Does anyone have a funny story? I think we need to laugh more, caregivers!!! LOL

Clou-
There is a joke thread with many hilarious jokes that life us up each day and some givers do post their own funny stories there to share with others. Please check it out.

https://www.agingcare.com/discussions/caregiver-jokes-152323.htm?orderBy=oldest

I find a sense of humor is really helpful for those who are care givers. I've often remarked that I have plenty of material to do a stand up routine!
Usually, I have a funny story every time I talk to my mother on the phone or take her out. She loves to laugh, and it takes the onus off of me and her complaining. If I can get her laughing, that's a real plus.
I look up funny stories, positive human interest stories, jokes, or tell her a funny story that happened to me or my pets. It really lightens the mood. I try to leave her with a laugh at the end of an outing or phone call.
You bring up a great point here, and it's important to savor the good moments we have with our loved ones! Thank you!

I’ll try to make comedy out!!!
It’s a wear down mode being 24/7. Double dose is when on your a time second Caregiver. Female Police 👮‍♀️ Officer asked me past week when in house when I said “I’m Double dose” “She said “Drugs”. I said “No”. thats being 24/7 caregiver. I’ve never been married and no children. Although some female took bra off last night at Reputable Local Establishment and put on me. I Don’t go there to see them dance 💃. I’m only one that comes in with paper 📝 pen 🖊 and have draw pictures write down on what’s on their mind. I also include myself deprecation to me and make them laugh.

My mother somehow cut the back of her hand. I stopped at her house and realized it was pulsing blood. She thought everything was fine. I said "It looks like a blood bath in here!" Blood was everywhere! She said, "I'll never tell where I buried the bodies." She kept her sense of humor all through Alzheimers. She didn't want to go get stitches. She kept insisting she was fine. She was covered in blood!

Awww such a sweet story!! I love it!

One morning, my LO walked downstairs wearing only his skivvies and sandals. I almost burst out laughing when I noticed he had tucked his wallet into the waistband of his underwear. Somehow I was able to smile and say, "Well, Good Morning!!"

My mom and I were watching TV one night and, apropos of absolutely nothing, she said, "Well, up yours, Santa Claus."

She spent a week in a geri-psych unit last year. There was a woman who ranted constantly, very loudly. One day she bellowed, "JESUS! COME DOWN HERE AND DO YOUR DUTY!"

Classics.

Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 12 years ago at age 78. Dad was her sole caregiver and wouldn't accept any help or take any breaks. The only help he would accept was a daily visit to make mom laugh. He said that after my visits she stayed calm the rest of the evening. At that stage she was repeating herself endlessly. Making her laugh broke that pattern.
Dad died 5 years ago, and a month later sent us an angel to take care of mom. She gives mom 24 hours of love everyday and never loses patience with her. I visit most days and join in on the fun and games. It's like going to a kindergarten playground. Sometimes she gets mom up, holds her hands. They bounce around the room to the beat of the music, laughing and giggling. Like two little kids. Mom gets feedback and interaction constantly. We sit and talk. I treat it like a game. I can only last about 2 hours, its exhausting. What ever she says I try to ask questions about her made up words or comment on her nonsensical stories. I try to live in her world and guide her when she is in my reality.
When dad passed, mom was looking for him constantly. Every 20 minutes mom would wake me asking, "where's dad, where's dad" in a total panic. During the day she would scour the house looking for him and try to get out of the house to look for him. It was hell. Then our angel arrived and probably saved my sanity, if not my life. She taught me how to live in mom's world. After about 6 months, mom calmed down and wasn't panicked about her missing life partner.
From that point on she gradually settled into a much calmer world. We constantly redirect her to positive thoughts with love and humor. About a year later she started to create jokes and really funny humor. She jokes and intentionally kids us around to make us laugh. Not all the time, but more frequently as time progresses.
I think, and the psychologist agreed, that creative humor is one of the most complex brain functions. At first, getting mom to laugh stimulated her brain to see the humor. Then later when she was creating humor I think it was exercising her brain. Mom continues to improve in listening to and understanding conversations and listening in to side conversations. She remembers a little more with each passing month. Not monumental, but baby steps. My consolation is that she is not getting worse, but slightly improving.
I learned years ago that there are only two ways to react to any experience. From a place of love or fear. I think that humor is based in love, not fear.
Humor and laughing are powerful healing pills for mom and us too.

