with smiles and bursts of laughter.  

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Loneliness is real. He’s the last one and he was feeling it last evening. His parents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sister have all passed on. His wife, and nearly all of his cousins have passed on as well. It has to be hard to feel so alone and not be able to reach out to nearly anyone who is your age as you’ve outlived them all.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Lucid. Somedays, I wonder if we’ll have just one or two moments. The dementia is progressing and short term memory is fading evening more. During a call yesterday with a close family member, he asked the same question 3 times in succession and still couldn’t recall the answer that was given. And if you don’t respond quick enough, he figures you don’t have an answer and he’ll move on to ask the question again. It’s becoming more difficult to find things he would like to do and that he feels he can do. His long range eyesight is becoming worse and there’s no “fix.” He feels useless at times but doesn’t want to even try to do some things. We are grateful for each moment he is with us… despite the ups and downs. The good moments are the reflection of what’s gone well at the end of the day and oftentimes his long term memories are what he chooses to share.

CAREGIVER NOTES:

Some days are just better than others…. looking forward to a good day today.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Time spent with an old friend lifted the spirits a great deal yesterday. The friend even brought an old calendar that had vintage photos of the area they’d both lived in — but Dad had the stories to go with the photos. It was fun to hear the stories unfold and was good for both of them to hear the different perspectives the photo brought out.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Celebrating the big day today. He’s looking forward to being surrounded by family this evening and hopefully, we’ll even get a big family group shot before the evening is done.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Fixations…. sometimes it’s just difficult to move past these and find another focus. It’s been better for us to just sit down and let him talk it through. Whether it’s something going on personally or within the household that is worrying, he needs to be heard and not brushed off. We spent a good two hours discussing the possibilities of a change in jobs for my husband. Little did I know or understand how much that worried him. He thought that the change would mean we would have to move and that he might lose his place with us here – that there wouldn’t be room for him or we wouldn’t want him to stay with us. He wanted to know if we were looking for a new house and if we would be selling ours. We talked through each of his concerns. He seemed relieved and at peace when he finally went to bed. I hope that he will remember that we’re not moving and that he will always have a place with us during our conversations today — but if he doesn’t, I’ll gladly sit down with him and we’ll talk it through again.