We are currently watching “For All Man Kind” on the AppleTV Channel. It is an excellent series, and I highly recommend it. While the show did base some of its work on actual events and included historical figures like astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Deke Slayton it is actually a work of fiction. I did a lot of googling. I was so disappointed. There never was a lunar base on the moon as shown in the show. I figured the government hadn’t been transparent with all of its NASA activity. I mean how surprising would that be, right?

This morning started off differently than normal. Usually though chaotic, it goes pretty smoothly. At the same time, I realize that you never know what you are going to get day by day when you work with someone who has dementia. My hubby was looking down forlornly at several pairs of shoes and informed me none of them fit properly. I pointed out the pair he’d been wearing, but he said they still didn’t fit. So I walked away to let him try to work it out. A bit later he came in with a sock. He was flustered. He couldn’t bend to get his sock on. Luckily, it was a different sock than the one he had on the other foot. I ran to the bedroom and grabbed a matching sock and the shoes he’d been wearing. I slipped on his sock and then the shoes and not one word came out of him. He did smile however and had zero complaints that the shoes were not fitting properly. He then ate his breakfast and surfed the Internet.

Alzheimer’s is so weird. One day my hubby is fine and all synapses firing as they should and the next day, it can be the complete opposite. His delusions and hallucinations (something I will get into later) have cut back thankfully. I’ve noticed when his brain is changing now, he gets hypersexual. I then know that something new will pop up. For example, the shoe episode this morning. Sleeping in his day clothes. Not making his sandwiches or tea any longer. And not drinking water. These are all recent developments.

Hubby has argued over bathing and changing his clothing for a good year. I now tell him, it’s shower day and I’m putting a heater in his bathroom to make it warm for him. A heater is a great enticement. It didn’t work last week though. He was still resistant. So yesterday when trimming his toenails, I emphasized how badly his feet smell and how dirty it was between his toes. I told him he would be lucky not to get a fungal infection. He looked a bit alarmed hehehe. My plot worked. He got in the shower, and I stole his dirty clothes :). I laid out clean everything. A bit later he came out in pj bottoms. Hubby: “I can’t figure out what to put on.”Me: “I have everything laid out for you. Let me go through it with you.” He just needed some guidance.

As I mentioned in another blog entry before my hubby was put on Gabapentin, he was angry and paranoid. He was having severe delusions. Granted, the delusions are still there, but more subtle. This summer, not only did he run off, but he was spying too. He was convinced that he had sold the property to the new neighbors and that they had parked a plane on our property without his permission and without paying him for the parking space. He was constantly cutting through the woods and spying on them. That stressed me out so much. I was concerned he would get rude and there would be a conflict. My imagination was going overboard. Stress does that to me. The house the new neighbors moved into once belonged to him. He lost it in a divorce. His ex-wife then sold it years ago. In turn, that owner lived there for a couple of decades and then decided to sell. I know, it is complicated and especially complicated for someone with dementia. Regardless, hubby thinks there were three houses on that property and that they bulldozed them down. He also thinks they dug a hole and dropped a sewer tank on our property. He’s always been a bit territorial, but with dementia, it has really gotten bad.

Thankfully, God gives me the grace to show my hubby love and most of the time patience. Of course, I drop the ball from time to time, but blogging is helping me see I’m doing far better than I thought I was.