Well "it" is Mac's wallet. Timing is everything these days.. when the new preposee was late last night, the gradual decline of stable thinking was on the way...He had gotten through the sundown time so well. I have been trying to do more mental stimulation, choosing that time to kind of get his mind in some sort of thinking away, from why and where he had to go..usually it's to his family, to his mother, and gradually getting more and more agitated as these avenues of leaving the building are closed and distractiion not working. So, I was quite happy with my choice of two games...one playing cards, just putting the high card the winner we played a couple of games, or mainly i played he would put the card down, and i'd say, oh look you have a jack i only have a 9, you win, kind of thing - so this passed some of the time, along with playing Snakes and ladders, which was played with a dice, his throwing, happily if it landed on the floor, and my reading the dots to him, and his piece on the game being played by myself...this game was not so well received - on a scale of one to five, it was a two, and the card game was a three...but i will try again.
Finally the new preposee, Eunice arrived, happily cheerly greeting mac, with Mac into his mode - - so agitated he could hardly speak the words 'it's missing...he was sure someone had come into the house and taken his wallet..even though i gave it to him, he was too agitated too off target to register it. Finally we were able to simmer him down, and he could verbalize that it had been missing for two days, therefore someone had taken it. This is a new thought for him, but one he held onto, and poor Eunice had an awful time trying to distract him.."Look Mr. Mac you have your wallet, let me get your pyjamas on "naturally i was trying to help as well, and we did finally get him to bed (and for sure adding the special pill to calm him and let him sleep)
This is so opposite to how he is now, sitting listening to lovely classical music, directing the whole piece with his head and feet..piano - by Anton querti playing Bahrams..though poor Eunice had to go through trying to get him dressed earlier this morning, in semi awake mode plus very grouchy (result partly of the pill0
A few tips were given to me by our friend Tristan,(An big A. worker for the Assoc.) about how to distract mac..especially good was the idea of not dismissing his thoughts of going to his mom's but asking questions about his mom...this idea worked well when he spoke about seeing her earlier in the week (also at sundown), and hopefully will continue to work, staving off the usual agitation period., now i'll have to remember that and ask questions about his wallet, when he get's into a tizzy about it, because even though he had the wallet in his hand he can go off on a tangent and get so worked up, it becomes impossible to have him register anything in his mind, and getting him into pj.s was almost impossible.
The mystery of my father's mind' an article by Rebecca Rotert (not sure of the last name now) was sent to me by one of the readers of my blog - like myself this woman was intrigued by the way her dad's mind worked or didn't work with this affliction - the big A - one thing that struck home with me, was how both he and Mac are so keen on beauty - i.e. the beauty of a flower, the beauty we see every day..in Mac's case the sunshine in our apartment, the view, the lake etc. and what she said is so true...Beauty does not have to connect with memory. it's just there, and so can be so so restful, and able to be spoken to and about. This is also the same with music.
Cognitively I'm still using music when we walk...as a few days ago when it was so nice and warm, we were walking along with me singing In the Good old Summer Time'...each time I'd get to the title i'd leave out the last two words - Mac used to be able to sing the words..but now he just is able to kind of stutter them out..but i'm happy that he can still do this..also happy that he can laugh at how i sing...
Well we have now done two of the morning chores, brushing our teeth, and me washing and mac drying our breakfast dishes...it looks like the rain has let up so we will go for our groceries..a 25 minute slow walk for Mac each way to our local IGA, so bye for now
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