The past two days I've been taking my Grandma Mona to our local Outpatient clinic for Vitamin B-12 shots. Her dementia had been getting worse, and after a series of tests, her doctor found a serious B-12 deficiency which needed to be dealt with immediately. He didn't even want her to wait until after Labor Day to start the shots - her deficiency was that bad!

Her doctor explained to my parents that this deficiency could partly be responsible for my Grandma's fast progressing dementia and short term loss. The one thing that my Grandma always feared was losing her memory/mind like her Dad, but I'm pretty sure his problem was either Alzheimer's or Bipolar.

So today was Grandma's 2nd shot. I came into the exam room with her (she asked me to) while she had her blood pressure taken and a complete history done. I'm glad I went in with her because she was guessing at a lot of the questions! Some of her answers were hilarious, too. For example, the RN asked her how many husbands she's had and if any were living. She answered that she has had 4 husbands, all living. She's only been married once, to my Grandpa, but she was right about him being a dentist when he was alive - for 44 years. The strange thing about that is, my Grandma never had problems (up until recently) with her long term memory. This was the first time I noticed it. The rest of the questions were more medical related - how many children have you had, how many surgeries (she forgot the whole bowel cancer surgery 14 years ago), and what medications she's on. I think she did rather well considering her memory issues. The shot itself was simple. My grandma is an old RN herself, so nothing seems to phase her. In the exam room next to us was a baby screaming it's head off. I think he was having its blood drawn or vaccinations given -it was screaming! I don't handle things like that well. I'm taking her back for her 3rd B-12 shot tomorrow, then she has to return every Monday for 2 months.

When we got back to her assisted living apartment, we sat outside and talked. I asked her questions about what she remembered about the mornings events at the clinic, and unfortunately she didn't remember being there at all. I brought up questions about her own time as an RN and as a nursing student at St. Mary's in Milwaukee during the 1940's. She momentarily got energized, tapped my hand, and told me to follow her. She wanted me to go through some old photographs in an album. Her hands and wrists are horribly arthritic and cause her a lot of pain, so I did it for her. When we finally came to the photo's she wanted to show me, we sat back down, and she told me about them. The first photo was taken at her graduation from nursing school:

She explained how proud she was in that photo...the fact she was the first one in her family (of 11 children) to graduate from college, and do something other than be a farmer. She loved being a nurse.

The second photograph was of Grandma and Grandpa Josef on their wedding day. My Grandfather was 32 and Grandma was 22 when that picture was taken. If I ever get around to showing you a current picture of my sister, you'll be surprised how much she resembles our grandma at that age.
So here is the wedding picture (I just love it, so cool!):


We continued to talk for a while longer than I had to go home, but I really enjoy being with her. Even though her mind isn't the greatest, she is still my Grandma and I love her so much. I can still make her laugh!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! :)