Since my post yesterday afternoon, I remembered one other recent change in Kate’s behavior. She has become unusually sensitive to the music played in many restaurants and also sudden noises. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with her Alzheimer’s, but it is a very noticeable change from the past. This is not brand new. She began to be bothered by these things several years ago after her diagnosis. The difference now is the degree of sensitivity. It doesn’t take her long when we are in a restaurant to comment on the type of music being played. Again, it’s not just that she doesn’t like it. It’s that she seems so annoyed by it, almost like the reaction that some people have to the scraping of fingernails on a chalk board. (Is that still a problem in this age of digital technology?) Similarly, when we were at Barnes & Noble yesterday, the woman who was fixing the drinks in the café bumped a ceramic dish with something. The noise wasn’t that loud, but it was audible throughout the café. Kate responded physically and audibly. Almost all the other tables were taken. No one else seemed to notice. A little later, I bumped my stainless steel coffee cup against the table. No one else around us even responded at all. Kate certainly did. On at least one occasion recently, a young woman dropped her keys on the floor. Kate jerked and made a noise. The woman apologized. It was nothing for the rest of us, just Kate.
