With the writing, editing, publishing, promotion, and the “NO” presentation of my new book “This Virus is a Ruin” (This Virus is a Ruin), I have left the Caregiver Chronicles abandoned, but don’t worry, little by little, I am catching up. Those who have followed the chronicles from the beginning have seen the ups and downs, heard me (read) complaining, laughing, and crying. Everything remains the same, but really, it’s not the same, and that’s what I want to talk to you about today. Here we go.

To recap for those reading this post as your first of the chronicles, my mother has Alzheimer’s (senile dementia). She has been dealing with the disease for 4 years now, and in this last year is when we have seen the downward spiral, or not? Well, it’s true that since January my mother has lost a lot of mobility, she no longer eats on her own, we can’t leave her alone for 5 seconds, or she’ll mess things up. But here comes the good part, hahaha, a couple of months ago we stopped giving her medication, well, she only took pills for blood pressure and some vitamins. But the doctor said, “She weighs 30 kilos, I don’t think she has blood pressure, it is what it is.” And what do you think happened?

Well, I’ll tell you what happened: she “resurrected.” Well, her mind is still more over there than here, but suddenly, she’s more alert, talks more, doesn’t sleep as much, laughs, imaginary people have disappeared, she started eating better, even wants to eat on her own. Today, for example, I was in the kitchen making dinner and I hear “shis shis shis” (the sound her slippers make, hahaha, don’t judge, I can’t describe sounds with words). And I see my mother at the door asking, “Can I help you?” and I’m like “WTF.” She didn’t stand for long, but I went for her wheelchair, and she stayed with me in the kitchen, asking every 3 seconds, “Is this your house?” “Do you live here?” “What are you doing?” “Is this your house?” “Do you live here?” “What are you doing?” “Who taught you to do that?” And that’s where I said, “Well, you did,” and she goes, “Me?” ….

With this, I want to tell you that suddenly, she’s more active. Now she escapes from bed, jumps over the safety gate we put (yes, she has fallen several times). As my son says, “Mom, Yaya is invincible.” She went through Covid and came out perfect, went a long time without eating anything, perfect, doesn’t remember anything, perfect, occasionally, her inguinal hernia pops out, and we have to put it back in, perfect, we give her wine and Baileys, perfect, sometimes she only eats flans and cookies all day, perfect…

What do I mean by all this? That even though you have to take care of yourselves, take prescribed medications, exercise, etc., in the end, when it’s your day, it’s your day, and it doesn’t matter what you do. So, ladies and gentlemen, be happy and forget about the rest.

Gotta go now, I’m going to make a big bowl of popcorn and open up either a can beer or bottle of wine, and for dessert, well, I don’t know, maybe a flan with my mother, and in the end, we’ll smoke a cigar together… until the next chronicle.