I firmly believe that my mother is the living model for Maxine! One day about a year ago, I walked toward my car and almost choked on my own spit. “Oh My God! It’s Maxine!” I sputtered.

Mom was sitting there in the passenger seat with her chin jutting straight out, Maxine style, and wearing sunglasses. When I got into the car, she made it worse by uttering a Maxine-ism. At that point, I lost it and howled with laughter. Poor mom couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.

Over the next few months, she continued to utter her Maxine-isms. The only thing is that Maxine says things in sarcasm – mom actually means them!

Recently, mom spent time in the hospital and then a month in rehab, where she exaggerated the habit of jutting her chin straight ahead. It has something to do with clenching her teeth, apparently. She has lost some of her Maxine-isms at the moment and seems depressed, but I’d be depressed, too! She is 88 (and a half), just had back surgery and spent a week in the hospital prior to the surgery from drug-induced craziness. Pain medications really send her round the bend. So after her extensive back surgery, all she could have for pain was Tylenol – and it worked!

Tonight, though, was a real wingdinger. As Mom was taking her insulin this evening, she asked me “How many units does this say?” I replied, “None. You’re supposed to take 18 units” and I spun the dial to 18, giving the insulin pen back to her. She took that dose, and only then did I learn she had already taken 18 units! So, here it is, 8 pm and she just took 36 units of insulin! That’s way more than she takes even in the morning. She got peanut butter on toast and OJ, and then a lovely (bigger than normal) ice cream cone. When she was ready to go to bed, I asked her to have some cheese and crackers, along with some milk. She didn’t want the last 2 pieces of cheese, so instead of giving them to me, she “hid” them by sandwiching them between 2 crackers in the cracker package and twisting the top closed.

I jumped her case (since FL has so many bugs in this danged state!) but was really glad to have discovered it before she could put the crackers in the cupboard! So now I’m not sure if mom is just suffering from post-op/post rehab confusion or if some real dementia is beginning to creep in. The latter is a VERY scary thought!

If you have experience with this or some ideas/suggestions, please comment.