Chapter 499 ~ The One About the Toothbrush

It’s interesting to me how mom can remember certain things and not others. I’m not talking about remembering who was president when she was younger and forgetting what she had for breakfast today. I’m talking about not remembering to brush her teeth, even when the toothbrush is on the bathroom counter, but remembering every night to ask if she can have ice cream. Priorities I guess.

There is a ceramic cup on the bathroom counter that houses her toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. The toothbrush points up, and had a cover on it, to keep it clean. The cover lasted about a week, and then she refused to use it, and threw it away. OK, I guess we can live without the cover. But mom puts her brush, bristle side down in the cup. How gross is that? The inside of that cup isn’t clean. So every evening, I turn the toothbrush around, bristle end up, and every morning, she returns it to bristle side down. Turns out that was the least of my worries!

Yesterday I received the above text from her home care aide. When I saw it, I had a strong suspicion what it meant, and it turns out I was right. The aide sent her to the bathroom to wash her hands before lunch. When she checked on mom, she found her in the bathroom, using her toothbrush to clean the toilet, and had it in the toilet water! The really sad part is, how long has she actually been doing that, unbeknownst to me! So she has a new toothbrush now, but still with no cover. And it’s probably one more thing that I should hide, and only get out when there is someone to supervise her using it, so it doesn’t end up cleaning the toilet. Oh, and I found a piece of salmon wrapped up in a towel on her dresser. She is a sneaky one! And it's always an adventure at our house!