Alzheimer's Daze

Monday, May 19, 2008
It was a good day for us all. Mr. Q behaved almost flawlessly. The normal problems with his clothes in the morning did not materialize. Lunch was not a problem, he ate half his lunch with no problem. It’s rare when he will eat all his meal at lunch without being coaxed to continue to eat.

He didn’t wander as much as normal. That was a very welcome breather for all of us. Even with two or three of us it is a tedious job trying to keep up with him. If we take our eye off of him he frequently disappears and then it’s a hunt trying to find him.

Sometime during the day he quietly went to the bathroom and guess what, he pis.ed in the sink. I didn’t know about it until a few hours later when Laureta told me she caught him doing that. I don’t know if there was someone in the bathroom at the time or not. Mr. Q will force his way into the bathroom if he wants to go in and someone else is there. It makes no difference, and unless we can physically remove his hand from the doorknob (and that is not easy) he will barge in if the door is not locked, which is usually the case. Most of the time when he goes into the bathroom he goes there to spit and not to use the restroom.

I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I got him to take off his shirt by himself. That’s very rare. In fact I think I only saw him do that only once since he’s been here. I was actually able to convince him to take off his shirt, hand it to me, and put on a clean shirt by himself. He didn’t get all crazy like normal and fight and refuse to take it off like normal.

Maybe there is some hope for Mr. Q (with his clothes).