A Healthy Appetite

When I went into Portillo’s, Lori sat in the car with mom. Lori said mom talked about how much she loved the pizza last week from California Pizza.  Mom told her the pizza was cooked just the way she likes it ‘crispy’. She also told Lori about how she ate half the pizza.

Arriving back at The Community* we brought our beef sandwiches to the Garden room.  Mom surprised herself and ate the whole beef sandwich. Once we were all finished, I took out my camera to take a picture of our luncheon with Lori.  I asked Sam* a good friend of mom’s if he would take our photo.  He was happy, too.

  

When Lori and I walked mom back to the activity room, mom was just in time for the Dreamsicle Social.  Mom could not remember ever having a Dreamsicle. 

I said, “Mom, you may not remember, but trust me you love them.  A Dreamsicle is vanilla ice cream with orange sherbet.”

The aide handed mom a Dreamsicle with a napkin. “No, I can’t have one, I am allergic to them.”  Mom tried to give her Dreamsicle back to the aide.

However, I grabbed the Dreamsicle and started to unwrap it, “You are not allergic to Dreamsicles.  You love them.  I don’t want you to miss out on something you really enjoy.”

“They tell me I can’t have ice cream,” mom said adamantly.

“Mom, you can eat ice cream.”

Just then the aide says, “Your mom says she is allergic to so many things.      I have another woman who says she is allergic to everything, but when her husband is here he says his wife is not allergic to anything also.” 

“Mom eliminates so many things she loves because she thinks they might not agree with her. When mom’s bowels are not right she always blames the last thing she ate.  Unfortunately by doing this, she has created a long list of items she will not eat.  I have to keep having her try those things again to assure her she can eat most of them.”

“Mom, just try the Dreamsicle.  See of you like it.”

 “I do like this, but I am not going to eat this every day.”

“That’s OK; they don’t have the Dreamsicle Social every day.”

Just then mom’s good friend, Darlene, was being wheeled into the activity room by her daughter. Darlene had her family dog on her lap.

Mom smiled and said, “Darlene, have a Dreamsicle! They tell me it’s good for you.”

Mom really enjoyed her visit with Lori.   When Lori and I were leaving Mom said, “Love you both.  I had a wonderful day. Have a nice time at the baseball game tonight.” 

Lori and I were both delighted that mom remembered about the reason Lori and Roy came to visit was to see their son’s baseball games. 

Mom’s memory and appetite this day was very good.