Mr. Q a Dementia – Alzheimer’s Man Rebels
Transcribed by Honey B Wackx
Today (it’s a couple minutes before midnight) was a bad day for Mr. Q. For those that don’t know, he was diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Mr. Q was placed in our facility a month ago on April 5th, 2008. His behavior has varied from bad to very good. Today, however was a bad one for him.
He woke up and when we saw him with many multiple clothes on plus a jacket we told him to take off one of his three shirts.
That turned into , for all practical purposes, a fight. He ignored whatever we asked him to do.
He wouldn’t let go of the caretaker who tried to help him take off some of the clothing. After about fifteen minutes we finally got him down to normal dress, except he still had on two shirts and a thick jacket.
Mr. Q had also broken the sliding closet door in the process of getting his clothes out of there. It looks like we have to empty the closet of any clothes as that is a super major problem with him almost always doing something wrong with his clothes.
It was breakfast time and he would not sit at the table more than a few seconds before he would get up and wander around. That took a few minutes to solve that problem. An hour and a half later I saw him try to open the gate, which we had semi-blocked with two large garbage bins.
He still succeeded in unlocking the gate and opening it a couple of inches. It is a no no for him to leave the premises, unless we take him somewhere or accompany him. He was warned about going out of the yard, but ignored it and everything else we said.
I had to leave for several hours to solve some big problems, but my son told me upon returning that Mr. Q tried several times to climb our concrete block wall. He also ventures up the backyard stairs, where he almost fell twice before. Same thing again and he was lucky he didn’t fall. He came close to falling, however.
Mr. Q did not eat lunch. That was the first time, I believe, that he refused to eat lunch. My son could not get him to take a nap which he has done virtually every day since he has been here. He refused to drink his drinks – they are very important since he is usually constipated.
It’s a big problem for him, compounded by him refusing to drink water. Somehow we have to get him to drink water.
There are several more incidents where he refused to do anything we asked.
Putting him to bed was a problem. I was so relieved when he went to bed. For once today some relaxation. It is normally impossible because Mr. Q roams around the house so many times a day. Today it was impossible to keep track of him as he was almost always on the move.
I must have seen him walk the patio several dozen times or more during the times I was home and noticed him. Now let’s see – the patio is about 140 feet around it and the driveway. I’d say he walked at least 40 times around the house. 140 x 40 = 5600 ft
That’s a mile and I might be underestimating all that walking.
Well it’s all over for today. He did get up about 11pm and there was a problem then. He wet his clothes and would not voluntarily take them off and put the new clean clothes we gave him. It was a major struggle to get dry clothes on him and another struggle to get him back to bed.
Now – most of the day Mr. Q was almost totally “out of it”. He kept saying “How far to 57th street?” I asked him what was there and he said the Museum of Science and Industry. I told him it was 2300 miles away and that he could not walk there.
He agreed, but it made no difference since he kept asking that same question a lot of times. He was confused at bedtime and when he woke up wet. Almost all day he was “somewhere else” and not here, except physically.
I’ve got stuff to do so that’s all for now. I hope you never have to deal with someone who has dementia or Alzheimer’s. It can drive you crazy if you are not careful. The frustration level can be almost intolerable if you let it.
It is not the same for everyone with these diseases, however, and their moods can change rapidly and unexpectedly. Mr. Q is generally unlike most of those with the same problems we have had here.
That’s because he resists anything he wants to do that we cannot let him do or try to stop him from doing. Mr. Q will easily bruise up most women and anyone who attempts to touch his clothing when he is in one of his moods. Same for eating or taking medicine.
Ending on this note, I hope it will be a better day tomorrow for Mr. Q and us too.
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