A Pupcicle

This weekend while I was away, my mom watched my dog.  Being that my mom lives with my grandfather, he got some puppy time too.

As always, I prepackaged Jackson’s food into individual servings to make it easier for my mom.  My mom had placed the food on top of the refrigerator for convenience, but when she came home one day to feed the dog, the food was no where in sight. 

After searching high and low, she finally opened the freezer and found the food in there.  Gramps must have been trying to do his part to keep Jackson cool during the hot summer days, and thought the food would be better slightly chilled. 

Alzheimer’s Fact: In addition to looking for a cure, researchers are focusing more and more on supporting the caregivers who spend upwards of 13 hours a day caring for loved ones.

Jackson

Luck Be an Alzheimer’s Patient

One of the things Gramps still enjoys doing is gambling.  In the past, his games have been poker and craps.  As of late, he has been sticking to Paigow and the slot machines, which are a little bit easier for him to understand these days.

A couple days ago, my mom took Gramps to an Indian casino and set him in front of a slot machine.  She had him betting the minimum credits to draw out the game.  However, on one particular pull, Gramps bet the maximum number of credits without understanding what he was doing.  And wouldn’t you know it on that particular pull, he HIT THE JACKPOT!  It was only a penny machine, so he got himself 3,000 shiny new pennies, but what luck.

This luck might be explained by Gramps rather unique method of consuming fortune cookies.  

Instead of reading what his fortune holds, lately, he has been forgetting that there is, in fact, a fortune in fortune cookies, so he consumes the cookie whole…fortune and all!  Perhaps this is an ancient Chinese secret that they forget to give you with the bill for your chow mein: To make your fortune come true, eat it!

Alzheimer’s Fact: The FDA has approved five drugs to be used in Alzheimer’s treatment: memantine (Namenda), tacrine (Cognex), donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon), galantamine (Reminyl).  About half of the people taking these medicaitons show modest and temporary improvement in memory and thinking skills.

Note: Gramps takes Aricept. 

Thief II: Caught in the Act!

I received an email from my mom yesterday, entitled “Thief!”  Thinking she had seen my post of the same name, I figured she was just commenting on the post.

However, much to my chagrin, she was providing more information on Gramps’ newfound illicit lifestyle.

In the last couple weeks, Gramps has been pulling half dollars out of his pockets.  My mother couldn’t figure out where he was finding him, but since he has quite an extensive coin collection, she figured he had a secret stash some where and didn’t think much of it.

However, my mom came home yesterday afternoon to find Gramps digging through a jar of coins in HER closet and removing all the half dollars and putting them in his pocket. 

Alzheimer’s Fact: Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease which advances in stages from mild forgetfulness and cognitive impairment to wide spread loss of mental abilities and total dependence on a caregiver.

Thief!

When I picked up Gramps for work yesterday morning, the housekeeper was at his house slaving away. 

My mom always leaves the housekeeper’s pay on the kitchen table in the morning before leaving for work.  So when the housekeeper called her that afternoon saying the money wasn’t there, my mom fingered the culprit right away–Gramps.

My mom called and said “Will you see if Gramps has a hundred dollar bill in his wallet?”

So I asked him.

“Yep,” he said. 

“Gramps that wasn’t your money,” I said. “That was for the cleaning lady.” 

“I know,” he said. “But we shouldn’t be paying her that much.  I’ll clean the house.”  Evidently the fact that the housekeeper was already hard at work earning her pay when he made this decision escaped him.

Anyway, I told Gramps that he had to give the money back to my mom that night.  He agreed.

At lunch time, Gramps tried to buy me lunch with the $100 bill.  “That’s not yours,” I explained to him. 

“I know,” he said.  Evidently the fact that he shouldn’t be spending money he knew wasn’t his, escaped him as well.

At home that night, my mom asked Gramps for the $100.  He in turn gave her a one-dollar bill. 

Sometimes I wonder if this Alzheimer’s thing is real, or if Gramps just found a way to make a quick buck.

Alzheimer’s Fact: Communicating with Alzheimer’s Patients–Simplify each task into single steps. Use simple words and short sentences to convey your message. Do not overwhelm the person with a string of instructions. If a person has difficulty hearing, lower the pitch of your voice rather than increasing the volume.

Not Those Damn Teeth Again

Gramps went to the dentist again yesterday.  And I’m just resigning myself to the fact that dentist = adventure.

In spite of his morning protests claiming nothing is wrong with his teeth and he doesn’t have to go to the dentist, I was able to get him to go to the dentist by explaining that he was going to have his teeth cleaned, and that this was to prevent any problems in the future. 

When Gramps got back from the dentist, he was very proud of his pearly whites and smiled to show me.  “Nice,” I said. 

Obviously Gramps was looking for a more enthusiastic response from me, and proceeded to take out his teeth to show me how clean they were. 

“See, see?”  he kept saying. 

Not wanting to see the teeth, I kept my head down and focused on my work.  Gramps was persistent though, and every couple minutes would take his teeth back out.  “See?” 

Finally I had enough.  “Gramps, you need to keep your teeth in your mouth.” 

“Just look,” he said.  “Can you take YOUR teeth out?” he asked, as if this was some miraculous super-human trick he had perfected. 

“No, Gramps.  And you should keep your teeth in your mouth.  They are disgusting.”  At this point I hear giggles coming from the offices of our tenants, who until this time had been able to keep quiet during our dialogue. 

Alzheimer’s Fact: Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most emotionally draining and traumatic diseases for patients and families alike. The progressive, degenerative nature of Alzheimer’s disease presents unique challenges for health care proxies.

