Visiting Kay

Kathleen

Today I was back on track and went on the shuttle.  I managed about a 45 minute visit.  I looked all over  and finally found her in the dining room behind somethig  that hid her from view if you didn't go all the way into the room.  the aid said she had been walking the hall  so when I could not find her I thought she had wandered into aother room not hers.  We went outside onto the patio after some encouraging with candy although it could have been from me just insisting.  She took it well when I said I would have to go.  

Kay and Fathe

Tpdaun

9/12/2013, Visit and observation about dementia

Don Brown, Geneva Hemry, Reta Brown, Shirley Ainley (front) ?, Kathleen, and School friend.

 I am really proud of Kay.  She never let herself go to pot.  If something needed fixing she had it fixed with the help of the plastic surgeon if necessary.  To this day she is about the weight she has been all her life. Of course her weight today is not the result of what she is doing.  Which brings something to mind I had never thought of.  I think it is astounding.  Not one of the people in her facility that has dementia  is overweight.  the only overweight people there are some of the nurses  Here at the assisted living facility they are not to house dementia sufferers although it appears some of the early stages of dementia are in some of the people here. Those people are not overweight although I have not looked at all of them. The people who I know had dementia were  not overweight.  Betty Brown, Jean Stay.  Both slender.  I have no idea if there is a connection of course as this is just a preliminary observation but I think it bears looking into.  

Kay and I went outside and sat for a while.  As long as we could before the bus came. I barely made it down to the pickup by the scheduled time of 2:30 and the bus was already there with passengers already on it.I had a decent ride while dropping off the passengers part of it through an old part of Tacoma where the people involved in shipping lived.  Well manicured lawns and well kept houses overlooking the bay.Some of the roads of Tacoma are made of ballast from the ships that came to Tacoma and dumped their ballast of concrete or rocks.  Tacoma made use of them by  paving roads in town.  Bad for cars and shuttle buses with no springs. And especially passengers riding the buses.

She doesn't look all that happy does she? Obviously before perma-press

Kay o August 5th

On one of our outings

 Got to see Kay again today.  She was still in bed and had not eaten breakfast or lunch.  I got there about 1:00 PM  I went to the room and she probably was not very much asleep as she woke easily.  I got her up and dressed in pants and slippers to add to the nightgown she already had on.  I didn't want to push my luck as she responded to me and I didn't want to get in a mood of not getting dressed.  I took her out to the patio as the weather is very hot. I asked the nurse to bring something for her to eat and I would see if she would take it from me.  

In the front yard

They do not do away with lunch until 2 pm so I had plenty of time for her. They brought her lunch on a plate.  She did eat some of it.  She even drank the sugar drink they included. I had already given her a piece of candy and couple of crackers.  We sat and held hands, she would kiss me frequently and smile at me when I looked t her.  About an hour after I got there I took her back to her room and pretty soon left.  When I left she waved and smiled at me.  She seems to understand that I will come back.   

Ready for flying lesson

  9:30 P M  Lonely now.  I keep thinking about Kay alone and probably just going to sleep.  Or is it because I am alone?  How it will be after I cant work the computer I wonder

Kay is gone

 Kay is gone.  Tom took her to the resthome.  I walked her to the car.  I came back to the apartment and  started taking down the poster pictures I had pasted to the walls with thumbtacks so the walls could be repainted without extra work.  I found that taking them down was more work that putting them up.  The reason was putting them up was done over a long period of time but taking them down will be all at once. In the intervening time I am 9 years older and shrunk even more  resulting in a back that is very painful.  Over the years I have shrunk about 4 and half inches.  The result the lower back  is painful. Fortunately I can relieve the pain by just sitting down.  Not everyone can do that.  
Apparently the rest home goes out of it's way to get the new person to forget they are in new surroundings without their familiar faces they know, love and trust. Tom called me a couple times to let me know how it was going. The bedding was poor so they went to a mall and bought new bedding.  Tom is planning to take me on Saturday to visit. I have created a video of my exciting efforts to take down the pictures.  I am offering them for free except the interested party pay the postage and cost of the special box they come in.  I suppose the cost would not exceed $10.00   Most of the posters are 20x30 inch from Costco so they are top quality.  The attempt to upload failed for some reason.  Generally there was something wrong with the password or login name. I am trying it again. I will post the youtube address when I succeed.  Sometimes there is something wrong with the picture addresses but I probably just  

mistyped the password.  

