Dementia Madness
Transcribed by Honey B Wackx
Tuesday May 27, 2008
Today was also not a good day, although it was not as bad as yesterday. There was a problem with him following instructions this morning. That’s common, but it was worse today.
My wife had to tell him maybe fifty times to do anything like go to the table to eat, brush your teeth, let go of my hands, etc. Once at the table he ate without a problem. Getting him there and staying there is the normal, almost daily problem with one or more of his meals. Sometimes all three meals.
I noticed he fell asleep in the midst of playing ball this morning. I was busy and so was my wife so I did not wake him up. It was only 9 am and he had only been up an hour. I think that lasted almost a half hour.
I checked on him several times to see if he was still sitting in the chair asleep holding the big beach ball. I had to move the big garbage containers back into the yard and when I came back in the yard with one of them he was up chasing the ball which fell out of his hands.
It was about 75 degrees or more, but Mr. Q was dressed in a heavy sweatshirt-like jacket with the hood up. He was sitting in the sun so it definitely was not cold. I was outside in my t-shirt and it was very nice weather. You would never know it by looking at Mr. Q.
Some time in the morning he snuck away and went into his room. That is almost always a bad sign. We try to keep him out of his room as all he will do is sleep or get into some type of trouble. This was no exception. My wife went there only to find him in the closet peeing in a small cup.
At lunch, right before serving we both had to leave the room for a minute. Mr. Q was drinking his little glass of milk so I thought it was ok to go since he only sips like a baby would do. It can take him ten minutes to sip the very small glass of milk or any liquid.
Originally we gave him large glasses (plastic glasses), but he refused to ever drink much from them so we had to resort to giving him several little glasses since he will drink from them. I heard a yell a few seconds after I left.
Mr. Q had gone and taken the food off the counter, loaded one of the chicken patties with barbecue sauce he got from the refrigerator. He ate another one that was another persons. Then he refused to let us sit him at the table (he had gotten up and headed for the patio door). He also would not give us the food to put on the table so he could eat properly.
At nap time he would not stay in bed for long. That is one of the few times we can relax our guard and get anything accomplished. I got him to go back to bed and he only got up one more time after that.
The rest of the day was essentially watching him. I was running back and forth from my computer every couple of minutes to see if he was still sitting on the couch watching TV. During the next two hours he must have gotten up at least 15 times and snuck in bed.
Each time I held my temper and told him it was not time to go to bed. He had to eat first and there were a few hours before bedtime. He totally me, as usual the past few days and would even sneak into the bedroom just seconds after I walked away from him.
I counted 12 times he would sneak his bedroom and get in bed, but there were a few more times he jumped in bed. Each time he was snuggled up and ready to sleep.
It sounds innocent sleeping all the time like he wants, but there are serious problems if we let him do that. It is very difficult to get him up after he sleeps sometimes. He is often “out of it” when he wakes up and that is another real difficult problem to contend with.
He could have medicine to “drug him” like what was essentially done at the convalescent home he was in for a month or so before he came to us. However that would cause serious problems with him pooping all over himself.
That’s because when he goes poo poo he needs help from prune juice or other stuff first because he will not sit still on the toilet stool to ever do his bm business. It’s a real problem and would be much worse if he was pooping in his bed because he would not wake up and go to the bathroom. There are other problems associated with him sleeping all day which I will not mention.
Mr. Q went to bed a few hours ago and so far he has not gotten up like he has the past few days. I hope tomorrow is a better day.
Oops I was ending this and now he is up standing in his room in the dark. I hear my wife trying to get him to follow directions with no luck. He was pulling her and would not let go. He totally ignored her.
I had to force him to let go. Mr. Q seemed like a zombie. No words, no sound, crazy action. I expect more problems tonite but hope not, as I want to sleep peacefully tonite without worrying about him getting into mischief.
My wife thinks he was trying to get a cup out of the bathroom and pee in it like he did earlier. It seemed like that was what he was reaching for. Maybe that’s why he grabbed her and would not let go. He could have been upset he did not get his way. Just speculation. We will never know.
Tomorrow is another day (well it’s 12:07 am so it’s already tomorrow).
