SaturdayMotivation

Pause….

Pause.  Take a breath.  Find the good in the moment.

CAREGIVER NOTES:
They found some music for him to listen to yesterday. He even left the headphones on for a while and the oxygen in place while he listened. It was interesting to see him sleeping on his side in what I would call his most comfortable position when he was sleeping here at home. I hope that he’ll find even more comfort here at the house when we bring him home later today. He’ll be in hospice care. Yesterday was day 4 of refusing food and liquids. It doesn’t appear that he’ll change his mind and try to eat – he spit out the oral meds again yesterday, so we’re definitely moving into the comfort care stage as we follow the directives he’s left us.

POSITIVES:
He left the oxygen and music headphones in place
He responded to touch from everyone that visited yesterday (and I’m pretty sure he recognized who they were from their voices)

Truly. 

Truly. We made it through and so can you. 

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He got out of bed overnight – and fell. No additional pain or visible injuries other than a couple of bruises and now we’re waiting for X-rays and readings. They’d even beefed up the fall prevention steps, but somehow, he side-stepped them. UGH. It’s going to be a long recovery process if he won’t follow directions and stay put and sleep at night.

He did go to PT and OT yesterday. We able to stand and take two small steps. Not sure how things will go today with last night’s fall. More to come I’m sure.

POSITIVES:
His bedroom is put back together and ready
He did eat some lunch on his own
He did go to OT and PT and at tried!

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

no regrets

CAREGIVER NOTES:
Another night of trying to keep from being dragged into the rabbit hole. I’m really hoping we can move past the storyline that’s been created in his mind and keeps getting worse as each day passes. He can’t seem to let it go — we checked his financials to show him that what he thought had been happening wasn’t. But that still didn’t convince him.

I’m really hoping the vivid dreams subside for a while again. We had two days of good sleep, but we’re back into the old cycle and the change in meds isn’t helping as much as we’d hoped. Of course, it’s very likely that the events earlier this week have precipitated this.

POSITIVES:
He requested take out for dinner and ate everything on his plate (our treat).
He enjoyed a visit with a grandson and talked about some of his memories with him as a child

Reminder…

CAREGIVER NOTES:
We had a pretty good day after a bumpy night. He’s given up on the computer and his games. He is frustrated pretty easily at this point. Hoping for a good day today. It will be a no news sort of day — I can definitely live with that.

POSITIVES:
He took a walk — soaked up a little sun
Watched a football game until the end (which he rarely does)
No diving into rabbit holes while talking about a memory from more than 70 years ago

Where will your thoughts lead you?

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!

Show kindness in your world today.

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.