CAREGIVER NOTE:

Finding 3 positives was easy overnight. He named them quickly — no bad dreams, the shadows in the room didn’t scare him (and there were lots as the security lights were triggered frequently last night) and he was happy he had someone checking on him when they heard he was up. Earlier in the day he was excited about the progress being made on the handicap accessible deck — which he should be able to enjoy sitting on tomorrow while we still have some warm weather in the afternoon and early evening. He even switched on his table light to help me with a little more light while I applied the water shield to the decking joists last evening.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

The dreams he’s having lately are pretty vivid. He’s getting more and more frustrated, even angry, when we can’t follow through on a phone call or visit (the person is deceased) that he feels needs to be made regardless of the time or we don’t have an answer that satisfies his “need to know” in the moment. Saying “I don’t know,” isn’t’ what he wants to hear.

Hoping for a better day today.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

The nightmares are back. He’s spent the last 3 nights yelling in his sleep and it is unintelligible. He doesn’t remember it in the mornings and we’ve chosen not to delve into the “nightmares.” He is more tired when he gets up, however, so I know it’s impacting his sleep. He’s been okay with taking a short walk outside the last couple of days. Hoping that will continue. Grateful he is getting outside and out of the chair even for 5 minutes of fresh air. It will be getting colder soon. He still watches the birds feeding at the feeder and loves watching their antics at time — one seed for me and 15 for my friends below. I’m pretty sure I swept up about 3 lbs of seeds yesterday afternoon!

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Laughter seemed to be the keyword for the day. A few jokes and remembered stories. Lots of uh-oh’s and oops! But all done with a smile when possible. I think the sunshine and blue skies helped a lot — we’ve concluded that the day before’s down side was caused by the gloomy weather and lack of sunshine. Here’s to another day of sunshine! 🙂

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Adapting to some minor changes… After Sunday’s trip to Urgent Care and on to the ER for further treatment, a couple of things were changed much to his delight. However, those small changes have got him moving a little more frequently and are very pleasing overall. He has noticed a bit of a change in how things are working (or not working, for that matter). We’ll see if he wants to move back to how things were before in a couple of days or if he wants things to stay as they are. He does still have a choice or two in that.