Chaos Magnet

The face of Alzheimer's

Been pretty busy lately, which is, frankly, par for the course, but it's been a little bit worse than usual lately. My father-in-law, Ray, lives with us, and in addition to being a double amputee (half his left foot, right leg below the knee) and diabetes, he's also in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease. We made the mistake of watching a documentary on the disease, so we know that eventually, he'll just get to the point where he's catatonic, and then he'll stop breathing.

But right now, aside from swallowing difficulties -- everything he eats or drinks has to be the consistency of honey -- our big problem is dementia. Dementia can be simple, such as forgetting where he is at that moment, or that we've asked him to do something (or not do something, like take his diaper off) but sometimes it's more serious.

A few weeks ago, I had a big problem because he wouldn't let me change his diaper because of the other five people in the room. No, there was nobody there but me and him. So I asked the "other people" to leave, and that was fine, except for the other two, who were looking down at him through the ceiling. I asked them to stop, and he was satisfied with that, but yesterday we had an even bigger problem.

To keep him from falling out of bed, and to assist him in sitting up (which has become, as of late, a real challenge) we got him a hospital bed. Full rails and everything. Day before yesterday, I came in in the morning and he was once again on the floor. As far as I can tell, he swung himself around so that he was crosswise at the top of the bed, then slid out through the 18 inches or so between the end of the rail and the head of the bed.

After determining that he was not hurt -- he scraped and bruised his backside a little, but nothing serious -- I asked him why.

"Because the other guy was sleeping in the bed, and I didn't think I should have to share."

Later in the day he spiked a fever, and we brought him back to the hospital for the second time in 8 days. We're still waiting for test results to find out why.

Technorati tags: Alzheimer's | Alzheimers |

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