If there is one thing I may be a bit over the top about, it is making sure I have properly introduced my Mother to every facet of geriatric medicine, so as to ensure she has all the resources available to her in addressing her dementia.

As a result today found us at an appointment for Mom at a brain center who specializes in helping people with early onset memory issues. I know Mom is way past that stage, but I called to ask was it appropriate for them to do an evaluation on her and double check her medication doses etc., just to be sure we are on the correct path. They were happy to oblige.

If you have never been to such a consultation, the Neurologist does not only a physical examination of the patient but also cognitive testing to see their level of memory loss, recall, word finding etc. Part of the cognitive testing was to hold up common, everyday objects so as to see if mom could properly recognize and then name each one.  Her daytime caregiver, Lety, was sitting on one side of mom and I was sitting in the chair on the other. The three of us were facing the doctor and so Lety and I were a witness to each object being shown to mom as she tried to give the correct answers.

After a few objects were shown, it was clear mom was having a difficult time with her word finding and she was not always successful in proper recognition. The final object the doctor held up was a long ballpoint pen and he said to mom, “Marion do you know what this is?” Mom was looking straight at him and asked “What?” He answered, “This long skinny thing in my hand, do you know what it is?” Mom looked at him with a wry smile and said, “I want to say it is a Dick but I am sure that can’t be right.”

To say Lety and I almost died laughing was not too far from true until mom then looked at us, and with a chuckle of her own said to the doctor, “I guess you can tell my husband has been gone for awhile now!” It was all I could do to finally find a way to breath. Gratefully Mom was laughing right along with the rest of us and how the doctor was able to get it back on track was a mystery to me. Only my witty mother could fail a test so spectacularly and still come out looking brilliant!