Lullaby

Here is an example of the things that are happening now that really muck with posting blogs on anything like a regular basis. As per usual, it’s relating to my dad.

We were watching CSI, as is our wont on Thursdays. My mom is off doing her pre-going-to-bed prep work, as she usually does at that time of the evening. So, we’re watching TV, when I start hearing some noises coming form my dad. Then some more. I look and see that he’s clearly becoming agitated. I ask him about it. After about ten minutes of incoherency (moments of being articulate are short and few, even on good days) I can piece together that he’s having an anxiety attack because he can’t remember what to do to go to bed. He knows it’s coming…he wants to go to bed…but after getting up out of his chair, he can’t remember any of the steps that follow. Now knowing the problem, I get him up and start walking him through the things he needs to do, with my mom helping him with the PJs and getting into bed part.

And stuff like this happens almost every day. Let me tell ya, frontal lobe dementia is a nasty one. That it robs the person of the ability to communicate is icky and hard on everyone is undeniable, but the memory erasures are vexing because you’re never sure how it’s going to manifest itself. Sometimes it maybe be forgetting how to use a remote control or how to go to bed, sometimes it’s forgetting about orientation (my dad has lately taken to filling paper cup dispensers with the cups in upside-down).

I’m trying to post more often, so please bear with me. It’s not the easiest time in my life at the moment.