarks and then saying ‘sorry Val’, much to our amusement.

Nina says I owe her $1000 worth of wool. I think that’s cheap at twice the price.

On a lighter note here are some pictures from the tour.