During the years where Nan had dementia she developed lots of different personality traits. Some made us laugh, some made us cry and some made us go why? One that made me go Why? but I soon learnt to understand and in a way I found it quite cute was her need to sit on the floor.
It would be easy to mistake her sitting on the floor for her falling, but she never did. Not once was there sign of injury or distress and I always found she looked more relaxed sat on the floor than she sometimes did in her chair. So much so, as you can see I used to join her! The last on the floor episode I was there for and the day this picture was taken was Friday the 13th March this year. Lets just say the carer stressed me out just a little bit by telling me that she had called for help rather than calling me because it was becoming common knowledge between the carers that should Nan do this I’ll come and plonk myself on the floor next to her until she was ready to get up and that was that really.
The help arrived about 10 minutes after me and was completely in agreement with me that Nan was perfectly fine and actually told me that its a common trait in people to sit on the floor. Must be a safety thing? I know that Nan did it as a safety thing because she knew that she wouldn’t fall down if she was on the floor. She was worried sick about falling down. I had got very used to her sitting on the floor and it didn’t worry me at all.
This wasn’t the case the very first time Nan sat on the floor. It was the end of March 2017 that I came across Nan on the floor the first time. She was like a dead weight on the floor, there was no getting her up and back then I couldn’t be sure that she hadn’t fallen. I just didn’t know what to do so i called for an ambulance. Did she need to go to hospital? I didn’t know. The paramedics checked her over and determined that she had a chest infection, she was fine to stay home but she wasn’t fine and I now think that is why she sat on the floor. It took both these paramedics to get Nan up and back in her chair so I stood no chance but from that day I managed to get her back up myself because I waited until she was ready to help me out by relaxing and letting me pick her up!
This is Nan and I on that very last sitting on the floor. We sat and we took selfies. She played with my hair as she is doing in this photo, I say played with it she managed to essentially make a knot out of it but I would give anything to have that time back a bit. We were so happy together. We cried together, this happened a few times on the floor.. I was the one crying with Nan looking like ???!!!????. Like Becka I am just on the floor whats the issue?
Dementia really is one of the most complex difficult conditions to understand. I coped with it by getting to know the new Nan. I loved the old Nan and the new Nan. The old Nan was still there inside but the difference between the two was that the new Nan needed me so much more than old Nan ever did and I was more than happy to be there for her whenever she needed 24/7 and no-one was going to get in my way.
Becka.
beckalou.co.uk 