As I mentioned before, my moods change with Kate’s moods and behavior. At the moment, I am in a somewhat sad mood. This relates directly to what I perceive as a shift that Kate is making to the kind of behavior that we commonly associate with someone who has Alzheimer’s. She seems more distant than usual. This is difficult to tell because she has exhibited signs of distance from things going on around her for a long time. It just seems like they are even “deeper” or more distant than in the past. I find this understandable since she has so little short-term memory, her long-term memory is also poor, and she is unable to comprehend so much of what goes on around her (TV, movies, plays, conversation).
My feelings right now are at least partially associated with a couple of things that happened during the week. The first involved my brother Larry. He came to Knoxville last Sunday afternoon. We had dinner together. The next morning we met him at Panera. The three of us talked for a while. Then we came back to the house where Kate remained outside to pull leaves while Larry and I talked. I left to attend Rotary. Larry was preparing to leave for his farm but went outside to chat with Kate before leaving. When I got home after Rotary, I asked her when Larry left. She didn’t know. I probed a bit, but she was unable to tell me anything. She did not appear to remember that he had been here.
The next day we visited our friends the Davises in Nashville before visiting with Ellen. I had told Kate several times over the previous two or three days that we would be going to see the Davises. I reminded her the morning we left. We talked about it in the car as we left. When we arrived at their house, she didn’t know where we were and asked, “What now?” I told her we would go inside and visit with the Davises. She said, “Tell me their names again.” I did. We went inside and talked for about an hour. Then we went to lunch for another hour. When we got in the car to leave, she told me how much she enjoyed the visit. Then she asked me to tell her their names again. A little later she asked, “What is your brother’s name again?”
Today we went to a Live in HD at The Met production of Der Rosenkavalier. This was Rene Fleming’s last Met performance. It was outstanding, but Kate wanted to leave at the end of the first act which we did. I had noticed she seemed bored. She yawned audibly two or three times during the first act. Although she was not very loud, the people in front and in back of us could certainly hear her.
We have now seen quite a few operas. It was the Live in HD productions that really generated her interest in opera. Today it made no difference. I knew that she was tired going in, but I suspect it was more than being tired. It was a complex comic opera. I know she must have been confused and tuned out. I fear this is just the beginning of things to come.
