When the brain takes a hit, so does it’s ability to conceptualize.  When that  happens the only thing a person sees is what is real.

This past week I’ve several times told mom during a couch-to-chair transfer to “move back.”  For me that clearly means move backward in the seat which she is now sitting.  For her with a reduced ability to conceptualize, she thinks “move back” means move back to the original place she came from which would be the couch across the room. 

The next day she was sitting in the couch that has a recliner option which she uses all the time.  I needed to look at her leg wound so I asked her to lift her foot rest.  She couldn’t conceptualize the foot rest on the place she was sitting because it wasn’t what she was seeing.  She looked across the room at her Jazzy and told me she couldn’t get to it.  The Jazzy  has a foot rest.  She deals in the world of what is visible, not what is conceptualized.

It comes down to learning a different language.  Left and right don’t make any more sense than front and back.  Although sometimes that thinking is there and sometimes it isn’t.  I’m still praying and believing for healing, because we’ve had it before.  But in the meantime I’ve got to nurture patience and speak a language not my own.