If anyone has any questions about Dad's mental abilities all they have to do is accompany him to the grocery store. It took us 2 1/2 hours to go through Ralph's. Almost every time we turned down a different aisle he'd say, "I need tea. Is this where the tea is?" When we were in the cleaning supplies aisle I had to explain to him several times the difference between bath soap, dish soap and laundry soap. He actually picked up a jumbo box of Tide and asked, "Is this for the shower?"
I didn't have to explain about chocolate bars, though. He loaded up on those. When we were in the potato chip aisle he picked up a bag of pretzels and asked if they had chocolate in them. When we were looking at cereal he asked for the kind with chocolate in it. And jeez, wouldn't you know it, when we finally got to the tea the Nestle's Quik was right next to it!
After we finished shopping he wanted to take me to lunch. By that point I was feeling like I was teetering on the edge of sanity so I told him he needed to go home and put his groceries away.
This morning I had to show him how to use the lancet shooter again. Whenever I set up his test I always put out a square of toilet tissue for him to blot his finger on. This morning he pricked his finger and blotted it before I could stop him. We had to prick it again and he almost grabbed the tissue again. I had to hold onto his hands to get the test done.
He's pretty cheery today but you never know when he's going to be on edge. When he's not doing well he looks really strange. His eyes go kind of vacant. The other day I saw him walking around outside my house. I went out to see what was up. He was barefoot and wearing a t-shirt and jeans. He almost never goes out of the house in a t-shirt. He had that look in his eyes. I asked him what was going on and he said, "I have to meet the insurance guy out here." I asked him what insurance guy and he kind of yelled, "The INSURANCE guy!" I said, "Yeah, but is it your insurance guy or just some insurance guy?" He said, "Just some guy!" Just then the Terminix truck drove up and Dad went to talk to them. Then he kind of stumbled down the slope and got in the truck and went back to his house. I was feeling pretty sorry for that Terminix guy.
I really think he's barely hanging on.
5 comments:
It really does sound like he's turned a corner.
Yikes.
Yes. He looks so different now. His handsomeness is gone. He's like a shell.
I think it's time for another family meeting. I'm also going to get in touch with his doctor and ask about maybe putting him on something stronger for his agression.
I think both of those ideas are smart ones.
Yeah, round up the sibs. Decision time.
--dean
We'll have a meeting. Drew and Dede are still on vacation.
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