Day 3 and 4, and some more links…

   Since I didn’t have time to catch up yesterday, I will catch up today. But first, some links! The first is another Psych Central link. It is over how a protein released in arthritis has been shown to reverse some alzheimer’s system in rats. Promisingly, people with arthritis are less likely to suffer from alzheimer’s which means that we can expect the same results in humans. The second link is to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2010 Memory Walk page. I am planning on walking myself, inspired by my aunt, Jennifer, who is also walking.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/16/protein-released-in-arthritis-reverses-alzheimers/18129.html

http://www.alz.org/memorywalk/

   Now, onward to how the past two days have went:

   Both days have been good. He has shown some improvement. Now, it is quite possible that this is just the ebb and flow of the symptoms that happens with all victims of alzheimer’s. However, I am hoping it has more to do with the fact that he is having some conversation during the day, and it is certain now that he is taking his medications.

Yesterday, I was worried when I first arrived. I knocked and waited for a few minutes. No answer, nor did I hear any movement. So I rang the doorbell, and waited some more. Still no answer. I waited for about 10 minutes. I noticed my parents were home and went to get my mother to let me in. By the time we’d walked back over, he was standing in the yard looking around with the door open, and my cousin had also just pulled up (sorry, Mom!). We went on in and started him on brakfast. He did better with things such as finding the bathroom and his shaving stuff, and he was even taking his own dishes to the sink and putting them away. I let him because I was getting the idea that he was starting to figure out why I was there, and I think it sort of bothered him a bit that to understand that he needed that assistance. And I think that doing some of those things on his own made him feel better. For lunch, we had pizza (my cousin, too!), and I felt a little guilty because even though he seemed to enjoy it, I think it gave him heartburn. He did seem a little grumpy, though…whether that was from heartburn or the fact that I had my laptop out doing some homework, I don’t know. Maybe he felt ignored…

Today (day 4) was even better. No problems getting in, really. Although he didn’t want to let me in the door until I said I was making his breakfast, lol. That was just like the old Papa, always kidding around! He ate almost everything on his plate (I nuked one of his microwave dinners, but then put it on a plate to make it look tastier), and only  left the mushy hashbrowns. We watched some tv, and a little while later had some ice cream. He napped on and off while I tidied up a bit, and then a couple hours after the ice cream, we had lunch; sandwiches and fruit salad. He really enjoyed the fruit salad and ate his whole lunch. Then we talked about when he and his brothers and sisters were in the orphanage. He was told me that his mother  had gotten ill and died and his father had placed them in the orphanage because he couldn’t take care of all of them. He first said that his father had visited every day, then he said every weekend. He then said he there were 4 of them (the kids), then 5. He also told me about how after his father had remarried, they went and took the kids out of the orphanage. He told me this story several times before I sidetracked him by asking where he’d met my grandmother…he looked at me awhile, and laughed and said he didn’t remember, but that he knew it was after he had gotten out of the navy. We then watched some more tv before he came into the kitchen and said he was hungry. I was rather surpised at this, as I have been having to ask him all week if he was hungry or thirsty. So I made him a snack and we sat at the table and talked some more about kids and parents and how they should treat each other, and about how he missed driving. Today, again, he put most of his own dishes away and found the bathroom ok. He only said once he didn’t know if he had shaving stuff, and when I told him he did, he went and shaved. The only difficulties (and I say difficulties only for lack of a better word, there really weren’t a problem at all) today were minor. He had some trouble putting his polo back on over his undershirt (I think he’d taken it off to shave), and then at one point during one of our conversations, he just started staring off into space. For about 5 minutes, he didn’t seem to hear me or even realize I was there.

On a side note, I have to laugh at the crazy amount of ice cream and bags of marshmallows in their fridge and freezer. Lol, there are at least 5 ice cream cartons of various sizes and 3-4 bags of marshmallows. I think I shall bring some chocolate and graham crackers next week!