Last night we had a fire and some wine and talked a good while. We didn’t specifically focus on Kate’s AD, but it is an unspoken part of all our conversations and time together. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she is worried that she is further along than either of us would like. We talked last night about our plans for the May trip to Edinburgh and next January’s trip to Africa. When I mentioned the Africa trip, she said, “If I am able to make it.” I told her I couldn’t envision that her condition would deteriorate that quickly, and that we would have quite a number of trips before she would be unable to travel. I wasn’t just saying that to comfort her; I really believe it. At the same time, I tend to feel that she is well into AD. We discussed the fact that this is the toughest challenge we have faced. We tried to reassure each other that we would do this together the way we have done everything else. I didn’t say this, but I believe we will do this better than anything else we have done together. We feel intensely close. The fact that we will keep this secret for as long as it seems possible demands that we hold each other up. Earlier yesterday she told me that the social worker at her doctor’s office had returned her call, and they were going to schedule a time to get together. She had been in some counseling with Jean a few years ago and believes it might be helpful for her to get together with her again.
We both have a variety of reactions to knowing. One for me is that I want to be with her as much as I can and that while we are together, I try to make the most of our moments together. The second thing is that I do not find myself frustrated at all with the kinds of behavior that I now see as symptoms of AD. I seem to be able to accept anything she does. I also find myself trying to reassure her when she does something that could be viewed as a symptom of AD. For example, today at lunch, she didn’t get the top of her plastic glass screwed on straight. I told her that it is hard to get it screwed on just right and that I make the same mistake. She said, “”You don’t have to try to make me feel better. I know it really is hard to do.” At lunch, Kate mentioned that she had thought of 2 people at church that she felt she would be able to talk with. She indicated that she wouldn’t do this any time soon however. The implication was that she would wait until we were more public about her AD.
I continue to feel moments of sadness. These come when I am not distracted by activities that require my attention. We took a walk around the neighborhood this morning, and I couldn’t help thinking of how much she had wanted a house like ours and that I could never walk these streets alone without feeling a great deal of sadness that she wasn’t with me. I have found my mind drifting to the travel we have done and the experiences we have had together and the fact that we won’t be traveling as long as I had expected. I fully expected to do so into our 80s. Now I feel she may be gone, or incapacitated, before she is 80.
Kate is now at yoga. She is trying to get there several times a week. I am encouraging her. She likes the instructors and finds yoga relaxing and good for her physically. We now have her medicine in the bathroom off the master bedroom. That is so that I can check to see that she has taken her medicine. This was her idea, not mine. She has a tendency to forget to take it. This is not a particular problem except for her antidepressant. She suffers nausea if she misses a day.
