Dementia Man: Three-month Review (Part 4)

Spitting

His spitting problem is not quite so bad, but it has taken untold hours of me making him go outdoors to spit and not do it in the bathroom. It still is a major problem, but not nearly as bad as before.

There are a lot of side effects of his spitting it’s a relief not to have to clean up after him so much as that is what we have to do a lot of times.

Speech

His speech seems to be getting worse. Lately he is slurring his very few words that he does speak. Not always, but a lot of times. He is definitely speaking less than before. I notice he has a very difficult time forming the words to say and even so cannot get them right much of the time.

I don’t know if this is permanent or some phase he is going through. Although he never said much when he did talk, now it is much less than before and most of the time he will say nothing, even when you ask him a question or if he understands.

Talking about the past

Now there is no talk of going to 57^th street. No talk of going to the bank. No talk of walking to the park. All of that is gone, at least for the past month or more. I really do not think he is aware of that enough anymore to talk about it.

Where before I could ask him questions about the past where I knew the correct answers if I do that now I get no answer(s) or can tell he is out of it and doesn’t really realize what I am talking about (or so it seems).

Memory

Although this is similar to the above it seems like his memory of things in the distant past is probably still there. Occasionally I will ask him questions about his past and events that I know the answers to and he will still get them right if he answers at all.

Yesterday we in the swing on the patio and I asked him some difficult questions. I could tell he was still aware at that time. Although most of the time I am afraid he is not very aware of things like before.

I asked him what happens when you die and he said “You go to heaven”. I asked him about his sister (the one who died fairly recently) and he said she died. I asked him if he knew anyone by the name of “Silver” and he said the correct answer and also said she died a little while ago.

A little later when inside on the couch and he still seemed aware of things I asked him if he knew anyone named “Tommy”. He said no. Before he would have said yes. I asked about the names of some close relatives children.

He did not seem to know, even when I said the names several times. Finally after saying the different names many times he said yes he knew one of them. The others in the same family he never said he knew them – but he did not say he did not know them. These he had answered correctly two and almost three months before.