Ok, sorry about the lack of updates, lately. I’ve had a lot of school work, and I am doing some walking to get ready for the Memory Walk. Anyway, here are some links for today, then on to catching up. The first one is simply an informational sheet for caregivers. It outlines the stages of Alzheimer’s disease-early, middle, and late. The second is a link from NORML. For those of you who don’t know, NORML is the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Regardless of what you think of marijuana as a recreational drug, one cannot deny the medicinal benefits that research has yielded recently. One of those benefits is the treatment and moderation of Alzheimer’s. Read up…tell me what you think.
http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=567
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7003
OK…let’s see, where did we leave off? Day 8? Ok. Day 8 was Thursday. Did better with the oatmeal this time. I put some brown sugar and vanilla in it. He ate almost all of it. It’s been so long, I don’t remember what we did for lunch or snack that day, but I do remember him being pretty much the same as he had been the previous days.
So that brings us to day 9. I made him cheerios for breakfast. He didn’t like them at all. I asked if he wanted something else, but he said no. So I just gave him a bowl of grapes, and then did snack time a little early. I also made it a little bigger, doing some cookies and some fruit. For lunch, we had chicken quesadillas made from leftover chicken. I cut his into bite size pieces because they were falling apart since I used a pan. I’ll have to bring the sandwich and quesadilla maker over next time (Thanks, btw, Kim and Jeff! We still love it!). A little later we had another snack a little later, of ice cream. I think I shall make every Thursday/Friday (whichever is my last day) of each week ice cream day. He really enjoys it. He seemed to be pretty good for the most part today, but a little more confused than earlier in the week.
On one of these days, I can’t remember which one, the tv repairman came to fix the tv. We couldn’t turn the volume up or down, and the tv wouldn’t turn off. The tv repairman had to turn it off and warned us that if he couldn’t fix the tv, it might not turn back on until he could get some new parts. Hearing that, Papa got upset. “I have to watch my tv. I gotta watch my shows…” We were also having a discussion about them moving, and he got very upset at the thought that someone would turn the channel from his channel…he kept reiterating how important the shows were to him. I think that, until that moment, the repair man just thought that I was subjecting a poor old man to my television whims.
On day 10, which was yesterday, Dahlia woke up “sick.” We allowed her to stay home, so she and daddy came to sit with Papa with me. Will made us all pancakes, eggs, and sausage. I think Papa really enjoyed it, and I know he enjoyed having Dahlia to play with all day. He almost let Will change the channel, but got cranky at the last minute. For lunch, we had leftover pot roast sandwiches, and then played around some more.
Today, day 11, I gave him cereal for breakfast. And again he didn’t like it. I made him some toast and fruit. He ate a few pieces of the orange, and didn’t even touch the toast. An hour later, I gave him the rest of the orange and some cheetos. He ate the orange, but not the cheetos. For lunch, I made him a sandwich with vienna sausages, some potato salad, and some pudding. He ate about half of it all. He did not want another snack, so he didn’t eat much today, really. As far as mental function, he was disoriented and couldn’t find the bathroom, a little worse than usual. However, he was sharp enough to trick me! He walked to the door, so I asked “You going to look around outside?” and he answered “Yeah, just wanted to look outside, and it feels good out here.” He then proceeded to hang out with the door partially closed and stand on the porch. I watched him for awhile out of the corner of my eye, thinking that he was just doing what he normally does and looking outside. He even remarked on the nice weather. Then I heard a very quiet sound…like water dripping…later when I could check with embarrassing him, I noticed the remnants of a puddle. You can figure out what happened from there…I won’t spell it out. He was too embarrassed to ask me where the bathroom was. So the rest of the day, I made sure to ask as soon as he got up if he needed to go to the bathroom, rather than just asking where he was going. Lesson learned! Anyway, other than that, he napped a good part of the day, more than five minutes at a time this time. So tomorrow, I will try another breakfast and will be more on the ball about where he is going and why.
All For Luv, An Alzheimer's Blog 
I still use my quesadilla machine all the time. Even for breakfast quesadillas with egg, bacon etc to fruit quesadillas with apple, cinnamon, etc.