Miscellany from a wandering mind

This has been a busy month. Christmas alone can make a busy month, but we added the wedding of our daughter into the mix and ramped up busy by quite a bit. How does that effect the mind and life of the Alzheimer's patient? Surprisingly, it hasn't been as hard on him as I expected.

Dad's mind is in its own little world. He is more involved in his fantasies than in the realities around him. That helps to insulate him from the stresses and rush of activity. He never forgot that our daughter's wedding was in December. He might be fuzzy on the day sometimes, but he is fuzzy on a lot of days. He looked forward to attending the wedding and seemed to have a wonderful time while there. He has been a showman, and the attention given to him as the grandfather of the bride suited him fine.

Christmas? He forgot it was Christmas on Christmas. On Christmas morning he was up early and had his coat on to go to daycare. We had assured him the night before that he could sleep in because the center wouldn't be open the next day, but that made no impact. He had looked forward to Christmas, though, and enjoyed the day.

The crowds? Here was a big surprise. He has generally avoided lots of family activities because it is too chaotic for him. This past week has been a big exception. When we got home from the wedding rehearsal dinner he was trying to teach our son-in-law how to play cribbage. Dad was too tired to get anything straight. He counted wrong, counted out of turn, forgot cribs and generally should have been in bed. It was almost two hours later than he would normally be up. He was like a 3 year old who didn't want to miss any of the action. The night after the wedding we were playing a high speed game "Catch Phrase". He had been in his room since supper but came upstairs and sat down. When the phrase was passed by him to the next person he got quite upset. So, the next round the person passed it to him. Dad can read, but he doesn't know what he is reading. His phrase was "white chocolate" and he started in on some rambling story about going down the Ohio river in a steamboat and how that connected to another river and on and on. It was not some personal story about what had happened to him, just a rambling story. On no word or phrase that he saw could he tell what the phrase was. He just continued his rambling story about steamboats. No one expected him to understand the game, but his inability to identify a word by its letters shows decline. In all, though, he had a good time playing and stayed at it until the game broke up. Later that night he came upstairs again and wanted to know if anything else was going on that he could be part of.

His lady friend? He still plans on marrying her. He has agreed to wait two years for her to become a citizen, but he forgets that daily or expects two years to be up by this summer. His stories about her continue to evolve daily. Some days she is married but her husband is still in the old country and doesn't want her anymore. Some days she is single and ready to get married right away. Some days he is very honest and admits that she never talks to him because she knows no English, but he is determined on those days to teach it to her. He even takes a notebook to the center with necessary words - ears, eyes, nose, spoon. In all of it, though, he is still convinced, even on the days that she can't speak English, that she is talking to him and is eager to get married. It has been interesting to watch it all unfold. The best news about it is that he is still happy, he has some sunshine in his descent.