The Mother-Daughter Pair Who’d Battled Wits Constantly

The long, AND hard road, of providing long-term care to the elderly in the population, translated…

I Was, Dumbfounded, as I’d Heard How the Mother-Daughter Pair Battled Wits, and I’d, Sighed on How Much Love and Patience Went into the Interactions, to Get This High Level of Caretaking Quality, and I’d, Hoped the Elderly Woman Would, Keep on Fighting, as, I Don’t Believe She will, Give in that Easily………

A Very Intelligent Mother

“She refused to swallow the pills, would hold that aspirin in her mouth for hours, and not swallow it down.”

The daughter pushed her immobilized, demented mother in on a wheelchair, with the mother, looking stubborn.

a lot of patience, love goes into caretaking of the demented elderly parent!  Photo from online…

“This isn’t the kind of aspirin that you can, grind down into powder form”.

“I know I can’t grind it down, and so, I’d bought the alternative anti-embolism powder, to replace the aspirin, and grinded everything into powder form, and fed it to her!”

I watched this intelligent daughter, without another word.

“But, after awhile, she’d, stopped swallowing her medications again.”

“What did you do?”

“I’d mixed in the meds with the meals, and fed it to her!”

“Did that work?”

“Some of the meds were bitter, and when she’d tasted the bitterness, she’d, refused to eat.”

“What?”

“I’d found a way, she’d loved chocolates, so, I’d, placed the meds with the chocolates into her mouth together.”

“Did that work?”

“At first, but, not long thereafter, she’d, found that the chocolate had, melted, and, stopped taking her meds again, that way, she could have the sweet chocolates, and, not take the bitter meds.”

and you think what???  She’s just, going to, take it, like a “good girl”?  Think again!!!  Photo from online…

“What? She’s that good!”

I’d, turned around, to look at the patient who’d, pouted up her lips, confused at, whether if she was, demented, or, too intelligent…

“And so, I’d, found a way, to give her the chocolates, with the almonds on the inside, that way, she’d, no longer just, eaten the melted foods. If she wanted the chocolates, then, she’d, needed to, take her meds with them.”

A Daughter, Who’s Full of Patience

Hearing how this pair had, battled out the wits, I was, dumbfounded, sighed, on the one hand, how much love and patience must have gone in, and hoped, that the elderly woman, will keep on fighting, as I’m sure, she wouldn’t, give in that easily.

“Under these circumstances, we can put the feeding tubes in, to give her the foods she’d needed, as well as administer the medications to her.”

“I can’t bear it, with a tube into her nose, it must be, awful for her!”

“Or, use the gastroscopy, puncture a hole into her stomach, for a tube, and, feed the foods in, that way, there wouldn’t be anything that would get STUCK inside her nasal passage.”

“It’s fine.”

“You must be taking a lot of time to feed her her medication as well as her meals, right? With each mealtime lasting longer than before, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“And, with the tubes in, you wouldn’t need to spend that much time on feeding her.”

“I’m not working now, it’s fine this way.”

“You are such a patient and loving, compassionate daughter.”, I’d commended the patient’s daughter.

“I’m okay, our nurse’s aide is very patient toward my mother too”, she’d pointed, toward the migrant nurse’s aide who was close by, smiling, without a word.

The illness can drive away any good child, caring for the patients long-term is something that’s draining the energies and taxing out the mind; like that most explosive landmine in the wars, sometimes, it wasn’t, the ones with the highest blasting powers, but the smaller kinds. The purpose of these smaller kinds of landmines is to cause injuries, and as they’d turned people incompetent, it would take the enemy forces, extra personnel to take care of the injured, and it’d, impacted the fighting ability of the entire squadron, let alone, how much it would cause the society, the government, to take care of this injured soldier.

To the caretakers, long-term care is around the clock, 24/7, 365 days annually, without a day of rest, without an end in sight, a person who’d lost the ability to live on her/his own, will naturally need to be looked after by more people at a time. And, as the population makeup became an upside down triangle, long-term care became, this heavy burden for the younger generation. But, how many daughters like this one, with enough intelligence, enough patience, with enough heart are currently, in Taiwan?

Not very many, I’m sure, because, as you take care of the elderly in your lives who are, demented, it’ll only get harder, because, they will progress further, into dementia, and, they will eventually, lose EVERY single ability to live, to the point, that they would need the tubes to breathe for them, and long-term care, is a very long and winding road, and yet, we’re, all facing this hard problem for all our futures, as well as, the futures of our parents, and our offspring too!