Morning

In the mornings I give George his pills, his coffee and put his cornflakes into a bowl so he can add milk when he is ready.

This morning he woke before me. He

1. poured himself four cups of coffee
2. put corn chips in a bowl with milk and ate them

I need to organise things for him.

I am trying to get him to start putting things away. He brings out all these cuttings, magazines etc and spends a lot of time cutting out and pasting in - I brings out a huge amount and litters them all around. It is very difficult to confine him to one area and they are littered all over the place.

Grazing

I find that both mum and George like to graze on food all day. George makes  a huge mess and I also have to get him all his meals and morning and afternoon tea. Apart from that he loves to change clothes and go through old cuttings and papers. It is very hard to keep things tidy. The mess he makes on the carpet is incredible. I try to get him to eat in the dining room but ...

Today (so far) he has changed his sox 4 times...

On top of that yesterday the caregive put George's pad from the night before in the washing machine which then got washed as I foolishly did not check what he had done - another hours of cleaning out the machine.

Independence

I try desparately hard to try to keep George as independent as possible. Today I took him to the bank where the girls are really good with him. We have discussed this as George has no idea of money so they don't give him too much at any time. We then went to the Super Market where he wanted to buy some things (including wine). He was away for a very long time and left his walking stick inside there (I went back to get it).  I asked him how things went and he said

"bewildered'

I asked why. He couldn't find what he wanted on the shelves (He was not too sure what he wanted) and thought that they had rearranged the shelves.

It takes a lot of patience...

Alcohol

George was told by the hospital and later by our doctor that the red wine he was drinking would make his condition worse. He stopped drinking red wine but has replaced it with white wine and spirits. He keeps it in the garage and pours it into coffee mugs so I won't know. We had a guest staying recently who did the same thing. Luckily George does not get verbally of physically abusive with alcohol and in fact it is very rare to see him drunk - he holds his liquor well in that respect. Not so good for him medically however.  Something however that does happen (as it did just now) is that he has more problems than usual going to the toilet necessitating me to clean the floor again.

Changing clothes

Something that George has been doing for a while now is changing his clothes several times during the day causing a lot of washing. One of his caregivers suggested to me that I take a lot of clothes out of the bedroom so he doesn't have the selection and may not do it so much and also that way we know what is clean as the clean clothes are away and just bringing out as they are needed. Good idea...


This morning I went to Sumner for a quick cup of coffee with my son (who was down from Auckland). When I left George was in bed. I returned an hour later to find George ready to take himself to Brighton. He was wearing his pyjama pants and had also put a jersey over this pyjama top.

Toileting issues

I am finding it difficult to get George to get used to wearing the pads. One morning I found that, during the night he had got up and gone out to the lounge where he had taken the pad off and left it on the sofa. It is ensuring that he doesn't do this sort of thing. He is still inclined to take them off and then piddle on the toilet floor. I have to clean the toilet floor every morning. At least I have stopped him going in the bathroom which he has done. It is things like this (which have been going on for the last 2 years) which make me so reticent to take him away. At least by putting him into a home while I am away is sensible as they are geared up to cope with it.

We were supposed to go to Memory Clinic today (which he enjoys) but it was cancelled due to the awful weather here at the moment. Many parts of Christchurch have had snow although luckily we haven't; however it has been bitterly cold.

Good old George! The night before last we got his diapers on (under PJs) ready for bed. In the middle of the night he woke wanting to go to the toilet. What does he do???

He takes of the diaper and his PJs and wanders down the hall to the toilet piddling all the way - big mess for me to clean up in the morning.

People suggest that the two of us go away for a weekend etc - this is one of the reasons I am very reticent to do so (this is not the first time!!) as I would worry all the time.  Of course the other reason is financial.

Harakeke Club

George goes to a club each Tuesday. It is for people with Alzheimers and has a big waiting list so he was very lucky to get in. He really enjoys it and spends a lot of time chatting to the other people there.

I have picked up his incontinence pads which will be a help. These are very expensive to buy and I was really grateful to George's caregiver (who helps him with showering) for telling me to get on to the doctor to refer him to the clinic. This way you get (free) a monthly amount.

I was talking to someone today about how life changes so quickly without any warning. Two and a half years ago a round of voluntary redundancies was offered. I decided to take this so that I could look after mum and she could stay at home. I worked out my finances and decided that, with care, I could just afford to do this. I had a freehold home and knew that, so long as I did not splurge out we could do this. Now we are in situation, due to the earthquake, of paying rent and as well as a lot of other unforseen expenses. Of course also mum's Alzheimer's progressed to a point where it was longer possible to keep her at home. I think of the things I had planned to do when I retired and cannot see any of these things happening in the near future; if ever. I guess things will work out in the end but it is not easy when you are on your own and overseeing two people with Alzheimer's. Sometimes I think that most of my life is tied up with doing things related to this disease.

Incontinence clinic

We went to the incontinence clinic last week and George has been given pads for daytime and pants for night time.  I go and pick them up in town each month.

This weekend I spent a couple of days in Auckland with family which was a welcome break. George went into the home for a few days.

Sometimes I find it difficult to juggle all the things I need to do for mum and George for example the Home just rang me and Mum has to be at the hospital at 8 a.m. in the morning and they wondered if I wanted to take her in!! I have to get George to his club that morning at 10 so I am unable to be in two places at once. The home are going to send a staff member with her.