Dad doesn't have those boney knees anymore. He has now gained 15 pounds in the last 3 weeks. He came down off the dementia ride as of about 4pm this afternoon. He was sitting on the couch and we just finished watching Polar Express. He asked me if we had gone to Indiana Sunday....I said, Uhhhh, no Dad, that's 720 miles away. Then he said Good, because I was worried how we could have done that. Then he realized that he had been totally confused. He asked me more questions and I told him what he said and what he was telling me had happened to him, about getting up at 3am, etc.
He did laugh at some of the things I told him he said. Especially about the Plymouth Truck motor running and he had to get his shoes on to go out and turn it off. So I asked what was going on with that story and this is what he said. "I was having a dream about the government and they had shoved out a bunch of people on the street without food or housing. There was this place where you could get car parts. It became night time and Isabelle and I had to find a place to stay. You were just a little kid. We found this other family who had a little boy. So we all spent the night in this one big house and took a bedroom but we had no covers. I found this big truck and was trying to find the owners. This went on for about 4 days and the other couple had left. Isabelle and I had decided to drive the truck which turned out to be a big Plymouth Army truck. It wasn't running right and I decided I was going to try to get it going better. It had gas in it and I went to drive it away, I basically stole it. Another young guy was with me and it was kinda intriging to him. He wasn't part of stealing it. I took it to a store to see if they wanted to help him fix it but no one would help. Then I got it fixed the best I could. Seems like it was either in Kokomo or Peru. To get it really fixed this guy really said he would look at it and then I never went back to see if he got it fixed. Something happened in between time and I got suspicious and never went back to see about it."
Dad is fully aware NOW that he was really believing all that while he was "dreaming".
It all makes sense to him now.
He found it hard to believe it was 3 days long.
I told him it was like he has a black out and just stays in a state of dreaming.
Dad would make a good test study for dementia because he remembers almost everything afterward and is able to tell what he was feeling. I asked him about when I ask him questions or point out that there are no trucks outside running....what did he think at that time? Didn't it make him want to come back to reality seeing me as old as I am and that I am not the little girl in his dream? His answer to that? I wasn't really who I was in the dream. I am a relative trying to disrupt the order of things. I am not making sense to him when he sees all those things in his mind. So I am wrong and he is right at the time he is in that state of mind.
I wonder what it would take for him to be brought back or is it just something that has to run it's course? I do know for a fact that what brings Dad out of it is REST. He wears himself down so much during one of these episodes that he gets exhausted and sleeps soundly.
I have also noticed that he is no longer moaning in his sleep as he did in November and December. He sleeps soundly now as along as he is not have the Dementia take over. I truly believe that this medicine he is taking has helped with so many things that tormented Dad. He doesn't really seem to be depressed anymore. With no depression he wants to eat, talk and find some reason to live on.
Last evening I was mopping the kitchen and Dad was making hand signals to me from the living room sofa. I was also cooking dinner. I didn't quite understand the signals so I went into the living room and asked him what he was meaning. He said he wanted to come out there to the table. I said I didn't have dinner ready yet. He said that was okay, he wanted to come and and gab....lol I thought that was pretty funny. So he came out and started talking about his day at the Senior Center. He is starting to make some friends I think.
He has been approved to go to the center up to 23 days a month for one price according to scale. {$180 a month, no matter how many days he goes} Not too bad considering that it's normally $45 a DAY for many others who do not qualify for the program. There are other things Dad can get into around here but I am slowly letting him get used to being in unfamiliar situations. Dad doesn't like being out of his element often. He wants to know What's Next?, as I call it. Once he learns the ropes at the center we can move onto some other entertainment for him. They will do outings when the weather gets better. I know he will like that.
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