Prepare Yourself for Odd Behavior

One of the many things no one prepared me for was how Alzheimer’s causes people to do some very odd things. These aren’t forgetful things, but they are cognitive and weird things. What also makes them so odd is that my Mom never saw them as odd, and she only started doing these things when she got Alzheimer’s.

Below are just a few examples of things my Mom did that were just plain odd, and they are things she only did after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Rubber bands — everywhere

Everywhere you go in my Mom’s kitchen, things are wrapped tight in rubber bands. You want a spoon? Good luck taking off all the rubber bands to get one.

Turning everything in the fridge upside down

Every so often, I will open the refrigerator, and everything inside has been flipped upside down. Not only is it odd, but it makes a mess because a lot of the containers leak all over the inside of the fridge. When I ask her why she keeps doing this, she just gives me a blank stare and has no memory of doing it.

Frozen salad

One day, I opened her freezer to check the dates on all the frozen food she had and I saw a bag of salad. I asked her why there was salad in the freezer, and she didn’t think anything was wrong. When I told her salad gets mushy and freezer-burnt in the freezer, she said, “Well, no one told me that.”

Needing to know everyone’s age

Almost every – single – time we watch TV together, she constantly asks what everyone’s age is. It could be a football game and she wants to know how old all the players are. It could be a TV show or movie and she wants to know how old all the actors are. I used to ask Siri on my phone so I could tell her the answer but I got tired of doing it. One night, I tried something different. This time, when she asked me how old someone was, I asked her why everyone’s age was so important to her. She looked at me like a deer in headlights — almost like I snapped her out of a deep sleep. She replied, “I don’t know”. It’s as though her subconscious mind is in control, expressing thoughts her conscious mind isn’t even aware of.

Reading and re-reading doctor notes

Whenever she would get a printout from the doctor’s office after one of her appointments, she would read the notes exhaustively over and over. She would underline some things and circle other things. Then, she would put it on a pile near her chair, and the next day, I would find her doing it all over again. She would do this each day like a broken record until I would remove the notes from her pile, and she would forget all about them. When I would ask her what she was doing, she would just say “Uh, just going through these.” Then I would ask if she had any questions, and she would say that she didn’t.

Obsessed with the weather

Every single day, multiple times a day, she would ask about or comment on the weather. This isn’t just the typical thing an elderly person asks about because they have nothing else exciting going on in their life. This is an obsession. Over and over again throughout the day, she would ask things like “When is it supposed to rain?” or “Is it windy out there?”  In the wintertime, she would get even more obsessed with the cold. She would ask, “How cold is it?” so I would tell her, and she would shiver and say how the thought of that makes her cold. Of course, I would remind her how it has no impact on her because she’s in her overheated hot house, but it didn’t matter.

Cooking eggs on a dinner plate

This one frightened and injured me. One morning, I heard a loud crash in the kitchen, so I ran upstairs and found her standing over a dinner plate that had shattered all over the floor. I assumed she just dropped it, so I reached down to pick up a large piece of the broken plate, and it burned my fingers. After I yelled, I asked why the plate was so hot. Then, I looked at the stove and noticed there wasn’t a frying pan on it. So I asked her if she cooked her eggs on the plate, and she said, “Yes, why?” – like it was something she did every day. This was when I took the knobs off the stove.

Washing towels in the dishwasher

On numerous occasions, I have opened the dishwasher to find dish towels on the top rack. While this may seem harmless, the dishwasher does have moving parts and a drain pump that the towels can get stuck in.

Eating cereal in a tall glass – with juice

One morning, I caught her as she was about to pour juice into a tall drinking glass full of cereal. I asked her, “What are you doing?” and she replied, “Just putting some of this wet stuff in here.” I said, “First of all, cereal belongs in a bowl, not a glass” – as I poured it into a bowl. “And, you eat cereal with milk, not juice.” She replied, “Huh. What’s the difference?”

Eating cereal with milk on a plate

Another morning, I caught her eating cereal on a flat dinner plate. Luckily, she had the plate on her dinner tray because, of course, all the milk and cereal were spilling off the plate and all over the tray.

Eating dinner on a paper towel – no plate

One evening, I came into her family room and looked to see what she was eating for dinner, and there was chicken, asparagus, and potatoes lying on a paper towel in her dinner tray. No plate, just a paper towel. When I asked her where her plate was, she looked at me like it never occurred to her to even use a plate. She was even cutting her chicken on the paper towel.

Cooking food in a plastic bag

One evening, I walked into the kitchen and noticed a small white plastic bag in a pan on the stove, sitting in some water. Thankfully, the stove was off, but it was still a hazard to have a plastic bag in a pan on the stove. I wondered if she was trying to defrost something, so I asked her about it, and she said she cooked her food like that. I was shocked and said, “You cooked your food in the plastic bag on the stove?!” She replied, “Yeah, why?” Then I went on to tell her that it was not only a fire hazard but also that all the plastic toxins were cooked into the food she just eaten.

Wanting tea in her coffee

Yep, you read that right. One day, I made her a cup of coffee, and then I watched her take a tea bag out of the drawer, and before she dipped it in her coffee, I said, “Wait! Oh, did you want tea instead of coffee?” She said, “No, I thought I could have both together.” Now, if this were some strange new trend or something she’s done her whole life, it wouldn’t be a big deal – but she’s never done this before.

Heating meatballs and sauce on a griddle

Another evening, I walked into the kitchen while she was making dinner and saw that she was heating up meatballs and sauce on a griddle pan. Of course, there was sauce all over the stove around the pan because as she stirred the meatballs, the sauce fell off the pan and onto the stove. When I asked her why she didn’t use a regular pot or microwave to heat the meatballs, she just said, “I don’t know, this is just what I grabbed first.”

The lights are making it cold inside

My Mom constantly complains about the house being too cold or too hot. So one night, before bed, she told me, “I want to try something tonight. I want to turn all the outside lights off to see if that will stop the cold from coming into my room”. Now, one of her worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s is Aphasia, which makes it difficult to find the right words. So, I replied, “Why do you think outdoor lights will affect the temperature of your room? Is ‘lights’ the word you meant to use?” She said, “Yes, the lights. I want to see if turning them off will make my room warmer.” I then explained how the outdoor lights have nothing to do with the indoor temperature. However, leaving her bedroom door open at night will help a lot because her bedroom is upstairs and all the hot air in the house rises. Of course, she claimed she “always leaves her door open at night,” but she never does.