Every caregiver knows many of the daily tasks are routine. Along with those are a few unexpected things. They can be uncomfortable. We had one of those yesterday afternoon. As I have noted before, one side effect of Aricept is diarrhea. We have controlled that with an antidiarrheal. That has worked well. In the past few days, however, I’ve had the impression that Kate might be experiencing a little constipation. I’ve asked her about it, and she said she wasn’t. I have learned that she is often wrong about things like this. With that in mind, I decided to skip her antidiarrheal night before last.
Yesterday afternoon she had a minor problem with loose stools just as we were about to leave for her massage. She wanted me to show her where the bathroom is. I was surprised when we got there. She wanted me to tell her what to do. I showed her the toilet. She didn’t recognize it. I explained that she had to lift the lid. She was quite puzzled, so I lifted it for her, told her to drop her pants, and sit down. She said, “It’s got a hole in it.” I told her they were made that way so that one could urinate and defecate through it. Once she was on the toilet, I left her.
Very shortly, she called me. When I got to her, we were both upset, but for different reasons. I felt terrible about not giving her the antidiarrheal and thought she was upset about her accident. In the process of helping her, I discovered that she was upset about something totally unrelated.
This was one of those times that she began to talk as though we had been involved in something together. Thus, she thought I would understand what she was talking about. For me, it was like walking into an ongoing conversation and trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about.
What I heard first was, “I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry to get you involved.” I felt bad and said, “It wasn’t your fault at all. It was all my fault.” She said, “Well, we both wanted to do the right thing.” As she continued talking, I got an entirely different, though never clear, understanding of what she was talking about. It was when she said, “I really wanted to help these people” that I understood that she wasn’t thinking about her diarrhea. It turns out that she imagined (my word, not hers) that she was working in some kind of overseas program helping the poor. I knew from past experience that it makes no sense to ask questions for clarification. That never works. It was better for me to play along as though I understood exactly what she was saying and why.
She continued to feel she had done something wrong. I tried to change her focus. I suggested that we both were trying to do something right and that things don’t always go the way you want them to go. She accepted that but never fully calmed down before we got to the spa for her massage. As soon as we were inside and saw her massage therapist, she looked somewhat calm, but tired.
After her massage, she and the therapist came out to the lobby. Kate was telling her therapist about this project she was working on. She mentioned how much the people need help and that they were smart. She expressed the importance of the project. I let her finish, and we turned around to leave.
As we walked out the door, she said to me, “My husband is working on it too. And he is really patient and can relate to them.” She continued telling me about her husband until we reached the car. I opened the car door, and she got in her seat. Then I leaned down to connect her seat belt, and she recognized me and said, “Oh, Richard, do you know him?” I told her I did. She said, “He’s a really nice guy. What’s his name?” I told her I didn’t know.
This may be a good place to interject that until she started talking about this project before we left home, she had seemed quite “clear-headed.” She hadn’t been especially talkative, but she seemed to know me as her husband and used my name several times. She has imagined things quite a few times over the past several years, but this talk about the “project” came on so suddenly that I was surprised.
She talked about the project all the way home. It was clear that my earlier thought was correct. She was talking about some kind of educational program in a foreign country. The only thing I can imagine that might have prompted this delusion is our experiences with two different trips with Overseas Adventure Travel. One was to Tanzania, the other to Peru and Ecuador. OAT has schools in both places and always takes its groups to visit them.
When we got home, she wanted to use the bathroom. When she came out of the bathroom, she asked me what she should do. I suggested that she work on her iPad in the family room, and I would join her. I put on some music and we relaxed there for an hour before going to dinner.
When we returned to the house, she worked puzzles on her iPad. I’ve mentioned previously that she is having greater difficulty working her puzzles. Last night she seemed especially confused. She couldn’t figure out how to work her puzzles and wanted me to work them for her. That seemed a bit strange, but she has wanted me to do that a few times in the past. I soon discovered that she did that because she thought we were choosing a puzzle to frame it and give to someone. She had a specific person in mind, but she couldn’t tell me who. She said it was somebody I had told her about. She wanted me to show her how to do the puzzles herself, but I tried in vain to teach her. I focused heavily on trying to get her to recognize the edge pieces, especially the corners. As hard as I tried, she never grasped it.
The good thing was that I was able to make her feel better. She thanked me profusely for helping her. She said I was the only one who recognized that she was smart. She commented specifically on the trouble she was having at that moment and the fact that she didn’t seem the way she usually is. That is one more sign of things that she is able to sense while being so seemingly “out of touch” with reality. The more she said, the more I began to think that she might be experiencing a reaction to Robitussin and/or Zyrtec. She started coughing night before last. I called her doctor yesterday morning. She suggested both of these medications. I told Kate about my suspicion and did not give her the evening dose.
I have since done a little exploration of the side effects of Robitussin and found that diarrhea is one of them. That could mean that my not giving her the antidiarrheal the night before may not be the cause of yesterday’s accident. I also noticed that I bought Robitussin-DM. When I did a search on dementia and Robitussin, I found something on the Alzheimer’s Association website that indicated that “DM” is contraindicated for people taking Namenda. That is one of Kate’s medications. Kate’s doctor had suggested either Robitussin or Mucinex. I think I will switch to the latter today.
Because she was having so much trouble, I got Kate to put away her iPad for the night and loaded Les Misérables in the DVD player. She watched intently for the next hour and didn’t want to stop for bed.
She slept through the night though she is coughing a little bit this morning. She is still in bed, and I am using my new video cam to check on her. I have discovered that the audio is particularly effective. After her first cough, I went to the bedroom. She coughed again, but it didn’t sound nearly as bad hearing it directly.
Today the sitter is supposed to come at 1:00. I am going to call the agency as soon as they open and cancel. I want to be able to monitor how well she is doing throughout the day.
