caregiver

​I’ve found mine — have you found yours?

CAREGIVER NOTE:

We were up again last evening — thankfully, the situation was easy to handle and he was satisfied after seeing the papers that were printed. He seemed grateful to know that I was aware of things and he was happy to see that the situation wasn’t as bad as he’d been thinking when he first came out of his room.

We talked for a little while longer — he rehashed his earlier concerns and had them worked through when he went back to bed a couple of hours later.

It appears that we’re back in the cycle of 3 to 4 days of minimal night sleep — going to bed earlier and getting up earlier and longer wakeful periods over the course of the night. Not much in the way of naps during the day either and he still doesn’t want to do anything other than watch his news program over the course of the day.

His eating routine is sticking to the 5 or 6 small meals a day… Gray days require more light in the main living areas of the house and in his room over the course of the day. That has helped soften the sundowning a bit and he seems a little more at ease during those late afternoon times too. He’s noticing that his balance is off a bit and that he’s shuffling more — but still refuses to use the walker and prefers having someone walk beside him, so at this time we oblige him when he asks for that help.

Recharge or Recharger?

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Visitors are always welcomed! It was so nice to watch the interchange between the two yesterday and how both of them enjoyed the visit despite the less than ideal circumstances — but they ignored the noise of the service tech’s machinery and carried on! It was beautiful and the rest of the day was quite pleasant as well.

Flip the switch

Flip the switch from – to +.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Vivid dreams pushed what we’d hoped would be a quiet day into another realm. He was really upset about something he thought had happened the day before, but hadn’t nor with the individual in his dream. It’s becoming more difficult to distract him and move past the dreams. He got very anxious and upset. I thought the problem had been resolved, but it wasn’t so. It took another 60+ minutes to get things calmed down a bit. Once he’d calmed we asked if he would like to listen to music and asked what he would like to listen to. He said Classical and after another hour of just listening to the music, he was ready to go to bed. I thanked him for choosing the music and setting such a beautiful tone for the end of the day. He was still smiling when he arrived at his bedroom door.

What will you choose to nurture today?

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Same issue as our last all-nighter. Thankfully, lessons learned previously paid off this time. After 3 hours of sharing stories and a little bit of food, he was settled enough to go back to bed for some solid sleep time. His reason for being upset started with a dream he’d just awakened from. Once again, he hadn’t signed any papers or seen a certain person in the previous 24 hours.