Tag: dementia

(Originally posted in Facebook on July 19, 2019)

It’s been a while since M has gotten obsessed about anything, but it happened again last night.

Friday is trash collection day, so I asked him to get a garbage bag from underneath the kitchen sink. I wanted him to go around the house and get the trash together to put out at the curb, but I didn’t say that last bit, just that I wanted him to get the bag and then I went in the bathroom to brush my teeth while he got it.

He came in the bathroom with the bag and asked if I wanted him to put the “things that are in the back” into the bag. We have a dual trash container in the kitchen – garbage in the front, recycles in the back. The recycles go in a blue bin in the garage and you aren’t supposed to use plastic bags for them, so no, I didn’t want him to put the recycles in the plastic bag.

He had to wait until I finished brushing my teeth and he was in the kitchen, almost hopping from one foot to the other, he was so anxious to put those recycles in the garbage bag he had in his hand. I sent him downstairs to empty the trashcan in the den and then he was right back, “Now, can I empty these?” pointing to the recycles bin.

I finally shut the kitchen garbage bin SO HE COULDN’T SEE IT ANY MORE and sent him around the house to finish emptying the trash in the rest of the rooms. Then I had him empty the recycles into the big blue bin in the garage so it would no longer bother him.

Whew! When he gets focused like that, it’s tough to get him to move past it. Fortunately, he doesn’t get angry or belligerent about it. He’s very good natured – but he was very intent on that recycling!

(Originally posted in Facebook on July 17, 2019)

I’m not sure exactly what was going on with M last night . . . we had a pretty typical evening – dinner, TV and then bedtime. It’s not unusual for him to fall asleep while I’m in the bathroom, washing my face.

But last night, he couldn’t seem to fall asleep. He had turned over and I was reading in bed – as I do – but he kept grouching at me to “turn the light off.”

Of course, as soon as I did turn the light off, I fell right to sleep and slept through the night. Ha! This morning, I didn’t ask him how much longer he was awake – I didn’t want to know.

It’s so hot here – 95 degrees during the day and the heat index is well above 100 – our air conditioner is having trouble keeping up. That could be a part of his problem. He’s still putting on a t-shirt, long sleep pants and socks for bed. I know that’s what is comfortable to him January – maybe he needs to change it up in July!

(Originally posted in Facebook on July 15, 2019)

M and I try to donate blood every eight weeks at a local church that sponsors a blood drive . . . he’s type O negative, so they practically give him a piggy-back ride to get him there. Everyone at the church who works the blood drive is really nice and they have the best snacks – homemade peanut butter crackers, donuts, fresh popcorn. And now you know why I go!

Now that “back to school” is right around the corner (can you believe it?!?) the church is gathering supplies for children whose parents can’t afford to buy them. So, I stocked up on some things that M and I could donate and help out. When we were unloading our groceries, I told him to put the school supplies in the dining room and we would take them to the church later.

Saturday afternoon, he asked me what we were doing with all those school supplies.

Sigh.

(Originally posted in Facebook on July 12, 2019)

It’s a red letter day – both M and I got out of the house today and neither of us had a headache! I think that deserves to be noted in some way.

Last night, I went downtown to the old theater to see “Grease” with a friend. M wasn’t interested in going, so it was a girls night out. We had a ton of fun – it was hilarious to see all the people in the theater singing and clapping along with the songs in the movie.

M did call me when he got home from work yesterday to let me know he talked to someone from his HR department about the new position he wants. Unfortunately, I really don’t understand what the HR person said . . . and M doesn’t seem to be able to tell me. He and I talked about it again this morning and I still couldn’t make any sense out of what he was saying.

He said the HR guy told him they received his application for the job. Okay – got that. But then there was some sort of conversation about next steps and all M kept saying was “doing that thing” and “you know.”

When he’s saying “doing that thing” I think he’s referring to the application we completed online, but as far as I know, it’s done. There’s nothing else to do. The ball is now in HR’s court.

And when he says “you know” – no, I don’t know.

So we had a couple of very frustrating conversations, with neither of us understanding what the other one was trying to say. I finally asked if there was anything we needed to do for him to apply for this job and he said no.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.