I have continued to monitor Kate’s behavior with an effort to determine how much is related to her Alzheimer’s and how much, if any, is related to her having a specific illness. This decision is clearly made more difficult by her Alzheimer’s. She is unable to explain how she feels except to say that she feels tired. After receiving an email from her doctor Friday afternoon and watching her yesterday, I began to think it is an infection of some type. The fact that she acted like she was going to throw up and did actual spit up some of her pizza Friday night reinforced this thinking.
Yesterday morning I was encouraged when she first got up. She got dressed reasonably early and was ready to go to Panera by 9:00. We were there about an hour before she wanted to go home. I did notice that she didn’t finish her muffin, the first time that has ever happened. At home, she went back to bed, and I let her rest over an hour before if she would like to go to lunch. She did. We went to Bluefish for lunch. She was quiet on the way out and the way back. She said nothing while there except a comment or two to the server. When we got home from lunch, she went right back to bed. Similarly, when we got home from dinner, she got ready for bed. She woke up at midnight and had difficulty going back to sleep. I suspect this is a result of having slept so much over the previous 24-36 hours.
She has seemed unsure of herself when walking. She walks very slowly, significantly slower than usual. I thought she might feel unsteady because she was happy to grab my hand and she would reach for something to steady herself. When we got home from dinner last night, she balanced herself by keeping her hand on the car until she was close to the door to the house. I asked if she felt unsteady. She said no that she was just tired.
Yesterday morning I asked her if she wanted to see a movie in the afternoon, Victoria and Abdul. She did. I bought tickets online before we went to lunch. As we returned home from lunch, I asked again if she felt up to it. She said she did. When it was time to leave, I asked again if she wanted to go. Once again she confirmed her interest, and we went. During the first part of the movie, she looked at me with a smile on her face that suggested she was enjoying the movie. She wasn’‘t smiling when it ended. I asked specifically if she had enjoyed it. She nodded that she hadn’t. I didn’t pursue any discussion, and she didn’t want to talk.
This experience reinforces what I had already been thinking. Movies are becoming a thing of the past for us. I think this particular movie had a good shot at being one she would like. I now have a string of failed attempts at movies going back at least to the spring. I am not saying I won’t try again, but I will be increasingly careful in selecting one.
When we came home from the movie, she went back to bed. About an hour later, I asked if she wanted something to eat. She did. We went to one of our regular places. She did a respectable job of eating her dinner. I didn’t observe any notable differences in how much she ate.
At dinner, she reached across the table twice to take a drink my iced tea. I noticed that she hadn’t drunk any of her Dr. Pepper. The second time I asked her if the Dr. Pepper was bad. She said, “”Oh, I forgot.” While I don’t remember her doing exactly this same thing before, for a long time she has not noticed things that are right in front of her.
She got up early to go to the bathroom. I asked how she was feeling. She indicated her stomach felt strange but that she was not feeling any pain. I gave her some Tums to see if that might help. She went back to sleep.
She was ready for Panera and her muffin at 9:00. She was still walking slowly and didn’t look sure of herself. I asked how she felt. She said, “”Hungry.” We went to Panera and stayed an hour before she asked if we could go home. For the second day in a row, she had not finished her muffin. I asked about that, and she said she said she was full. That made me think again about her stomach.
She has been resting since we got home. I will soon check to see if she wants any lunch.