 

Over Dressed for Breakfast

This post comes with reporting for my mom. 

First off, my mom thought she would be nice and make Gramps eggs benedict for breakfast. 

As she started, he instructed her that she was doing it all wrong. 

He then went to the cupboard and pulled out a box of Cheerios.  “See?” he said. 

Then as he was eating his gourmet breakfast (the eggs benedict, not the Cheerios), he noticed his pants were rather poofy, and commented that he couldn’t find his belt. 

My mom went to investigate his clothing and found that he was wearing TWO pairs of pants.  And the reason he couldn’t find his belt, was that he was wearing it on the first pair, which was underneath the second pair! 

Alzheimer’s Fact: High cholesterol and diets high in saturated fats increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, while diets high in antioxidants decrease the risk.

How Old is “Old”?

Recently, my mother tried to enroll Gramps in an Alzheimer’s Day Care program at the local hospital. 

His first session went really well, and he was completely impressed by the blind woman who was able to play the piano. 

The next session was a little less eventful, and I could tell he was losing interest fast. 

So, in an effort to keep him excited about the program, I would try to talk it up whenever possible. 

So one day I was driving him to work and I said, “So you are going to go that program tomorrow?” 

He said “Nah, I don’t want to go.”

I asked “Why?”

“Too many OLD people there,” he replied.

Gramps is 94 years-old. 

To Catch A Thief

When I first started this blog, just two months ago, Gramps’ crazy antics were pretty much few and far between.  Oh, yes, every day with him is an adventure, but the really good, blog-worthy stuff, was pretty intermittent, and as you may remember, I even had to reach into the archives a couple times to keep my posts frequent.

That is starting to change. 

Today’s post comes with help from my mom: the “victim” of the purported crime. 

Evidently, my mom’s credit cards had started to go missing.  She realized one was missing, and promptly cancelled it and ordered a new one. 

Today, as she packed Gramps’ toiletry bag for a trip, she claimed “it was like hitting the lottery!” 

She not only found the one she knew was missing, but also one that she hadn’t realized had gone astray and several Starbucks’ gift certificates.  The funny part is that he would have actually had to GO in her purse and wallet to take the credit cards…a true pickpocket, Gramps is!

One could only surmise that Gramps’ had finally had enough of my mother’s constant “nagging” about him not driving, ordering him to take his pills, and being in cahoots with the doctor (all his usual complaints) and was planning his great escape…sponsored by Starbucks. 

Alzheimer’s Fact: As Alzheimer’s disease affects each area of the brain, certain functions or abilities can be lost. It is important for caregivers to remember that changes in a person’s behavior and ability to communicate may be related to the disease process.

 

 

 

 

And Things That Should Stay Lost Reappear

You’ve read about Gramps losing things and throwing things away that shouldn’t be…well, here is a story about things that should be lost/thrown away, that have a habit of reappearing.

As you all know, Gramps and I work together in an office. Of course, we use pens, and these pens, as all do, eventually run out of ink.

Gramps will save these inkless pens, and inevitably, when I reach for a pen, without fail, I reach for one of the inkless ones he has stashed away. As soon as I realize the pen is out of ink, I throw it in the garbage.

Repeat pen-getting process: I reach for pen, pen is out of ink, I throw it away.
Repeat again.

After I do this a couple times in ONE day, I wonder if all pens decided to go inkless on the same day. But then I look in the garbage can and realize that the “five” inkless pens that I have thrown away that day aren’t there.

Finally it dawns on me: I have been picking up the same exact inkless pen all day. And just as soon as I throw it in the garbage, Gramps takes it out and puts it back on my desk.

We have all seen those lists on “How to Annoy Your Office Mates“. Well, it seems Gramps has thought of one of his own.

Alzheimer Fact: There is currently no single test used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. In most cases your doctor will first rule out other diseases that can impact memory by laboratory tests and a physical exam. Neuropsychological tests are used to determine if there is any cognitive impairment.

You Must Be Suffering from a Sunburn

As anyone caring for an Alzheimer’s patient knows, language is one of the first and most obviously, noticeable afflictions of Alzheimer’s. 

Gramps is no different. 

While he is getting slower at putting together thoughts and sentences, he has always been able to grasp the correct words in order to form a sentence.  He then went through a phase where, if he couldn’t remember a word, he could at least describe the word or talk around it, much the same as a non-native speaker, would  should they not have sufficient vocabulary for a particular word. 

However, these days his speech is getting a little slower, and sometimes, out of frustration I think, he will insert a word that isn’t quite the correct word just to get his sentence out. 

Gramps’ gets very concerned whenever I show the slightest symptom of any illness.  So this morning when I picked him up, he noticed I wasn’t coughing as much as I was last week due to a recent cold.  He said “Are you feeling better?  You don’t seem to be coughing so much.  You were really coughing when you were suffering from that…from that…uh…sunburn.” 

I obviously knew he was referring to my “cold,” but for a brief moment, as I reluctantly started the work week on a chilly spring morning, I thought “How great would it be to be in Gramps’ world, where I was inflicted with a sunburn?” which would have at least indicated I was outdoors enjoying the sun over the weekend, instead of bundled up enduring the San Francisco spring. 

Alzheimer’s Fact: Alzheimer’s disease has a profound effect on language. The disease affects speech and the use of words, as well as the understanding of words. As the disease progresses, language as a means of communicating becomes less effective. Caregivers need to use different ways of communicating their message and staying in touch.