I Give Up

So I have been having a really hard time with my Grandmother this past week…. It actually started week before last now that I think about it… so maybe I should say that the past two weeks have been hell on the Grandmother front. She seems to be stuck in a pattern each and every day where she thinks someone is coming into her apartment and “stealing” all of her stuff. Every one of our phone conversations revolves around how someone on that day came into her apartment and stole every thing and how she has NOTHING left. I try to change the subject many times during our phone calls… sometimes successfully, but most of the time not. I even drove down there last Saturday and spent the day with her to assess the situation and like always every thing was there… just strewn every where and shuffled into the wrong place or drawer. I took her shopping and bought her 10 new pair of socks, toiletries and bottled waters. After spending the day with her, the only thing I could figure out from her behavior is that maybe her eyesight is getting worse. I caught her “feeling” her way around the bedroom wall to find the closet doors several times that day. I thought after I left her last Saturday that she was good to go for a while… wishful thinking on my part… Because every day this week and every conversation we have had this week starts off with her telling me the SAME story over and over again. And no matter what I tell her she either breaks out into tears or flies off the handle in anger. My Mother volunteered to go check on her yesterday afternoon and said she spent a tumultuous hour with her trying to show her that her shoes are still there and her clothes are not gone. After two crying fits and multiple angry tantrums later, my Mother was on her way home… did this help at all? NO! When I talked to my Grandmother last night she was back at it AGAIN. But this time, I hung up on her. I just did not want to listen to her. I am so over it. That is all she wants to talk about and I cannot keep going through the same conversation every day. I just do not know how to deal with her when she is in this mind frame. I give up. I tried to call both of my parents last night for advise- neither was available to talk. Hubby is no expert (like the rest of us). So like I said, I gave up….
I am going down there on Tuesday… she has an appointment with her neurologist that afternoon. I plan on telling him about all of this. Unfortunately, it will be in front of her and I am sure his advice will not help. But, we need the free samples (since we hit the “donut hole” on insurance two months ago!) and this gives me a reason to go down there and once again assess the condition of her “stolen stuff”. Seriously, if gas were not $4 a gallon, I would have gone myself yesterday. But at $50 a trip that would be just as crazy as this situation!