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Noticing a Change

Over the past few weeks I have noticed that Kate has been asking me to remind her of the names of people more often than in the past. It is not surprising that this was most evident during our recent trip to North Carolina. I am, however, noticing that she is asking for names with quite a number of people and places. I suspect that the more she does it, the more comfortable she becomes in asking me to fill-in for her memory.

Simultaneously, she appears to be more comfortable in accepting or asking for my help in other ways (clothes to wear, getting ready to go places, etc.) I know that I have mentioned a number of times that she occasionally says something about how much she depends on me. Yesterday at lunch, she said it. Only this time she said it twice, the second time she gave me a very serious look as if to convey, “This is not a routine statement I am making.”

I have always tried to affirm my desired to be here for her. My most typical response has always been, “You can ask me as many times as you want. That is why I am here.” I have othe variations of this sentiment. “I will always be here for you” is one that I have also used. Most recently, I have said, “We are a team. We will do this together.” I don’t think she literally understands fully what I am saying. I know that she takes it as a statement of support for her. For me, that is the most important thing. I want her to know that she can count on me.

 

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Bad Dreams

I don’t recall if I have ever mentioned Kate’s having any problems with dreams. This has not been a big issue, but there have been several occasions when she has had them. Last night was one of them. It was also the longest lasting one. It occurred just before 5:00. I tried to calm her immediately, and that did have some calming effect but didn’t stop it altogether. She was completely calm by 5:30. During that time, I periodically told her, “I am right here. You’re going to be all right.” I also gently stroked her back. When it first happened, I also told her she had had a bad dream and that she was all right. She said, “I know.” But she didn’t calm down fully; so I believe she was still half asleep. Apart from sounds that she was making, she was struggling with her arms and legs as though she might be fighting someone or trying to get away from someone who was holding her. It was no surprise that she didn’t recall a thing when she got up this morning around 8:00.

Over the past few years, she has had other similar “bad” dreams although they were short-lived. She has more frequently had “good” dreams in which she talked to whomever was in the dream with her. A few days ago, she had a dream in which she was talking to me. It was like she was awake except for what she was saying and doing. I first noticed it when she was touching my chest and saying numbers, for example, “ten, eleven, twelve, etc.” I didn’t say anything at first. Then I said something that was a response to something she had said. That started a pattern that involved her saying consecutive numbers, and using her finger on my chest like a pen or pencil to write the numbers as she spoke them. When she got to the end of a column (for example, numbers in the 20s), she would take her finger up to the level at this she had begun the previous column only it was to the right. She would then pick up where she had left off (for example, 30, 31, 32, etc.) At one point, she stopped and asked, “What do you want to do now?” I spoke the next number for the next column. We proceeded to do 2-3 more columns of numbers before we stopped.

The most typical good dream has involved her playing the role of librarian, her career. She was always talking to students, giving instructions on various things. I would say she has probably had as many as 5-10 of these.

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Miscellaneous

Our first day back in Nashville was a pleasant one. Kate’s good mood has continued. The sitter came in the afternoon. I didn’t mention to Kate that she was coming. She arrived while Kate was in the backyard, and I was getting ready to leave for the Y. Once again, Kate received her warmly, and I was off. Before leaving, I told the sitter that she had a 5:00 appointment for a massage. I asked her to make sure that Kate came to get ready around 4:00. When I returned, they were both sitting in the family room where Kate was looking at one of her family albums.

As we finished our dinner last night, I asked her if she would like dessert. She often gets a scoop of homemade gelato that we share. She told me that she had had enough and would skip the dessert. Then she asked me. I told her that I had eaten so much on our trip that it would be good for me to pass it up. Just then, our server approached the table and asked if we wanted dessert. Kate immediately asked, “What do you have?” Of course, she ended up with her gelato. This is not an unusual event. She frequently says she is going to do something and then turns around and does something else. This is hard for those of us with a memory to understand, but for her, it is as natural as breathing.

On the way home, out of the blue she asked, “Are we moving into the new house tomorrow?” I hesitated a moment. Then I said, “We won’t be moving right away.” I didn’t pursue the topic. I don’t know what motivated it. She must have been thinking again that we had talked about moving into a new house.

