The Alzheimers Project

http://www.hbo.com/alzheimers/

Five X Five

I never love you
More than when you reach
Out, asleep, and take
Hold of my hand. Your
Body keeps me real.

-- Bethany W Pope

What Is Your Name?

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1058166030877659

Everything is fine. The paramedics just left....

Tonight Marv said he was going to take a little walk around the block.  I had a meeting at the library, and about ten minutes after he left my ride came for me.  I called home about 20 minutes later to see if everything was Ok.  No answer.  So I tried again after another 20 minutes and he answered, said everything was fine.

When I got home about an hour later, his elbow was hamburger, his eyebrow was split and swollen and there was blood all over his shirt.  Apparently somewhere between Cancun Mexican Restaurant and the liquor store he fell.  He says a bunch of ladies came out and surrounded him, the police came (again) and an ambulance brought him home.

I am overwhelmed with guilt, remembering another meeting I was at years ago.  Linn was home with the little boys.  I called home to see if everything was ok, and he answered, "Yes, everything is fine.  The paramedics just left...."   (Linn had been giving the little boys bike rides down to the school at the end of the street, and Jeremy got his foot caught in the spokes.)

911

I had to call 911 for the first time this afternoon.  Marv and I went to the store.  Before we were done, he said he was really really tired and I told him to go to the front of the store and find a chair and rest.  I finished up and found him, we unloaded our bags into the car and were off to In 'n' Out for burgers, as we usually do on Tuesdays when I have my poetry meeting.  In the line waiting for our burgers he mentioned again how tired he was.  I said, "You would get stronger and not feel so weak if you'd walk a little every day."  He leaped out of the car, angry.  "I;m not going to listen to this all the way home!" he yelled as I tried to grasp his pants or his shirt to pull him back in.  "Get back in here," I tried to sound like I had some kind of authority.  "Right now!"  "No," he said, "I am going to walk home!"

And he went lumbering off, heading north.  I couldn't go forward or backward, and lost sight of him before I got out of the line.  I tried to think what I should do.  I looked for him until I knew he wouldn't have made it this far, and traffic was heavy, and it was 92* hot.  I knew I couldn't look for him and drive at the same time, so I hurried home and called 911.  Three big police cars arrived and took all the information I could give them--height, weight, hair color, clothing etc...and they went looking for him.  An hour later they returned with him in tow.  He had come quite a ways.

"I sure was glad to get a ride home," he told me.  "I don't think I could have taken one more step!"

He had no idea why he was out there walking on the side of the road, alone.  And a little later, he remembered none of it.  As if it never happened.  "Boy, am I hungry," he said.  "What have we got to eat?"  When I showed him his In 'n' Out burger, fries, and Pepsi he was delighted.

 Our son Marc said he went out like a lion and in like a lamb!  Yep!


Thanks to the folks at 911, and to those great police guys for finding him and bringing him home safe!

Golden Corral

We went out for lunch again today at the Golden Corral.  We were supposed to meet with a couple of guests who didn't show, so we went anyway.  Marv asked me at least ten times where we were going, and why.  We filled up our first plate, me with salad, he with a plate FULL of chicken (which he has previously decided he doesn't like) and other stuff.  He ate about half of it, looked at the rest and asked, "WHO put all this stuff on my plate?"  :D   He was really mystified....

He carefully wrapped up the chicken bones in a napkin for the dogs.  Then he took the meat he had torn off and I put it in a plastic sandwich bag to take home for the dogs.  He found the napkin-wrapped bones and asked, "What is this?  We're not saving this for anything, are we?"  Before we left he wanted to give me the bones.  "Just leave them there on the plate," I said, and he did.

Had pink cotton candy for dessert!

Don't Confuse Them

Doing his crossword puzzle amid a screeching of sirens going on outside.

Me:  Wow!  There is something exciting going on somewhere!
Marv:  You should get in the car and follow them, and then you'll know what it is.
Me:  Like I'm a news reporter....
Marv:  Yeah.  You can write PRESS on a piece of paper and put it in the window.  Just don't write
             IRON.  It might confuse them.

LOL

Paris Hilton

I woke Marv to see if he was up to going to church.  He said, "No," and went back to sleep for another two hours.  When he woke up he told me about his dream:  Paris Hilton and her 11-year-old brother were living with us, and had been all summer.  He decided we needed to take them somewhere, so he found the Red streetcar (from his boyhood) and we all got in and traveled to Los Angeles, where we looked for tickets to go on to the Grand Canyon.  None were available, so we stayed and played in California!

He said it was a good dream!  A visit with Paris Hilton is always worth skipping church for.

Concessions

Well, Joe's wife, Loma has been driving him to the Thursday lunches at Wendy's.  That is good news.  Both Joe and Marv seem to really enjoy their time together over burgers and fries. I can't imagine what they talk about for an hour.  Loma goes to visit her brother who lives nearby. Last Thursday while I waited, I found a new little bookstore that is air-conditioned and has comfortable chairs to sit and read in.  I bought two books, Mark Twain's Letters From the Earth, and Emma Lou Thayne's Once in Israel, which I think I already have, but don't know where it is.

Yesterday Marv voluntarily gave me his car keys.  Now I have his wallet with all his credit cards, including his driver's licence and medical cards.  I found his cell phone (while I was looking for his wallet).  I put all his banking records online with mine, so I have access to both.  Yesterday we went out to buy a new fridge.  The old one leaks a continual puddle of water on the floor, and the door is falling off.  RCWilly will deliver it on Wednesday.  A few hours after we got home, Marv asked, "Did we buy a new refrigerator today?"  I told him we did.  He said, "I thought so, but it's all like a dream.  Everything is really cloudy."

He hasn't wanted to go to church for a few Sundays now, and I am just as happy to stay home with him.

Our Anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated our fiftieth anniversary, the "golden" one.  We had dinner at the Red Lobster, the "4 course" listed on the menu:  clam chowder and a garden salad, butterfly shrimp,  pineapple shrimp on a skewer, cheese biscuits, and for dessert a brownie with chocolate sauce and ice cream. ( We brought hope a take-out box full of broccoli.  :) )   Later that night he came in to kiss me goodnight and wished me Happy Anniverary, again.  "What is it," he said.  "About our 90th?"

Earlier in the day he had lunch at Wendy's with his friend, Joe Bennett.  They've been good friends for many years, and this Thursday lunch has been a ritual.  Yesterday Joe got lost on his way home.  His wife was frantic.  They found him somewhere in the south end of the Valley.  That was his second time getting lost on his way home.  Now Marv is afraid Loma won't let him drive to their Thursday lunch any more.  When we were in bed, he reached out and held my hand, and said, "Now you are the only friend I have left."

He doesn't think she will drive Joe there, as I have been driving him.  "He'll  just have to stay home in prison,"  Marv said.

I thought Marv would put up a big fuss when I told him I would drive to their lunches.  He didn't, which I am grateful for.

Father's Day June 15th 2014

Had a really nice dinner with Marc and Grace yesterday to celebrate Father's Day.  A good day.  Today Marv wanted to go out to get something to eat (probably an In 'N Out burger!) and I reminded him than we had a fridge FULL of food Gracie sent over last night.  He said, "I know who Grace is, but I can't picture what she looks like...."  

I got out the album that has the photos from our trip to the Philippines, and we went through it.  I showed him pictures of Grace.  He said, "We sure have been lots of places, haven't we!"

I'm glad we have lots of pictures.

MaryJane

http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/06/01/family-greg-ploetz-finds-marijuana-treatment-dementia-former-football-player/12871/