Dementia Day: So Far, So Good!

Wednesday May 21st – 2008
So far today it has not been a big problem with Mr Q. It’s the first morning I was not forced to get up early to calm Mr. Q putting on/off his clothes in the morning or going to the table(and staying there) to eat. That is, the first morning that I remember in the last three weeks or so.

He made up for that by wandering around a lot. He did eat his lunch without a problem. It has been a problem the last couple of weeks.

We were able to give him a bath with very minor problems. We means the owner caretaker. All I did was watch and prevent him from grabbing dirty clothes or fighting with the caretaker. Today was a breeze giving him a bath compared to other times when it is a struggle for our lives it seems. He again [twice in two or three days] took off his shirt by himself. He even took off the rest of his clothes by himself today for his shower where previously that was an impossibility. I was able to sneak out his dirty clothes without him noticing. Had he noticed then all bets would be off on his reaction.

Today was another stupid nap day. After asking and sneaking in the bed several times, at least, he did not seem to know what taking a nap meant when 2:00 pm rolled around. We have tried to instill that time for nap time so he would not get confused. He used to know exactly what it meant. Now it seems to mean nothing except as a question before he looks at the clock. I did get him to get in bed by himself [what a relief], but it was short lived. He was up within a very few minutes.

Several times he was up – then I convinced him to go back to bed. It was to no avail because after doing that several times I told him to just stay up since it was obvious he didn’t want to take a nap. A half an hour of up and down and I was getting frustrated so I told him to just go watch TV. He did for a minute, then was back up and wandering around. Almost like a chicken with his head cut off.

I was so tired of it so I thought I’d try something I did yesterday and it worked. I got Mr. Q to go look at the clock himself. I told him it was well past two o’clock and he better take a nap before it was too late. He walked to the clock and saw it was after two-thirty and slowly walked to the bedroom. I waited to see if he would close the door. He did a minute later. He stayed there all of three or four minutes – got up and went outside on the patio. He was there a minute and back into the house he came.

I again reminded him of the time and for him to go look himself. He did again and went back to bed. One more time a few minutes later he was up. I reminded him to check the time. He did, went back to bed and remained there. I left and did some of my chores. Later I checked and discovered he was still in there, presumably sleep.

As I write this at 4:30 pm my son just came and told me Mr. Q refuses to put on his pants. He had just got up from his nap. I went to the bathroom got him out peacefully, guided him to his room and calmly asked him to find his pants and put them on. His pants were hidden under his sheets. I was shocked that he did as I asked. No problems. He got ready to walk out the room and I asked him to put on his socks. He did without a problem. Wow! Two things in a row without a problem. That’s great.

I walked back in our bedroom to my makeshift office and got back on my computer to finish this. He came to the open door and waved at me. He knew he did right and was probably proud of himself. Previously it would have been a major struggle to get him to put on his pants and socks. I better end this post while I am still ahead.

More to come…

beginners -read these reports- learn about internet marketing