caregiver

we are blessed

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Another flood in the bathroom…. nearly a full roll of TP plugging the commode and water everywhere. He wasn’t coping well, but tried to clean things up before I went to the door to check in on him after hearing water again. Easy fix, he was able to use the room again in pretty good time. This morning will be another wipe down with hopefully, we won’t have another flood at midnight for a while.

Positives for the day:
He reached out to one of his boys – to check up on him
Laughter and smiles
He ate much better and healthier yesterday drinking more water and some gatorade

Keep your dreams alive.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

He went to bed before dinner last night, but was up again in an hour fully dressed and ready for a “bite.” That bite wasn’t much, so we’ll see how famished he is this morning when he gets up in a little while. We did enjoy dinner out on the deck last evening — the air had cooled and the breeze lightened up while there was food on the table — but even after the food was cleared, we spent another 2 hours just visiting and catching up with a neighbor as the sun went down for the evening. I think he enjoyed the company, but it wasn’t long before he wanted to go inside and talk and then go to bed. He was up again a couple of additional times looking for the dog and asking some questions. He finally settled in about 30 minutes after that — it was a late night for him afterall.

Have an awesome day!

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Seems that driving was on his mind yesterday… so we talked a bit – he still isn’t sold on hiring a driver to take him around or to using the walker when he does go out. He’s still craving independence and autonomy — I don’t blame him. It’s not safe for him to be behind the wheel – but at least there wasn’t the big blow up I had thought might expand when he wasn’t getting too far with getting ahold of the keys and such.

Postives for the day:
He enjoyed spending some time out on the deck watching us pick peaches and clean up the area under the fruit trees.
He tried some new foods last evening and seemed to enjoy them. They were filling and he didn’t want a bedtime snack before calling it a night.
His sense of humor was spot on even when he got terribly confused about what the controller for his lift chair can and cannot do. I’m not sure how many times he tried to change the channel on the TV yesterday. 😉

Keep going.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

He’s gone outside for 2 days in a row now. He took a bit of a walk yesterday, rather than just sit in a chair on the deck. He was pretty shaky by the time he got back onto the deck and wanted to come directly back into the house and veg in the cooler air of the house for a while.

He slept a little better last night — and was only up once. He’s been getting up a little earlier for the day and that’s been kind of nice. He was open to watching some Finding Your Roots – and watched 3 episodes last night. He seems to like that and we’re now finding ourselves at the end of the series, having watched all 10 seasons. It’s interesting he does remember lots of bits and pieces from some of the episodes — and he’s hoping we’ll find a link or possible window to find more information about his great grandfather. I think we’re hoping for that as well. So far, all the information we’ve been able to gather through the years still leaves us at a dead end in the 1860’s in Kentucky. We’re not able to go back any further on one of his lines.

Yesterday’s positives:
Genuine interest in what everyone was doing for the day
Enjoyed a few minutes outside in the sunshine
He thinks the dog likes veggies (she does not and definitely turns up a nose at all things green!) She would much prefer to have any meat he has on his plate and he generally takes a couple of bites before giving her the rest of his portion …. unless it happens to be ribs – which he won’t share with the dog.