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Leaving Texas

In the rental car center at the airport in Dallas, Kate asked me, “Where are we?” I said, “The Dallas airport in Texas.” She said sadly, I don’t wanna leave Texas.” I said, “But, we’ve had a good time” and gave her a hug. And she doesn’t realize she may not be back.   

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Our last day in Texas

Before leaving Knoxville yesterday, Kate and I made our usual stop at Panera where we both got muffins. Then we made a trip to the cemetery where we visited the Franklin family plot. We stopped at the graves of each person and sensed the memories of our experiences with them. There were a few who died before I became a part of the family, but I had a great sense of the story of this particular family and how close they had been.

We stopped a little longer at the graves of Kate’s mother and father and an infant daughter. It was an emotional moment for both of us. I believe it was especially so for me because I believe this will be Kate’s last visit to this place before she passes. The tears welled up in my eyes as we stood in that place.

From there we moved on to Dallas where we will catch our plane to Nashville this morning. We drove directly to the home of a childhood friend of mine with whom I have been in contact since the third grade when we met, Carter Owens. One of my earliest memories of him occurred during the 1948 presidential race between Truman and Dewey. He was a big Truman supporter. I am sure most of the other fourth graders hardly new who Truman was. This interest in politics has lasted the rest of his life. He is now a retired political science professor.

We met Carter at his home where he lives with his partner and now husband, Michael. They married shortly after we were with them two years ago. We had lunch at a nice French restaurant that was rather quiet for our extended conversation. We had a lot to catch up on. After lunch, we continued the conversation at their home. Kate and I both enjoy their company and had a pleasant afternoon.

Around 4:00 we left for our hotel near the airport. We had a fitting close to a very good week. It was everything I wanted it to be. Kate had seen all of the family living in Fort Worth as well as the people who have been most special to her for many years. I wish she were able to savor the memories. Since that is not possible, I am at least glad she was able to enjoy the time she had with each one.

 

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Incidental Happenings

2017-10-23 (7:44 pm)

Yesterday afternoon Kate and I went to a skilled nursing facility for a visit with the mother of a friend who lives near us in Tennessee. The friend’s mother invited us to have a seat. Kate took hers on a love seat with a table beside it. The friends mother had glass of water on the table. Apparently, she had been drinking it before we arrived. As we were talking, Kate up the glass and took a drink out of it. Our friends mother picked it up and took it to the kitchen and brought Kate a fresh glass of water. I chuckled to myself because I have had this experience quite a number of times.

Tonight we are staying in a hotel near the airport in Nashville where we will catch our plane home in the morning. We drove to a pizza place near the hotel. When I opened the door to the car for Kate, I noticed that she had taken her glass from the restaurant. I called attention to it and returned it. This is not the first time this has happened. It is not a typical thing but there have been as many as five times she has done this at restaurants.

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What does it mean to “know” someone?

This is a question I would like to explore in another post. It’s too late to start answering a question like this tonight. Let me simply mention something that happened today that prompted my query.

As Kate and I walked to our car after saying goodbye to our son, Kevin, his wife Rachel, and their son (our grandson), Brian, Kate asked, “Who is that boy?” I said, “That’s Brian.” She said, “Who are his parents?” I said, “Kevin and Rachel.” What makes this intriguing is that she had just spent almost two hours with a group of about a dozen family members including Brian and his parents (our son and his wife). We had also had lunch with them yesterday. In anticipation of our seeing them, I had mentioned Brian several times during the trip preceding yesterday’s lunch. Each time she was puzzled and asked, “Who are his parents?” Each time I explained.

I am fairly confident that when she was with Brian and his parents that she had a sense of who he is. It seems equally clear that when she asks the question, she does not know who he is. We normally think about an Alzheimer’s patient as either knowing or knowing others. This experience suggests to me that knowing is more than that. It’s a continuum. I think this deserves further exploration.

 

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A Great Day with Family and Close Friends

2017-10-22 (8:05 pm)

Today’s highlight was a family reception following church. We met in the parlor where the family had attended many events over the years. This included wedding receptions for several of us who were in attendance. It was a very informal gathering made special because we don’t get together very often anymore. We took lots of pictures that I am sure we will treasure in the years to come.

