So today my mother got on her computer and saw an ad for life insurance policies and I caught her talking to an agent on the phone telling him all her information.  So I marched into my son's room and pulled the plug on the main handset (he has the internet in there, which is where the phone is plugged into).  And my old coping mechanism came roaring back to me when she, or someone like her, does something crazy: my heart starts pumping out of control, I start shaking, and I can barely speak because I need to catch my breath.  The thing is, I have tried my damnedest to make sure she doesn't have access to her bank accounts, but the thing is, she just might have the bank numbers handy.   And then I'd have to figure out where she was buying it from, and cancel it, just like I did with the stupid Life Alert program she signed up for (they have a single digit away from the VA Pharmacy, on purpose, so confuse seniors who accidentally think they're calling the VA--what a terrible company!).  And there's no guarantee you'll get your money back if your senior buys something like that.  

So I am sitting in front of an open window, trying to cool off, because I burn up when I get this way.  I am not sure why I panicked so hard.  But I was just freaking out, trying to get to his room to pull the plug on the phone as fast as I could.  It worked.  But now I am stuck having to have a conversation with her about how that's not appropriate.  But maybe I don't?  She doesn't listen anyways, so instead, I could just do what I said before and install a browser on her computer so she can't have access to anything but her email and the newspaper.  Though maybe she saw this ad on the newspaper?  She put her fucking phone number in!!  And now we're going to be getting calls all day and night because they're going to sell it.  Sigh.  I will have to change it now.  And tell her it's her fault for putting her phone number into a website like that.  Ugh.  

So I went out to the kitchen to let my dogs out and her handset was on the counter, so I quickly switched mine with hers so I could see her redials and whatnot.  She deleted the call the from the insurance company.  Too bad I can see it on our account online.  I will call the guy back tomorrow and tell him my mother has dementia and he can't be speaking to her.  Never mind, I just called him right now and told him and he apologized.  

And this is why I listen to her phone calls.  I usually don't listen when she's talking to most of her silly little friends (especially not Halloween, she's irritating as hell).  But I can't trust her as far as I can throw her and that's not very far.  I think it's time to really lock down everything and close any accounts she may have access to.  Also, like I said, I may have to change our home phone number.  I WISH Xfinity would let me forward all calls to my phone and not let our home phone ring.  But alas, you can forward them, but your original phone will still ring.  Which is besides the point of why I need this service in the first place.  Ugh.  I need a senior proof internet and home phone.  

I am leaving our home phone unplugged for now.  I will wait until she says something about it.  Then I will act like "Oh no, it's not working?  Let me check on that for you."  And I will pretend to restart the internet to get it to work.  I don't know what to do about blocking her from doing this kind of stuff anymore.  

The issue here is that I just plain don't want to confront her about this.  Because I don't trust her not to get into an argument about money or whatever else she wants to complain about.  And I am just so done with her arguing with me about stuff.  Because sometimes, she gets physically violent.  And I told her, if she got physically violent with me again, she's off to a home.  Actually, she'll be committed to whatever place 911 commits her to.  There needs to be a paper trail of her violent behavior.  And so that's what I will do next.  

Okay, well, let's see where this takes us.  Ugh.  

NEXT DAY: I plugged the phone back in.  I found in her desk papers she wrote down more life insurance information, which I took and threw away.  She's manic today.  I really believe she's bipolar.  When she's like this she runs her mouth like diarrhea and her speech is pressured.  And that could be why she's making crazy choices, too.  This would explain a lot.