Although Kate clearly wanted to know if she had Alzheimer’s, there have been times when each of us wondered which is better. I am now confident it is better to know. It has given us a higher quality of life together than we would have had otherwise. If we hadn’t found out, we would have continued on our merry way as we had been doing before knowing. This is strange because we both (especially Kate) felt for a long time that she had AD. But knowing took away the doubt and made us stop and take advantage of the good time we have together. In every respect, the days since diagnosis have been the best of our marriage. Even as I say this I know that the future will bring on the worst times. At least we will have made good use of our time since Jan. 21, 2011.
Another Small Sign of Things
Kate was with me when we met with Dad yesterday afternoon. She also knew I was out late at the hospital with him last night. This morning I spoke with her by phone before going out to see him. When I got back home, she had been working out in the yard. When she came in, she didn’t ask me about Dad at all. If it were not for her AD, she would have asked me right away about him. As it was, I simply told her. I am confident she would have asked at some point, but at that moment she had completely forgotten about him. I see this kind of thing all the time. While this incident has no negative consequences, there are times that it does because I will assume she has remembered something when it turns out she hasn’t.
Last week she missed a neighborhood association board meeting because she had forgotten. She hadn’t told me about it. That reminds me she hasn’t told me about her next hair appointment. She generally does this shortly after coming back from her previous appointment.