I bought my Dad a hearing aid. The rubber ear piece went missing.. I found it in the junk drawer as a new fancy pen cap.

My mom was worried about being able to be buried with her parents which was hours away by car - so I told her that if necessary I would wrap her body in a tarp & put xmas antlers on then tie her to the roof of the car &  take her down the highway myself - so she said "I won't be the departed deer but the dearly departed" & laughed & laughed but never worried about it again - I think the absurdity of it & the laughter virtually wiped that issue off her 'things to worry about' list

My 79 y.o. sister is in Assisted Living due to dementia. She tells me "I work here and I like it." Her job duties are "to teach the children to color." I tell her how proud I am of her(having a job) and give her crisp dollar bills for the concession machines.
"Pat, I cashed your check."

I regularly read people's comments and advise and draw strength from it in my own situation. My husband is in a care facility due to being an aggressive Alzheimer's patient. His aggression is only directed at me and I have been advised by the nurses not to visit and take telephone calls anymore. So he deals with one of my daughters and her husband - thank God for my daughter's help.
Last week he called my daughter saying that there were two policemen in his wing and they came to take me, residing in the room across from him (as per him), away. I tried to run away but they caught up with me, put me in handcuffs and took me to prison. To this day he is keeping up this story. He now has started doing his own laundry, folding it and putting it away and cleaning his studio suite, since "I am in prison". He feels now that he is in a better place than me, and is happy! He has narcissistic tendencies so this explains the above better.
No more issues with him wanting to go home!!!
His story is in a way funny but also sad given his state of mind.

What a great idea for a thread! My Mom would take cloth napkins from the dining room at AL, fashion them into belts and wear them back to the dining room. Some days she would be her grandkids very strict piano teacher and other days she would interview them for jury duty.

I would love my dad to be in this mode for as long as I could
At this point we take as much as we could in their good times.

Laugh and smile as much as you could cherish every minute of it.

I moved my step mother Ruth into my house for the last four years of her life. She had a small appetite most of the time. Her fav saying was " just a little something, not too much". One day my husband brought home a six pack of beer called " A Little Sumthin".. We had a laugh at that... later one evening after dinner she was being cranky and wanted ice cream. I got out the melon baller and scooped her out a tiny scoop of ice cream. I really thought she would get angry but she laughed and laughed... Whew, success.

My grandma was soooo senile and soooo sweet. She was always happy, cheerful & loved to talk to people. But she was really on another planet. One day, after my mom left for work, (grandma lived with us) my grandma left the house to walk to the next block where the Tastee Freeze ice cream stand was. There was a tiny place where you could go in & sit down to eat; it had 5-6 stools. Sharon, the owner, saw her & said, “Hi Lily, what can I do for you?” My grandma handed Sharon her watch & said, “Will you please fix this. It’s not working.” Sharon said yes & took the watch. She said, “Would you like an ice cream cone while I fix this?” Of course grandma said yes.

So, Sharon called my mom at work to tell her grandma was at Tastee Freeze...again. My mom said she’d be right there.

My my mom gets there, Sharon gives grandma her watch back and my mom said, “Okay mama lets go home.”

On the walk back home, grandma said, “The people at that watch repair shop are so nice! They always give me an ice cream cone while they’re repairing my watch.”

True story....grandma was a trip and I have lots of stories. I remind myself of them while I’m caring for her daughter now; my mom.

Took my mom out to eat. She asked me numerous times, Have we ordered yet? Yes, we had, of course. When the server brought our food Mom says "Oh, this looks great! But how did you know what I would like?" Server was so confused, tried to pick the plates back up, I told her no, this is good thank you. When she walked away from table, I saw her checking her order book, then at the computer, looking very confused. Walked around checking other tables. I went up to her and told her the situation-that it wasn't her. She had tears in her eyes, said she just started working there and had already made a mistake earlier in the day and thought she had made another one. Poor kid! I felt so bad for her. My mom is just so convincing!!!

I found a toilet bowl brush on my mother’s coffee table. I ask her why - she said she was scratching her back with it. She thought it was a back brush that I had given her.

