Before we went to Casa Bella last night, Kate started to put on an outfit that I thought was less appropriate than she should wear. She told me to pick out something. I did and put the pants and top on the bed in her room while she was standing there. I left the room to get myself dressed. Shortly she came into our bedroom wearing the same thing she had been wearing. I told her she didn’t put on the things I picked out. She gave me a puzzled look and asked where they were. I told her I had put them on the bed. We walked back to her room. I found the top on a hanger in her closet. She had thrown the pants across a chair. It was obvious she had no recollection of my having picked these out for her. I stayed with her while she took off the top she was wearing. I told her she didn’t need to change her pants although they were more casual than the ones I had picked out. Again, I went back to get ready. She came into the bedroom where I was getting ready. Once again, she was wearing the top she had been wearing to start with. I went with her to her bedroom and helped her into the top I had picked out.
This morning she was a little disoriented. Shortly after 8:30, I went to the bedroom to see if she was up. She was walking back to our bedroom. She asked, “What can I wear?” I asked her if she would like me to find something for her. She said, “Oh, yes.” There was no effort to express her independence. I walked to her room and picked out something from her closet where there were many options she could have chosen. When I returned to our bedroom with her clothes, she thanked me and put them on.
On a related note, I have noticed that she is having increasing trouble putting on her clothes. For quite a long time she has frequently put on her tops and pants backwards or inside out. This tendency is increasing. Last night as we got ready to leave for Casa Bella, she had great difficulty getting her top on correctly.
She has had similar problems today with two different coats. Late this afternoon, we went to Panera. The sitter had taken her there earlier, but she was eager to get out of the house. We had another hour before going to dinner; so back to Panera we went. Since it has been cold and rainy today, I gave her a coat to wear. I watched as she struggled to get it on. She wanted to do it without my help. She ended up getting in the car with her right arm in the right sleeve but couldn’t find the sleeve for the left arm. Before we left Panera, she started to try to put on her coat and then asked me to help her.
Because it has been such a nasty day I was concerned about Kate’s being occupied while the sitter was with her. Working outside was impossible. That only left the iPad to keep her busy. As far as I could tell, that did not turn out to be a problem. Neither Kate nor the sitter said anything.
As she has been doing, Kate warmly greeted the sitter. She also thanked her when she left. After she was gone, Kate said something about how sharp she is. I said, “It must be nice to have somebody here with you.” She nodded agreement and then said, “It really is. More than I thought at first.” I still don’t know if she realizes she has two different sitters, but she has never mentioned anything that suggests she does. She seems equally happy with each of them.
We reached a significant milestone with the sitters this week. It marks the end of the first ninety days since they started coming. The importance of this is that our long-term care insurance doesn’t start reimbursing us until after that period. If everything goes according to plan, I will need to submit records of all the payments made through Tuesday of this week. After they have accepted them, they will reimburse us for all future expenses up to a daily maximum set by our policy (12.5 hours). At the moment, I can’t begin to estimate how long it will be before we hit that maximum. I hope it is a long time.
