Tonight I brought Kate’s meds to her as I do each night. She asked, “For tonight or tomorrow?” This was surprising to me because I have never given her medications at one time to be taken the next day. Sometimes I can see something that has occurred that would prompt a question like this. In this particular case, it was something new that seems “out of the blue.”
We have the evening news on TV. The big news for the past three days is the shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Virtually, every time we have had the had the news on radio or TV, we have heard reports of this horrible shooting. Kate has responded to some of the news with greater than normal interest because of her roots in Texas and the fact that our son lives in Texas. Each time, including a moment ago, the subject has come up, she has reacted as though this is the first time she has heard of the shooting. She always asks, “Where is this?” I know I must have told her as many as ten times. She is simply unable to retain it.
This prompts me to say that I have been reading some of my posts from the first ten to eleven months of 2011. One of the things that strikes me now is that some of the things about the weakness or lack of short-term memory sound identical today. It illustrates the lack of precision of my words in describing her symptoms at that time. I suspect it also reflects my own perception of how short short-term memory is. In reality, it is much shorter today, but I had not yet had the experience of the kind of short-term memory that is more appropriately called “immediate” memory.
I have always thought that the progression of Kate’s illness has been very gradual. Comparing my early posts with what I know today provides strong reinforcement for this perception. Her decline has been even more gradual than I had thought. That adds to my belief that Aricept (donepezil) and Namenda (memantine) may have been effective. Of course, there is no way to be sure since we don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t taken them.
