Cake for Breakfast

Recently, I bought cake for a group meeting and ended up bringing home two kinds of leftover cake. Mom, whose appetite has whithered, enjoyed it so much that I served her carrot cake for breakfast and chocolate cake for dessert after dinner. That's why when I was thinking about trying to keep some sort of written record of this experience that the name for my blog first occurred to me -- Cake for Breakfast.

One of the casualties of Alzheimer's for Mom has been her appetite. When I was still trying to work and care for mom, I always planned dessert as well as a balanced meal for her and her sitter. She ate better when someone ate with her and seemed to enjoy the dishes I prepared for her. But gradually, getting her to eat became a problem. The first problem was a sick stomach that we decided might be attributed to her meds. We changed them and her appetite picked up again, but it didn't last long. She ate less and less.

Possibly, her taste buds don't respond to food the way they used to. At first, I attributed her waning interest in food to her trouble using the utensils. When a knife and fork were too much to manage, I substituted a spoon. But as time passed the only thing that worked was her fingers. Eventually, even that was a problem and I began to feed her. Sometimes she would refuse her dinner but want dessert. Sometimes I could use the prospect of dessert to persuade her to eat some of the meal I had prepared. But that no longer works. I can't even get her to drink Ensure.

Sometimes she asks for something, like mashed potatoes yesterday, but she may not stay awake long enough to eat what she's requested. At other times she purses her lips together tightly and refuses to allow the spoon to pass her lips. And she may hold the world record for number of times she chews her food. When she really doesn't want it, she waits until you are out of sight and spits it out, wherever.

Although her interest in food continues to wane, she retains enjoyment of sweet stuff, especially ice cream. The doctor said that ice cream was good for her whenever she wanted it so we keep a supply. But as I fed her minuscule dabs of ice cream yesterday, I wondered how long that will last.