CAREGIVER NOTE:
Don’t lose yourself in the process of caregiving…. make time to do the things you love. That was my reminder yesterday as I visited with a friend during our online crafting session.

There are days it’s not easy — but taking that to heart, I set up my assembly area (because I didn’t finish during the online session) in the living room so he could be a part of that if he wanted and I could still get some work done. He checked things out a couple of times, asked a couple of questions and was satisfied that all would be good. And he did like the finished card when I was able to show him a finished one.

He chose to watch some shows other than news yesterday and that was nice. A little football and some Antiques Roadshow. We had several good conversations throughout the afternoon and evening.

He’s been up for the last hour and a half. He’s getting a slightly rocky start to his day. I hope things will settle down as soon as his bowels finish emptying out. (sorry about that, but it’s what happens when you have had radical surgery because of colon cancer).

POSITIVES:
Good conversations throughout the day.
Was able to let go of not having a good meal at the restaurant and not hold on to the disappointment of not being able to eat his favorite meal. The restaurant did comp part of the meal — however, it sounded like it wasn’t the only meal that hadn’t met the standard and it was still early in the day.
Didn’t start a rumble when T and A told him he couldn’t drive to the restaurant for lunch — T was designated driver for that.
He has already taken the responsibility for “cleaning up” the bathroom this morning — well sort of, I’ll still need to go in and do a little deeper cleaning and sanitize everything in a few minutes. but at least he’s done a pretty good job for a start.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Not the best day to get a haircut according to dad. Busy morning at their usual barbershop. All eight chairs filled and usually there’s no line, but there was today and all of the barbers were feeling rushed and he didn’t get the best of haircuts or shave and even got nicked a couple of times. He did say things evened out when they followed that with lunch at one of his favorite restaurants. The servers recognize him, know what he’s going to order and have it out of the kitchen and on his table quickly! He still had a little bbq sauce on his face when he got home.

It was a day filled with football, popcorn and soda – with a bit of gatorade tossed in to keep him a little more hydrated. We did get a phone call through to one of the members of the family he wanted to talk to, but he still wanted to go take a drive and visit the other one at work and have a long talk…. thankfully, he backed down from that.
Recently and more often than not, he gets really confused after the end of a phone call or facetime call and continues to carry on a conversation with whoever is in the room with him as if that person was the same one he had just been talking to just a few moments earlier. It’s been difficult for him to transition from the end of a call to the next thing.

POSITIVES:
No vivid dream issues after a nap or during the night
Only up once during the night —
Good spirits. Laughter, smiles and even a few zingers here and there during one of the football games.
NO NEWS!

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Still not having quite the desired results since we updated his night time meds. However, he has slept a full six hours without any talking, yelling or screaming. I’ll take it.

We had a pretty good day overall — and he ate pretty good yesterday, including most of the taco he built on his plate last evening. His plate was full and there was just a bit of meat left – the tortilla (street taco size) and all of the veggies were gone when he was ready to get up from the table. No spices or salsa – were included in his meal.

POSITIVES:
He enjoyed listening to some Easy Listening music last night and made several positive comments about how relaxing it was.
We had a good conversation about the happenings of the day at the dinner table
He enjoyed the surprise treat of some fresh strawberries with his lunch yesterday.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Much better day yesterday and overnight. Looking forward to sharing an update with the dr later today when she calls. The dizziness is a worry, so more watching and walking with him than we’ve had to do in the past since using the walker is still a resounding, “No.”

POSITIVES:
Video call from a grandson and great-granddaughter – meeting the great granddaughter for the first time
Short in person visit with an grandson that lives locally who’d come to help us with some yard clean up
Watched some football and stayed up with the game before listening to music for a couple of hours (nice switch up and his choice).

CAREGIVER NOTE

Change is inevitable with dementia. It looks like he’s entering the next stage. He’s getting “lost” in the house more frequently – not sure where things are or how to do things he has been very familiar with. His short term memory is almost non-existent. He’s having a more difficult time with conversation and finding words.

On the up side: I did find a music channel he seems to enjoy listening to. I caught him moving his feet to the rhythm of the music and even do a little humming to some of the more familiar tunes he heard. I think/hope we’ll be playing some music for a little while every day.

Positives for the day:
He wanted to go out for breakfast with T
He enjoyed going shopping at the bookstore with T
He was all smiles.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He had a really bad night — not sure who he was yelling at for most of the hour long episode, but I did hear one familiar name he asked for help from at the very beginning. I do hope he’ll be in good spirits today and not as many “loose ends” as yesterday. T took him for a ride, to get a haircut and a shave and out to lunch before stopping at their favorite store before coming home. He took a mini stroll around the backyard checking out a few things — wanting to know how to unlock the gate before coming back into the house. I fibbed and told him it was locked from the other side. He did find the release, but didn’t lift it enough to unlock one side of the gate. I’ve no doubt that if left long enough on his own, he’d figure out how to get out of the yard through one of the gates or break the gate to do so.

Positives:
He enjoyed watching a college football game — it went into double overtime.
He was freely giving hugs yesterday
He had lots of smiles
He asked for help in before getting too frustrated

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. 😉

Sometimes easier said than done; but definitely take some time and try.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Another long night. This time, worries about a long gone vehicle. He was finally able to settle in after about 3 hours of ups and downs.