Friday, July 29, 2011

Joe and Lola's Confusion

Yesterday, Lola ate a whole packet of honey mustard with no food. I'd bought chicken planks for supper. There was an extra honey mustard that I left sitting on her tray. About a half hour after she'd finished her meal, I noticed her finishing off the extra honey mustard. She must have liked the sweet taste.

Later on she brought a panty liner into the living room and sat down in her chair. She was fumbling with it trying to open it, and when I asked her what on earth she was going to do with that in the living room, she said, "Throw it away." I  exclaimed, "Mama! It's brand new." She just looked disgusted and tossed it in the trash.  She's looked disgusted most of the day today. Her disgusted look is priceless. By the end of the evening there were 3 more panty liners on her table. I have no clue what got stuck in her mind about them.

Joe was a real handful trying to get to bed last night. He'd gotten up and started his process, so I got his Seroquel and gave it to him. It really helps put him to sleep and can't be given much before he lays down. Except last night he got distracted and went back into his den.  By the back way, and I didn't see him. When I checked on him and found him not in his bed, I went to the den, and there he was asleep in his chair in his clothes.

He really fought getting up from there. He fought all the way to the bedroom. I left him with his sweat pants in his lap so he would change. In a few minutes he called me back into his bedroom and tottered to the window behind his bed. He started patting the frame and telling me it was all attached. Well, I couldn't make any sense out of that and led him around to his side of the bed and eventually got him in there. As I turned away, I realized he'd opened the other window in the bedroom. Ah, Ha! That's what he meant about the window being attached - it was closed instead of open.

I closed the window and left him to sleep. Sigh. Will this heat wave never end? Even at 10:00 p.m. it was 85 outside. With that room by the A/C thermostat, there's no way in the world he should sleep with the windows open. I've adjusted to having it at 78 during the day and 76 at night. That far beats the 72 and 67 we keep ours at in our apartment in Memphis.

Earlier in the day, he just had to mow. It was pretty late, and as cool as it was going to get, so I started the mower for him. When he finished and had brought the mower into the garage, he was taking a long time. So I went out to the garage to check on him, and found him trying to get to the back of the garage. I asked him what he was trying to do, and he said he didn't know. So I just got him back into the house sitting down with a glass of cold water.

More and more he simply doesn't know what he's doing. He's taken to walking around the house and picking up all the trash cans and emptying them time after time. He can't remember which one goes where, and they end up in all sorts of places they don't normally go.

His drive to be doing something is so strong it can't be quelled, but he can't really do anything any more.

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