caregiver

10.19.24

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Not the best of nights — up 3 times with vivid dreams. Dream 1: Looking for car horns under his bed and out the window. Dream 2: Good times with old friends. Lots of laughter and joy and in good spirits. Dream 3: Playing a game, but lost the ball and no one could find it. Again looking under the bed and all around the room. He’d fixed the bed so you couldn’t tell he was out of it. UGH! He also thought he was somewhere else and wanted to go home and to his own room. He’s slept well since 2 am, thankfully.

POSITIVES:
He enjoyed phone calls with two of his sons
In good spirits most of the day
Enjoyed a “linger longer” conversation at the dinner table again last evening

Just one thing at a time — 

CAREGIVER NOTE:
complained a bit more about the pain yesterday, thankfully, the tylenol helps when he’s willing to take it. He was up and moving a little more, though. That’s a good thing.

POSITIVES:
Zingers – and they were good
Stayed up with a conversation at dinner and participated
Slept all night

Listen to your heart.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He can’t remember falling or even going to Urgent care for the x-rays or talking to the dr. He couldn’t understand why things were hurting yesterday — and he didn’t want to get up, get out of the chair, walk or anything. He seemed more confused than his normal. He was willing to hydrate and did take in sufficient fluids over the course of the day. However, changing his underwear as necessary was another thing altogether. Hoping today will be a better day in the realm.

POSITIVES:
No mishaps of flooding or plugging receptacles yesterday
No anger regarding his not remembering recent events
Enjoyed listening to some current happenings in the family

Make today a good one.

CAREGIVER NOTES:
The rice bag was a good help yesterday, not heavy enough to put much pressure on his rib area, but enough to bring some comfort with the warmth and help of a tylenol. He did drink more liquids, but not quite enough to keep the dizzies away. Let’s hope today is a better day in that realm.

The bathroom sink was plugged up again late last evening. At least things didn’t flow over onto the floor and down into the basement. YAY! Easy fix, so everything was put back to rights in about 10 minutes and after another change in underwear, he was ready to go back to bed.


POSITIVES:
He was in good spirits for most of the day
He ate well
He tried to be helpful

Be a good listener.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Suspicions confirmed. A fractured rib is causing the pain. He finally relented and okayed a trip to Urgent Care yesterday. I’m glad and it seemed to relieve his anxiety some hearing the dr’s findings after the x-rays were read. The pain only occurs when he is moving around, so he didn’t want to walk or move much to cause more discomfort. His instructions from the dr were for him to keep moving, lots of deep breathing exercises and when he is resting to use the heat packs and take tylenol as directed. The one thing he wasn’t happy to hear was that the pain would last for an additional couple of weeks….

POSITIVES:
He showed lots of patience and kindness to medical personnel that were trying to help him while at the very busy Urgent Care.
Joking around — and throwing out a few zingers over the course of the day and into the evening.
Willing to try to change a couple of things in his routine for the day for a few weeks. (We’ll see how that really rolls out — but it’s good to see that he’s willing to be a little flexible right now.)

one step

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Not the best day to get a haircut according to dad. Busy morning at their usual barbershop. All eight chairs filled and usually there’s no line, but there was today and all of the barbers were feeling rushed and he didn’t get the best of haircuts or shave and even got nicked a couple of times. He did say things evened out when they followed that with lunch at one of his favorite restaurants. The servers recognize him, know what he’s going to order and have it out of the kitchen and on his table quickly! He still had a little bbq sauce on his face when he got home.

It was a day filled with football, popcorn and soda – with a bit of gatorade tossed in to keep him a little more hydrated. We did get a phone call through to one of the members of the family he wanted to talk to, but he still wanted to go take a drive and visit the other one at work and have a long talk…. thankfully, he backed down from that.
Recently and more often than not, he gets really confused after the end of a phone call or facetime call and continues to carry on a conversation with whoever is in the room with him as if that person was the same one he had just been talking to just a few moments earlier. It’s been difficult for him to transition from the end of a call to the next thing.

POSITIVES:
No vivid dream issues after a nap or during the night
Only up once during the night —
Good spirits. Laughter, smiles and even a few zingers here and there during one of the football games.
NO NEWS!

10.11.24

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Tough day and evening, period. His trip into the rabbit hole of a situation he had been concerned about could have been much worse. He went to bed early, too early. Was back up within an hour — after having a vivid dream. The dream opened the rabbit hole. Once he dips a toe into the rabbit hole, it takes what seems forever to close the hole even for a short period of time. He went back to bed about 2 hours later. It wasn’t a good night — he was pretty restless, but wasn’t wandering overnight. He’s already checking his watch this morning and is a bit restless. Fingers crossed today will be a better day.

I think the part that hurt the most last evening was his not recognizing T (his son) even after T reintroduced himself. That was hard.

POSITIVES:
He gave some kudos to a grandchild for a favor delivered
He didn’t lose his temper and lash out.
He wanted to apologize for questioning what he finally realized the situation was resolved and taken care of and he didn’t have to take any further steps

Make time today

CAREGIVER NOTES:
Much better day overall. He took 2 walks outside. We will likely need to resume some PT for his hip as he was having some hip pain — though some of that could be the result of his fall from the day before. We’ll see how things go today during our afternoon “stroll.”

Still no answers as to what he wants to do — suggestions are still falling flat. Puzzles, card games, computer games, painting larger items, looking through memory books and family history stuff (I have all of the family binders).

POSITIVES:
Good spirits all day
Enjoyed a visit with his youngest son for about an hour during the evening
Slept all night

10.9.24

There is beauty in hard things…

CAREGIVER NOTE:

He had a difficult afternoon into early evening. He kept saying he was sick but not what was wrong or why he felt sick. He didn’t want any family help or outside help. He got very angry and was slamming doors and then leaving the house (thankfully, through the back door and not the front). He wasn’t able to unlock the fence gates and leave the yard. He wanted the keys to the truck and was very mad that I wouldn’t give them to him. He hasn’t had an episode like this for several months. Once he’d settled down, we both apologized — as I hadn’t handled it like I should have either. We looked back at the last couple of days and kind of figured out what might have been going on. He’s still not willing to go to the dr or to Urgent Care. However, he was willing to try a couple of things that might make him feel better.

LATER: We were able to watch one of the shows he really likes (Finding Your Roots) because he’s hoping he’ll find an idea that will open the window or door to finding the links to his great-grandfather and beyond on his paternal line. We’ve been at a standstill on that line for as long as I can remember and even a paid genealogist hasn’t been able to find some additional hints or leads for the family. It was a good episode, however, no no ideas came to light for either of us.

POSITIVES:
He found some quiet reflection time after the outburst.
He was willing to try some easy on the tummy foods for dinner and drink some Gator-ade since he was pretty dehydrated.
He was able to share his feelings without being angry — and tell us a little more about why he was so angry earlier.
He has slept without interruption all night Tuesday.