CAREGIVER NOTES:

We spent a little time outside yesterday — not much because it was rather warm, but he marveled at the color of blue in the cloudless sky. He did notice that the mountains had more color – reds, oranges and golds against the dark green of the pines and cedars.

He’s still fixated on something he sees as a problem — he had another “visit” with his uncle yesterday afternoon and he brought it up in our afternoon conversation for the second day in a row. The problem is worrisome to him and we haven’t found the right words to help him resolve it in his mind. Maybe today will be the day. Fingers crossed.

POSITIVES:
He was excited to hear that we were having ribs for dinner ( it is his favorite) and literally cleaned his plate.
Smiles in the morning – laughter before bed
No malfunctions in the bathroom yesterday! I’m not sure who was more happy about that — him or me!

CAREGIVER NOTE:

He walked out the front door yesterday, if I hadn’t heard the door catch…..he might have gotten much further before I noticed he was missing – I was able to catch up with him just as he made it to the bottom of the ramp. By the time we walked back from the neighbor’s driveway, he was complaining about his hip hurting. His gait is more of a shuffle now. He still refuses to use the walker as a help. He needed help with his bedtime routine last evening — terribly confused.

POSITIVES:
He was conversational for a good part of the day and into the evening
He was really gentle with the dog and showed genuine concern about her incision site and making sure she was okay through the day
He enjoyed watching a show of his choice after dinner and seemed really drawn into it for a while, asking questions and responding so some of what was going on.

Hoping each sunset you take time to see takes your breath away and reminds you of the gifts you’ve received that day.

Watch for the blessings you receive throughout your day.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Lots of stories last evening… lots of mingling of details, but he was talking and sharing and contributing to a multi-hour conversation. It all started when we were sharing a story about the importance of an education and how different that was for some people. He went into a lot of details of some of his experiences — very interesting. He didn’t attend college, but all of his sons did and most have advanced degrees in their engineering, medical and other fields of expertise. It’s been fun to hear about his educational experiences — and how they impacted his life and that of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Another 3 am wake up – he was lost again and was knocking on his door. Thankfully, after a little bit, he was able to recognize things in his room that made it “his.” He spent another couple of hours earlier in the day being worried about things on the “farm.” He shared several of the stories from the day before again and then needed to make a call to one of the boys. Once that was handled, he wasn’t so worried again.

He chose to binge watch a whole season of Finding Your Roots last evening. He really enjoyed it and wasn’t ready to call it a day until the credits of the last episode rolled through.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

The “nigglins” continued through the day. I’m hoping they were resolved with yesterday’s late afternoon call. There are just some things we can’t help with it seems even though we have told him exactly what the other person has said or will say. I feel bad that another person has to be brought in at times, but there is that relief when they say exactly what we’ve said in previous to their call — but their voice was needed to resolve the problem he couldn’t quite sort out and put away.

Here’s hoping for a nice quiet sort of weekend….
Positives for the day:
He ate well
He had a few smiles
After a very early start on his day, he went to bed early and has slept fairly well all night