It’s a brand new day — make it the best yet.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Annual physical went as expected. Not much in the way of change. He still doesn’t want to use the walker around the house even though she strongly recommended that he do so. She’s a good dr, and I wish she wasn’t retiring at the end of the year. She was a little worried about his weight loss, but we attributed that to the illness/COVID he had a week or so ago. He was only taking a bite or two of food and then pushing away the tray. He did have some blood work done and we should have those results in the next couple of days. She also recommended he add a couple of scoops of ice cream to his weekly diet to help put the weight back on. 🙂

Take every opportunity to paint the day your shade of beautiful.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He’s waking up with a smile most mornings — and there’s a sparkle in his eyes. He’s generally the first to say “good morning,” as he shuffles from his bedroom to the living room. He was happy to spend a little time outside yesterday — he kept mentioning how blue the sky was and noticed that there weren’t too many clouds either – just a few very light wispy ones. He heard one of the national guard helicopters fly by, but couldn’t really see it.

Frequently, we hear he wants to do something useful, but doesn’t know what that is — most ideas are met with a “no, I can’t do that,” answer. We’ve been batting zero again in that realm on a daily basis. He’s content to sit in his chair and watch the news most days. He does ask questions for clarification on a few things, but for the most part, just listens. Hoping we can get him out tomorrow to let him pick out some plants for the garden and get a few in the ground by the end of the weekend and maybe pick up a few flowers to brighten up the landscape.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Celebrating his going outside to sit in the sunshine for a few minutes yesterday. He heard a dove cooing in the tree across the fence line, a neighbor’s dog barking with another dog a yard away. The song birds were singing too and we could hear the kids from next door playing with each other. He was happy with all the “noise” and a bit of fresh air. The temps were perfect and little to no breeze. He was content for about 15 minutes before asking to go back inside. I doubt we’ll make it outside today with anticipated rain and wind, but we’ll see if there’s a break and he’ll agree to at least walk around the deck a couple of times.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

He really enjoyed watching (actually, it was more like binge watching) an old TV series yesterday. Actually didn’t even ask to watch the news at all. Quite the change from previous days — though it will likely be back to the news again today. The break was nice and grateful it’s on a free app and we have unlimited streaming/data. He’s been in pretty good spirits overall, though there’s still some confusion most days. No sundowning yesterday at all — and he even asked for a second piece of chicken at dinnertime and ate it without sharing with the dog. 🙂 He said he was starving!

(image credit: doodlesndreams)
CAREGIVER NOTE:
Not much in the way of new stories, but he does get disregulated if someone isn’t in the same room with him. He’s adapting to the change in time — and with daylight getting a little longer, he’s not sundowning as much either. He’s eating well and really enjoys a bowl of popcorn or ice cream in the evening. Popcorn, however, is his favorite!

It’s a good day to leave it behind.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Third night in a row of the same or very similar vivid dream for him. He was up twice overnight trying to figure out where he was and how he got out of the house and was able to get back in again (even though he hadn’t been outside). I can say he was quite pleasant in his confusion and was laughing as he re-discovered the layout of the main floor of the house and the furniture in his bedroom. He also figured out that the windows in his room weren’t doors and that access to his closet was only available from one side and not from his adjoining bathroom.

It has been interesting to watch this shift in how he handles the dreams right now – we don’t see the anger as much as we’ve seen in the past several months. He can be moody at times, though. He was cheerful as he watched the snow fall yesterday. Once again the flakes were large enough for him to see from his chair across from the window. He was amazed that the snow had melted all away as we took a very short stroll out to the deck in the afternoon to sit in the sun for a few minutes and laughed at the thought that Spring was just around the corner but it still felt a little like winter.

Celebrate the moments throughout your day.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

The “niggling” was back. Not sure what the trigger is, but it took nearly 24 hours to resolve it this time. 2 phone calls and numerous text messages later, he was finally able to release the tension and anxiety over a nonexistent event — at least for the time being. I’m not holding my breath as the “problem” is an evolving iteration of the last two but all based around the same beginning story. So whether this iteration is the last one or just another layer on something yet to be shared over the course of the next days, weeks or months is yet to be seen.

We do appreciate the support we have when it comes to family accepting phone calls that he demands be made when he just has to hear the answer again, but from a different person. So thank you — for EVERYTHING!