The Slide

Dad has been on a medicine that is supposed to help slow the process of Alzheimer's. The material that I have read on the topic states that it works for a while, but there comes a time when it can no longer slow things down. That would seem to be what we are seeing these days. Yes, last weekend he had a good day. He went out of town and gave it his all. But that was the first good day in several and he hasn't had a good one since. We use to count on clear days being about 4 of 7. That is down to about 2 of 7. That is a remarkable decline in 3 months.

He still amazes me that he can fool people he seldom sees, but he can't fool those he sees all the time. Our daughter was over the other day, actually she is over every day, but she was over and commented about him. "Grandpa is really getting bad," she observed. I inquired in what way. "He is slurring his words much more than before, unable to find the right word anymore and making up any old word to substitute." If you have kids you will often hear the next person comment on how big they have grown and you are still looking at the same little person. It is that way with Dad. I am with him 24/7 and I don't notice as much as my daughter did. Well, I started to look for those things and it took about 10 minutes of talking with him to see them all. But, I wasn't convinced, so I asked my son, who is also over almost every day, if he saw any noticable decline. He had. He could name them without prompting.

Being concerned that the problem may be related to other health issues we asked the visiting nurse. He is very healthy. That is good. He came home fromt the adult care center where he attends twice weekly and told us he had lost 10 pounds. I got concerned and called them. He hadn't. He just was 10 pounds confused. He had actually gained a pound. He doesn't hear well or process well what he hears. So, he is healthy and in a decline, a real slide.

To all of these changes he is completely oblivious. After the visiting nurse checked him and gave a good report, he told me he would like his car and driver's license back again. The next day he asked if we would mind if he got 10 new piano students and had them come to the house. And so it goes from day to day. Unless he doesn't get his way he is happy as a lark, and even then he forgets much more quickly that he didn't get his way and he is back to happy again. There have been no more complaints about adult care. He doesn't want to go more often yet, but he is happy to go twice a week now and offers no complaints before or after any more. That is progress of a sort, but in a negative direction for him.

One other thing he is demonstrating more is a sense of humor. Unfortuneately, it is often a very mean sense of humor. He relishes making fun of others, mostly me, and then he gets a big laugh. But he has put his torch to more than just me on occasions and always finds it funny. This is a side that hasn't been seen up until now. He is like a little kid daring to say naughty things and reveling in each moment of it. A child can be broken of that nasty behavior, but not an adult Alzheimer's patient. Anyway, that is the scoop for now. The slide has accelerated, at least for now, and we are no longer on that plateau that I wrote about just a short month ago.