Kay wants to sleep

It is 2 PM and Kay still hasn't got up and dressed.  She got up about noon but sat in the living room lean back chair and dozed until now.  I suggested she go back to bed although she did ask why she should.  So I just let her to go back to bed or just stay  where she was.  She just hasn't woke up so far and I don't know how it will turn out. 




Bill Sheldon June 17, 1920. April 4, 2001. Four years in the 3rd Infantry Division WW2 His story. Find it at Four years in the 3rd Inf in WW2
If you can't wait to get new posting to this web page get on the list of automatic mail when something new is posted ................KE7PLR......................

Kay very confused at times.

For the past couple days Kay has had stages of confusion.  She keeps saying she doesn't know where she is probably thinking of where she lives not if she is at home. She said to me a couple tims that I will have to take care of her.  In any case it has been brought to my attention that lack of Vitamin B can cause dementia.  Don't know if it can fix it as there doesn't seem to be much information on that.  Would have been nice to know this 5 or 10 years ago. Maybe something would have come from it. The above picture was taken when I was recovering from a fall off my bike while working at WU.  I broke my shoulder. 
Take a look at Bills war. Virginia Sheldon created a story of his service with the 39th FA in WW2. Find it at Four years in the 3rd Inf in WW2  

Kay is over the hump I think.

 Kay seems to be greatly improved.  But it can vary minute to minute. Sometimes she gets around very well but other times she can hardly move.  How much of this is created by her sensitivity to pain I don't know. We went to the patio this afternoon and enjoyed the warm day up near 80 I find out this evening.  Because she is so improved I didn't give her the pain pill at the proper time.  But she seems to be better.  This is not much of a picture but it doesn't seem to be the one on the computer I wanted.  
Take a look at Bills war. His widow created a story of his service with the 39th FA in WW2. Find it at Four years in the 3rd Inf in WW2

Dementia and it's effects

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Kay got up today very disoriented.  She said, "Doyal, I have to talk to you".  When she said this to her kids when they were growing up you knew a dressing down was coming.  But when she says this to me in this day and age I know she has a problem of one kind or another.  She wants an answer.  So I proceeded to try to find out what was bothering her.  First she asked if I was "Doyal" which of course I told, her with a hollow space in the pit of my stomach.    Then during our conversation she  wanted to know who she was,.  Now this is a real shock when she doesn't remember who she is.  She told me during our conversation that she could not remember anything.  That is what was really bothering her which was she recognized her memory was going.  So I decided that for an answer I might as well tell her outright that she has dementia and can't remember things. I decided it was safe enough because she would not be able remember anyway.  So I just went ahead and told her her memory was going bad.  So that created the question in her mind as to how long this had been coming on.  The answer being it began years ago. When dementia sufferers get on a question like this they ask it over and over again.  But there is nothing to do but keep answering it.  This situation seems to be coming more frequent lately but during the day she may get better.  But that is a reminder of what is coming. So she is at the point where she knows some things but cant figure out the answer.  I don't know what is coming.

I heard about the 94 year old guy who finally realized that  he was unable to take care of his wife any longer and finally had her put in a rest home.  I have not come to that stage yet. I am only 88.
 Someone who does not have a personal interest in someone can not provide the loving care that someone who has a personal interest in an individual does.  They do not know what pains and aches may be going  on because the dementia sufferer can not tell them. They can not express it. That is one of the signs of dementia.  Like heading for another room then forgetting why you went there. But that condition is  not the onset of dementia. I did that years ago.  A doctor can check if dementia is in it's early stages by having a patient repeat backwards 5 number like 5,10,7, 65, 2 and so on.  Try it sometime.  But don't panic. Changing the way you concentrate can help you remember the correct sequence. 


More tomorrow probably

Doyal

Enough for today, But I will continue updating the progression of dementia as it moves along.  

Take a look at Bills war. His widow created a story of his time with the 39th FA in WW2. Find it at