It’s harder than I thought it was going to be to keep this
up. Some days I am so busy with Dad and
little time to sit down at the computer and put my thoughts together. I tell
myself these are the days of my life that it’s so important for me to continue…a
therapy of sorts.
Since Dad has been off all those new meds he was on when I
got here he has IMPROVED so much. There is dementia still but not as bad as it
was. He is not as angry. I do notice that he wants to know where I am all the
time. I guess I am Dad’s security blanket and that’s fine.
Music helps Dad a lot when he is going to sleep. When he is
restless I turn the CD on of the Gaithers and he almost immediately calms down
and stops growling in his presleep.
Dad has now started to drool….I have him dry swallow
throughout the day but he continues to do so today. Actually, he started to do
that last night when Michelle was here and was progressively worse until
bedtime. He is sometimes non responsive. He continues to see this lady who his
associated with a religious man who is trying to get him to join some religious
sect. He doesn’t know these people but he is fearful of them
All during the week he thinks he is away from his home on Sherman Street . He
talks about how the rooms are configured differently than the house he built.
He wants me to hire an exterminator to kill the rats and bugs in the house and
became somewhat angry last night when I wouldn’t call someone right now. He
said I don’t do what he asks me to do and I do what he doesn’t want me to
do……example…getting a security system for the house. This comes and goes.
Dad had a good day today but for a couple incidences of
hallucinations. He saw a little “dragon” like creature in his sweatpants as he
was on the pot. He felt down the legs to see if he could feel and bring it up
for me to see. Of course, no such creature to show me. I told him if he could
produce it, we could make millions.
I was having cold like symptoms and I decided to lay down
about 7pm. I set the alarm
for 8:30pm so I wouldn’t
sleep past Dad’s bedtime. Out of the blue I hear Dad call my name….WILDA, come
quick……there is a car coming through the wall and it’s halfway through. I was
awake now but saying that I was not getting up to see a car coming through the
wall. He says fine, but you are going to miss it. I did get up as I saw that he
was half off the recliner and sitting way down with his legs dangling. I got up
to sit him up straight. All the while he is going on about the little people
playing the organ, of which there is none in Dad’s house. I told him that there
wasn’t an organ and I was not going to play into his story and he said Okay
fine, thanks for your help. LOL Go on back to bed then.
He was mumbling to himself there was water all over the
floor but he mumbled to himself.
While still in Indiana on December 21st…He was
very awake today and talking on the phone to Louise and talked to Nola for a
while….all along very alert and animated.
Rod, Dad and I were in the living room and Dad was
hallucinating but making some sense……he said there was a lady there in the
room….he said he didn’t know her name…and I said, why don’t you ask her what
her name is and his reply was, “I guess I am bashful” Oh and my wife get after
me.”
OH MY GOD we just laughed and laughed and Dad even laughed
at that answer and grinned ear to ear. Oh it was so funny and how I recalled
how Mom WOULD have got after him…..she was have said she was Mrs. Invisible and
commented how he was busy talking to THE women and she was over there by
herself…..and I repeated all that to Dad and he just grinned, seemingly to
remember how Mom WOULD have reacted to him talking to “that” woman.
Every day Dad entertains us in some sort of fashion like
that.
Earlier in the day we all had eaten at the table….Dad ate
well and after dinner I asked him if he wanted any coffee. Oh yes he said,
coffee sounded good…. I had some coffee singles of vanilla flavor so I made a
cup in the machine for making one/two cups at a time. So I carefully cooled the
coffee down for him with some French Vanilla creamer….and stirred it. I got
ready to give it to him and told him to take a sip from the straw that we use
to ease his swallowing and he asked what it was and I said coffee and he
squealed, Ohhhhh I don’t want that and wrinkled up his face at me…..Rod and I
both started to laugh because it didn’t surprise us that he had completely
forgotten that he even wanted it. I gave it to RodSo we went to the living room
and sat for a while, Dad telling stories and then out of the blue he asked
where HIS coffee was with his eyes big looking at Rod. OMG, we laughed and
laughed.
Dad always had a way of talking that would get your
attention. As an 89 year old man with dementia, the intensity of his gestures
adds to the dynamic of his words. He carefully chooses his words when he is
talking to us. Many times they are precise and using intellectual descriptions.
Dad was sitting on the sofa this evening and he had a busy
time moving up and down on the seat saying that he needed to get up to either
go check on something or to get over to another part of the room. We would keep
a close eye on him to make sure that he didn’t fall. He started to talk about a
bus being here with some people and he wanted to go to the front door to see
them. I took him over to the front door and he looked out the window saying
what a mess it was out there…..soon the concern about the bus diminished and he
was no longer interested in seeing it. So he came back to the sofa where Rod
helped him to sit down.
Later that same evening Rod was sitting next to him and he
was talking about moving things around near the sofa…he had a box of balls….and
he says The hell I ain’t….this coming from a man who did NOT cuss, and then
said “You people shuffled me around….and blew my mind.” Hahaha How can you not
just burst out laughing? He is totally unmoved at the humor of it all sometimes….just
as serious as he can be while he still continues to maneuver whatever he thinks
is out of order on the couch and in front of him….mostly invisible items.
He has “worked” for a couple hours at “fixing” the area he
is sitting in to readjust his surroundings.
