Merry Christmas

I hope that people around the world are enjoying a lovely, relaxing Christmas.

I spent nearly four hours with George today. He was very confused. He did not know who I was. I told him I was Kewpie. He smiled and I asked if he knew who I was. He told me I was his wife. I talked to him about his boys but was just getting a blank look.

I remembered that I had downloaded a video yesterday from YouTube and compressed it to put it on my tablet (no internet at the home). I had put the tablet in my bag this morning to take to John. The video was taken nearly 30 years ago and had been on TV over here. It was John's son's band playing an original number of theirs.

I put the video on and showed him the tablet. His face lit up. He certainly remembered that and we then were able to talk about his last trip here and the things we had done. Visual stimulation, so powerful.

George can no longer use cutlery properly so I cut his food up and he uses a spoon. Often, like today, he is unable to put food onto the spoon so I do it and then he puts it in his mouth. They had a beautiful lunch with roast lamb, turkey, carrots, peas, pumpkin and roast potatoes followed by pavlova or steamed pudding. They have a vegetable garden at the home so the veges were fresh from the garden.

When I left he was sound asleep.

I had a community nurse round yesterday to change my dressing. She had forgotten to get a paper signed so came back today. She looked at it and decided to change it again. Someone is coming in tomorrow to change it again. Unfortunately my lower leg is swelling when I do anything so need to try to keep it up and drink plenty of water. I am taking Rescue remedy and Arnica. When your body goes into shock like mine did it takes some time to recover.

Time is a great healer. 

Yesterday I saw that the caregivers have not been doing a good job with his shaving. I made an appointment for him at a groom room. While we were waiting I watched as they gave two guys hair cuts. As part of the treatment they had scalp massages and then a shoulder/neck massage to finish - talk about pampering. He had a razor cut but was very tense throughout. The woman who did it was very good. I have booked him in for a hair cut in a couple of weeks. The price is about the same as his regular barber and so much nicer.

Got home to a massive flood! The dishwasher had started up all n its own and flooded the place. It took me ages to find the plug and turn it off. Got it off thank goodness and got someone in to look at it. They have taken it away to try to repair it - fingers crossed.

Let me tell you it is no fun trying to clean up with George making demands all the time.

I bought a new magazine today - guess what? It has mysteriously vanished into thin air. I suspect it is now cut up and I didn't see any of it...

Continuing to deteriorate

George is continuing to deteriorate. It is such as funny disease as he remembers all the thing he and his son did during his son's trip here. He had a great time. He remembers new people he meets names (all short term memory). He is still interested in what is going on in the world. He still has a lot of long term memory but....

Cognitive skills are continuing to deteriorate. He uses continence pants (these are fantastic) all the time now - these work well but when he has been to the toilet (during the day) he comes out with his pants (longs and continence pants) around his ankles and I have to tell him to pull up first the continence pants and then his long pants - he is wearing track pants all the time now as they are easier to manage.

He has been due for an assessment since February but PMH are 'behind'. Let us hope it is sooner rather than later.

Problem solving

This morning George was sitting on the couch and I had his coffee and pills on the table in front of him. I said to him not to forget them. He replied:

"I can't reach them"

I had to tell him to stand up and get them...