Prelude

It's been just over a month since I've noticed a change in Betty's behavior. I remember sitting down to Christmas dinner with our company, feeling obligated to keep the conversation going because Betty was completely silent. This was very unlike her; dining is her favorite activity (especially on holidays) because she gets to eat great food, drink great wine, and relax with her friends. So I didn't quite know why she had chosen to be completely silent.

As this type of behavior progressed, I started to take it personally. She was brushing off everything I told her about my life (including awards I'd won, new friends, good grades, etc.). I thought it had something to do with my turning 18 on December 30th. She must be testing me, I thought. It was some mind game. If I could handle her complete lack of interest and control in my life, I could handle anything as a new, legal adult.

Being the teenager that I am, I decided that I could definitely handle her wanting nothing to do with me. I spent entire weekends away from home and I went out all the time on school nights. Usually, this type of behavior at least merited a few questions on her part, but for the past month, she asked nothing.

Two or three weeks ago I finally mustered up the courage to ask my Dad if something was wrong with Betty. He told me "She thinks she might have some sort of major illness." Her mother has serious Alzheimer's, so she thought she might be showing early signs of something similar. "I think she's just stressed out because this year is her 65th birthday," he continued, "and she's afraid of getting old."

I found his words unnerving, but I figured that the two of them were taking the appropriate steps to handle whatever the problem was. Betty did, in fact, see a doctor at that point, but it just so happened that it was her first meeting with her new doctor, and so this new doctor was unable to sense any personality change. She hadn't known Betty long enough.

About two weeks ago, her behavior began to change even more drastically. What started off as slight depression or general aloofness escalated into forgetfulness, balancing issues, poor depth perception, and eventually, obsessive compulsiveness. She bumped her car twice in one week. She slipped while walking down the stairs. One day, she decided to tilt all the chairs on the first floor against their respective tables. When I asked her why she did this, she simply replied "Because I can." "No reason?" I asked again. "No." She began doodling on papers, wandering around aimlessly, and forgetting how to work things like lights, flushers, remotes, etc.

Frankly, I was scared shitless. I didn't know if she was making all of this up. What if she was medicating herself? What if she had been possessed by aliens? I didn't know what to do. I'm only 18. I don't know these things. I asked my dad again if he was taking medical action, to which he replied, "We have a psychiatric appointment in a week or so." That didn't do it for me. I got out the phone book, and watched him as he dialed Kaiser to schedule an appointment for the next day. They went in together, and Kaiser took a simple blood test. They would schedule a CT Scan "soon" to make sure that everything was okay in her brain, but they didn't find it urgent. When I told my Dad he wasn't taking this seriously enough and he needed to call Kaiser back and complain to them, Betty simply pointed at me and nodded her head. But he insisted that there was nothing we could do at this point.