September 27, 2008

Speaking of taking it to the next level, (refer to previous post) Gordon has gone to new heights on the confusion scale. I feel really bad for him because, in his own mind, he is completely rational. As has been discussed previously, he has been having hard time keeping up with his email and doctor appointments. I introduced him to the 'medical calendar' Bette and I have put on the internet. This seems to have helped him know when he is going to the doctor. Now he is having a hard time keeping track of the days...for a very interesting reason.

He has a digital wrist watch that he has bragged about because it is updated by some nuclear clock and is amazingly accurate. The problem is that he thinks its a certain day of the week, but what he thinks is different than the day of the week according to his watch. For example he has been complaining for the past month or so that his weekly visit to get his kidney shot gets moved and then the van provided by Legacy doesn't take him there. He said last week on Friday he sat on the porch for 2 hours waiting for the van to take him to his appointment. His appointments are on Wednesdays. He thought it was Wednesday when it was actually Friday. Today I was there and he was ticked again because it was Wednesday and the van hadn't taken him to his appointment. I reassured him that today was Saturday and not Wednesday.

Here's the kicker. He told me that 'someone' in charge of the nuclear clock is purposely switching Wednesday and Saturday!! "Why would they do that!!" Deep sigh. Wow, it finally occurred to me why he's always thinking that he missed his kidney appointment. I sat down beside him and put my hand on his leg and, as gently and light-heartedly as I could, explained to him that he was very, very confused. I assured him that no one was purposely switching days on him. He disagreed. He still believed it was Wednesday. I got him to look me in the eyes and I told him again that his belief and reasoning was completely false. I told him that the trend of his confusion may even increase and that he is going to have to trust those that are caring for him. "That's what Vicki (the van driver) always says...Trust me, Gordon.", he said. I assured him that he could. We will see what the future holds for his reasoning. Keep him in your prayers.

On the other hand, mom doesn't cease to amaze me at how much she has changed since coming to Legacy! She now has a stereo, a small boombox, 2 tv's and a dvd player...and is requesting another dvd player! The challenge now is to keep her stocked with enough movies....and music. She is finally reaching outside of herself to external sources for entertainment/diversion. Don't get me wrong, she is still plagued by all the physical ailments of the recent years but she is less obsesive...no, she still obsesses but it is tempered somewhat by her renewed interest in cards, movies and such. However, the toilet and her diaper remain her most time consuming form of entertainment - which is very discouraging to her.

Gordon goes to next level in shopping...

Bette took this on her phone tonight at Smiths. She had lots of shopping to do and convinced dad he should ride in one of those happenin' motorized grocery carts. Shopping has never been so fun.

September 4, 2008

Bette and I happened to be at the folk's place last night at the same time. Among others, one of the topics of discussion between us was mom has been calling Bette to complain to her that dad comes into mom's room and complains to her that the information Bette emails to dad regarding dr. appointments is months old. "Those appointments have alread happened", he complains.

Problem discovered. Dad never erases anything from his email inbox. Plus, they are sorted alphabetically. So when he does scan his inbox, which is rare, he comes upon an email from Bette, prints it out for reference, sees that the appointments are months old and concludes Bette doesn't know what she is doing.

We pointed this fact out to him and showed him how to sort his inbox to have the most recent emails on top. We talked about how the unread emails are in bold letters. Further, we reviewed the unread email from the day before which told what the appointments were for the following day. Bette also told him there were no appointments scheduled in the near future...nothing to worry about or write on his calendar.

I received this text just now from Bette: "Dad called at 7am wondering about doctor appointments".

Deep sigh!