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.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Sauerkraut is in the crock and the he is thrilled! He didn’t feel like helping shred it, but he was invested in making sure the correct amount of salt was added and that the liquid was over the top of the weights. He remembers that much! We had some good conversation, though the topics got mingled and sometimes a little garbled. Hoping that he’ll have some more lucid moments today — it’s sometimes difficult to go down the rabbit hole with some of his thoughts.

to learn something new this month.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

New adventures await! The final piece for the sauerkraut making adventure arrives next week. He is so excited and anxious to get started. He asked the same questions over and over for nearly an hour about the crock, the lid, the weights, the slicer and how much cabbage (in pounds) there was in the garden and if there would be enough to fill the crock and how we would preserve it for the winter… I have a feeling the next few weeks will be very interesting as he asks, “is it ready yet?”

He does remember past experiences of slicing cabbage, adding salt, weights and most of the rest of the process. BUT… most importantly eating it all winter long.