Thank you for posting this. The stories are great! Who's to say if their reality is any more real than ours. Sometimes I think my mom is still in her dream after waking. Dreams are random and confused, just like mom's waking reality. Finding humor in all of this is healing for all of us. Thank you.

Oh my god was this wonderful. I laughed all the way through. There should be more of this on aging care. It made me feel wonderful and made me want to go back and think of the funny things that went on while I was taking care of my husband at home. FANTASTIC

Patient in a memory care facility came out of her room with two sanitary napkins on her feet.......they were slippers!

My mom used to get tangled in her sweaters or long sleeve tops when
she tried to dress herself and get
frustrated&agitated.One day,as
she wrestled with a top and her
head was inside it as she tussled
to get her arms through..I said:
"What are you doing,hiding?".
She stopped tussling and burst out laughing.We laughed together
as she allowed me to untangle her.
I loved making her laugh.

Twillie's story about the toilet brush reminded me of something funny that happened a few years ago. We had moved my father out of his house in PA and moved to OH. There were all sorts of miscellaneous items to clean out and pack, as the next-door neighbor was buying the house, and it happened that a couple toilet brushes were among them. They ended up on the floor of the back seat of my car. I travel around quite a bit and often don't get things cleaned out, especially when it gets cold. So one day I went to Michigan to give a presentation at a doctor's office, so I drove up the night before and stayed in a hotel about a mile from the office. The weather was expected to get much colder (from about freezing down to 0 F). Generally, the weather is clear and dry when it gets that cold, so I figured the windshield would be free of ice in the morning. Wrong!!--there must have been a sprinkle of freezing rain overnight, so when I got to the car some 15-20 minutes before the appointment, I was shocked to find a layer of ice. I started the car and turned on the heater, but of course it takes time to heat up--more time that I had. I tried using my scraper, but this didn't go so well and certainly not quickly enough. Then I saw the toilet brush was still in the car, so in desperation I used this, and it actually worked reasonably well! I got to the office just a couple minutes before I had to start, so this toilet brush had "saved the day" for me. However, I figure that if anyone saw me, they probably figured I needed to be locked up somewhere!

One day a family friend came to visit my dad. He asked my dad do you know who I am. My dad answered him so you don't who you are.

So, one morning my father had gone outside in his slippers. When he came back in they were soaking wet from the heavy dew we get here in Virginia during the summer. I took him to his room to change them, he had a sock on one foot but not the other, this is a regular thing for him. So I remove one slipper and the sock, which I found out was actually both socks, so that’s where it was! I go to take the other slipper off and really have to pull hard to get it off, what the heck is going on? It finally comes off and lo and behold he has put a leather glove on that foot! I’m laughing so hard I fall back and all I could think about was how much it looked like a gorilla foot. 😂

Hahaha! I love all of these!

When Mom moved to memory care, her new roommate Barbara thought I was a god when I miraculously made her "broken" TV work. The problem? The "remote" she was unsuccessfully employing was actually her phone. Unfortunately, once the TV was on she turned the volume up so damn loud I quickly regretted my deification, but it was fun when her face lit up as bright as the TV when I got it to turn on!

If you're looking for more of the hilarity that is dementia, I write a personal blog chronicling our dementia adventures. In our household we celebrate the insanity and appreciate the laughter of dementia - it helps us make it through the days when there are no smiles to be had.
stumpedtowndementia

Oh you all....I laughed out loud...

Thank you all

These stories are hilarious! Keep them coming please.

Have another one. So, I decided it would be a great idea to take my mom to a theme park of sorts-she's always loved going places. Well, it involves a wheelchair, can't let her out of your sight for even a second and because of the diabetes the food choices, etc. it's all quite the challenge. Anyway, we got back to the hotel and about an hour later I asked her if she had a good day. She replied 'Well, yes, hun, I've a real good day. I did think we were going somewhere today tho'. Really, Mom, really! LOL I just shook my head and laughed. Remember the real reason I do these things with her. She's so happy in the moment, even tho five minutes later that 'moment' may be gone, one thing I think I've learned is that in her world it's not about making memories anymore, it really is about the moment. And keeping her happy in the moment!

Lynnm - your comment about it being about the moment is really very profound. So often people will beg off from visits because " they can't remember who I am and they won't remember I've been there 5 minutes after I've gone". While that may be true the moments you are with them can make their life better!