Diet

Something I found with Mum and now with George: they like the 'rubbish' food but not so good with the nutritional foods. George often pushes his food around his plate like an anorexic. Not good.  I find it difficult with fruit - grapes just result in a hell of a mess - he spits out all the skins - I get green grapes with no pips, mandarins or oranges he spits out pips and bits and pieces - the only fruits I have been really successful with are pears (cut, cored and peeled), apples (same) and bananas.

Routine

I have found that routine for those with Alzheimer's is so important. That way they know what is going to happen.

A week ago George was supposed to go out for a walk and coffee with a caregiver, she rang not long before to say she was sick so they did not go. I took him instead but...

that night he refused to take his shoes off to get ready for bed and in fact he was determined that he wasn't going to bed as we had to go to his club NOW.

The carer got me in to calm him down (he was very agitated). Finally succeeded.

Luckily this has not happened again. He knows that when he gets into bed he will have one of his old movies and a red wine!!

In the first days I used a whiteboard so George could see what was happening each day. I never found this very successful although I know that some others do. George would not go and read it nor would he when I suggested that he do this.

I am going to take some respite care over Christmas this year and spend it with family. I am SO looking forward to it. It will be a first family Christmas for a long time.  

A down day

Last night George was up and down during the night. This morning I found, in the lounge, a mountain of pillows and clothes on the sofa and chairs. He did not have to get up early (just as well) as the caregiver does not arrive until 10 o'clock. He has slept a lot today and really not been with it. While he is asleep I do not disturb him as he must be catching up on last nights antics - like a teenager!! Took me some considerable time to sort it out this morning.

He is becoming very frail and I do worry about him falling but he has lots of walking sticks around the house as he leaves them in all sorts of places.

Last night the caregiver asked about what the clapping meant and I said I wasn't sure but he did it a lot. It could be

• happy
• telling you to get a move on
• he appreciated whatever was going on
• he just likes the sound of it

Not sure myself, probably a bit of each one. 

Animals and children

Something I have found with both Mum and George is that they love interaction with both animals and children. Strangely children do not see anything unusual in any of the behaviour they display but are very accepting unlike many people. George was not a lover of animals but loves to pat Fluffy Bum.

Fluffy Bum (being a Persian) is not the brightest cat in the world. She loves me feeding the birds each day and gets very excited about it all. Luckily she is not able to run very fast and tends to charge at them like a bull. I think the birds find her funny and it does not deter them from coming for their food. George loves to watch her especially at these times when she is being so active.

The change around

George was very bemused all week and had no idea of anything. I had taped the Springbox v the Pumas game for him but he had no idea of what was going on even though I tried to talk himthrough it. He had no idea of the game or what the teams were.

What a change on Sunday!

When he got out and came through people on the TV were talking about the game. George sat down and said 'we won'.

I put the tape on so he could watch the game. He loved it. He followed it all and knew who the All Blacks and the Wallabies were.

After that we went to Honeys to meet another couple. George was able to tell them about the tours he did with the game and stories about many of the old players. He really enjoyed reminiscing the old days.

Great that he has bounced back although you never know how long this will last.

Enjoy these times