We went back to our hotel after the reception. Later in the afternoon, Kate and I visited two friends at a senior facility. One is my former professor with whom I had lunch on Friday. The other is the mother of a good friend who lives in Nashville.

We went directly from this visit to take another friend to dinner. Naomi has meant a lot to us. For years she was a member of Kate’s mother’s Sunday school class. During the late 1990s, after Kate’s mother had suffered a stroke, Naomi served as her caregiver. It meant a lot to Kate to have someone who knew and loved her mother to manage the onsite care that was needed. Even then Kate traveled back and forth between Knoxville and Fort Worth to see her mother and take care of lots of details.

During dinner, we talked about lots of memories. Kate loved it. I think Naomi did as well. It was a perfect close to our reunions with friends in Fort Worth.

 

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Flexibility Required

2017-10-21 (5:39 pm)

We’ve had a nice day. We made another visit to Sadie’s café for a cranberry scone and a large slice of pound cake, one of my favorites. We were there for about an hour before coming back to the hotel for another hour. As we were leaving the hotel room, Kate said, “Haywood Park.” I knew she was trying to show me that she recalled the name of our hotel. Of course, it was wrong again. I didn’t say anything, but the look on my face must have given away my thoughts. She said, “That’s not right?” I shook my head and told her it was the Hilton. She accepted it without a problem.

We met our son, his wife, their son as well as Kate’s brother, Ken and his wife, Virginia, at our favorite BBQ place for lunch. It was good to see each of them. We had seen our son in September, but it had been June since we had seen the others. It was especially nice to see our grandson who is now a freshman at TCU.

At lunch, we learned that the powers that be had decided to “stripe” the stadium by having people in certain sections wear black shirts while others wore gold, the University’s school colors. The section in which we were to sit was asked to wear black, and we didn’t have black shirts. To rectify this, we stopped by a shop and bought black golf shirts with the WF embroidered in gold on the front.

We got back to the hotel where Kate wanted to rest. It wasn’t too long before she wanted to get out of the room. This, as I may have said before, is not unusual. I suggested we go to Panera where we are planning to meet Ken and Virginia in the morning. Just before 5:00, I suggested we go back to the hotel before leaving for the football game at 5:30 or shortly thereafter.

When we got back to the hotel, we discovered that all the parking spaces were occupied. We ended up parking on the street about a block from the hotel. As we did this, I noticed a lineup of buses with TCU colors. It appeared that they were going to the stadium. I thought this was fortuitous as I didn’t really want to drive the car to the stadium and fight the traffic. I checked and learned that it is a free shuttle service to and back from the stadium.

Then we walked back to the room where Kate had wanted to rest before leaving for the stadium. We hadn’t taken but a few steps when she said, “Do we have to go to the game?” I hesitated a moment and said we didn’t have to go but that I had wanted to go. We tossed this around a few minutes, and I decided it was better not to push her even though she had said she would go. We came back to the room where I sent a text to our son and his wife informing them of our decision. Then I took our tickets to the front desk of the hotel and asked the man behind the desk if he knew someone who might like the tickets. He did.

The truth is that I didn’t have my heart set on the game at all. I did believe it would have been nice to be with our son and his wife for the game. It was that experience and not the game itself that was important to me. I also have to confess that I’m the kind of person who makes plans and then follows through on them. Thus, it requires a good bit of adaptability to decide not to go to a game for which we bought tickets a couple of months ago, bought shirts for a few hours ago, and came back from Panera to get ready to go to the game an hour ago. On the other hand, it illustrates two things I believe are relevant. The first is that living with Alzheimer’s involves lot of changes in plans. Second, it illustrates the importance of adaptability. If I were less adaptable, I would be miserable. As it is, I am disappointed, but I understand the need for the change. I feel for people who have more difficulty making this kind of change.

 

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Up in the dark

About 2:30 this morning, Kate got up to go to the bathroom. I woke up quickly enough that I was able to turn on the light beside the bed. As usual, she took a good while before returning to bed. I discovered this morning that she didn’t quite make it to the toilet in time which is not a rare event whether at home or while traveling.

When she got back into bed, she said enthusiastically, “I love this house.” I asked why, and she answered, “Everything is so close.” I didn’t go any further. I was just glad she was happy.