My Mother-in-Law

It's been a rough week. I've had an underlying current of anxiety with me every day. My mother-in-law has Alzheimer's and last Monday, she was placed on the critical list for getting into a nursing home due to starting wandering (she escaped from my sister-in-law's house 3 times). She also believes she's living in the house (her daughter's) where her mother was murdered and she's afraid she'll be murdered there, too (by her daughter and son-in-law) and just for the record, her mother never lived there and she definitely wasn't murdered. These are the kinds of things that most people don't know about Alzheimer's. It's not just memory loss, it's paranoia and hallucinations among others, too.

Anyways, because she was placed on the critical list, a home has already agreed to take her and she has to be moved in by this Wednesday. I know it's best for her but I also feel anxious about it because she's not physically unwell, she's just mentally unwell and because of her wandering, she'll be on a locked ward so she can't wander away but it makes me think she'll be like a caged animal and I know she'll hate it.

That said, the home is closer to where my husband and I live so I should be able to see her more often. She really loves me because I always make her laugh. My husband and his brother visited the home today and said that it seemed nice and not institutional at all. She got a private room, which is EXCELLENT because I really think having to share with a complete stranger would be so much worse and it's on the ground floor, which she's allowed to wander around on with access to an outdoors courtyard that's fenced in. She can't get out the main doors unless she knows the code and that's extremely unlikely unless it's her banking PIN number, which it isn't.

I'm planning on visiting the home later today to see for myself what it's like and then on Tuesday, I'll stop on my home from work with a stuffed animal and a Welcome to Your New Home card from me and maybe a bouquet of pink flowers to cheer up the room.