Thank You... for a number of reasons!

Before I begin this article, I want to address a few things.  First, Thank You to everyone that has commented or emailed about this blog.   I really appreciate the support and encouragement.   Talking openly about my feelings is not something that comes easily.  

 

Second, Thank you to everyone that wished Pam a Happy Birthday.  It was a good day.   We went out to dinner with our girls and spouses.  It was fun.

 

 

Lastly, I would like to remind everyone that Pam and I (and most of the family) will be participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer's in Manchester, NH on September 24th.  If you have contributed a donation in support of this cause, I Thank You very much.   If you would like to contribute, go back a few blog entries and you will find the details. 

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Sadly, I must say that I am noticing little things that are indicators of her continued decline.  At the same time, I am very gratified that the people around us understand what is happening and have been so accommodating.    We had some visitors last week and even though Pam knows them very well, she had their names messed up.  But they understood and never even took notice of the names.  I can not say enough about how wonderful people have been with Pam.  Another thing that I have noticed is that she wakes up in the middle of the night and is speaking gibberish.  I had never seen that before.  When I asked her how she was doing, she collected her thoughts and responded in English.  I have also noticed additional slowness in situations requiring some cognitive response.  But we continue to have more good days than bad.

 Pam's (and mine) biggest frustration continues to be with time.  But I have noticed that it is most prevalent on days when she has some appointment on the schedule.  For example, last week there was a video appointment with her Psych Nurse Practitioner.  After only two hours of sleep, she was up and starting to get ready for the appointment.... which would begin in 13 hours.  I tried to explain about am and pm and about daylight and dark out.   She was honest and said that she was not sure that she believed me.  I promised her that I would wake her and not let her miss her appointment.  She did believe me enough to go back to bed.  Ninety minutes later she was up and about to get into the shower.   She has no cognitive ability with respect to time.   She can read the clock and understands the present time, but she has no understanding of future time.  When she gets frustrated, she keeps saying that the clock is using military time and she wants me to return it to regular time.  And we are using a typical Alzheimer's clock.

As it turned out, she barely participated in her own appointment because she was exhausted.  But I have just run out of ideas about how to handle this.  I have tried to do some online searches, but most of the information on time perception among dementia patients is from grad students and doctors mostly focused on understanding what is going on in the brain.  I have found very little practical information.  But I will continue my search.

 On a good note, we had the kids and grand kids over for Memorial Day.   As usual, we had plenty of food.  The boys all got to interact, although we did miss Elijah.  We all understand that as they get older, girlfriends and jobs tend to interfere with extended family events.  We did get to discuss how we plan to add some sleeping arrangements to my den.  More on that in a later blog.   And to keep my sanity, I have taken up some gardening around our entrance and flower boxes hung on the deck.  One of my favorites is hibiscus.