Beginning of Stage Six

Even in laughter the 

heart may sorrow,

And the end of mirth 

may be grief.

Proverbs 14:13

I started noticing changes lately. Those outings we had in April, may be the last ones we have and that thought was in the back of my mind when we went to a show and to a party. Some of our usual routines are not working. I am showing signs of being stressed out by change (not sleeping as well) and hubby is definitely changing. It may not just be a UTI--my idea earlier in the week.  Rather hubby may be headed into stage 6 of dementia. Oh my goodness! I did not want this to happen. I am trying to have a normal week. 

Enroe from my church helped me on Tuesday, his day off and my day off from substituting. After I dropped off the GMC to have the air bag replaced for free because it was recalled, Enroe  drove me around all morning in his vehicle. We went to Social Security so I could order a replacement SS Card. We went to my husband's doctor's office to get a prescription for his suspected UTI, and we went to one bank. Then Enroe drove me to a Christian Women's Club lunch where I sat with my friend Sally. Ordinarily both of our husbands would be at the Senior Center, but my husband was in no shape to go. Jake has been at the Senior Center enough with my husband so Sally can leave him without a problem. Then Sally drove me to a bank and then to get my car. I went on to Lakeland Toyota to find out about a gap refund since I have refinanced the GMC. Ordinarily Kenny would drive me on such errands, but he is out of town. Tuesday I had to do it all and Tuesday night it was so hard to deal with hubby! 

With Kenny gone, I have been fixing hubby a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a croissant for lunch when I work. He loves it. My plan has been to not substitute on Tuesdays this May. I told myself it's just a UTI and he will get better. 

What do they say about the best laid plans!!!

Wednesday morning I woke up ready to give hubby his pills, get him dressed and wheel him in his wheel chair out by the TV. No way did this work as it usually does and I had to call the school to say I would be late. I just could not hurry hubby up. He had only had his second antibiotic pill for the UTI. To top off everything, the sheets and mattress pad were wet!  I decided to not substitute for a few days, maybe until Kenny is back in town. Yes, we need the money, but the LORD has always provided and He can do it again. 

What is happening? 

1. I have to stop my busyness because we may be going into stage 6 of Alzheimer's which is described HERE. I cannot keep up my pace. 
2. We are using a wheel chair and a walker. Last year hubby would have objected. Recently this is the way he is getting around and he is accepting it. The chiropractor can only do so much to restore his ability to walk now. He hobbles. This is stage six, folks. 
3. Urinary incontinence is here. At first hubby did not like these briefs. I wanted to mail back the adult diapers to Rite-Aid and waited for directions for that mailing that never came. Now I can use them at night and will try them tonight. This is stage six, folks. 
4. I AM BLIND! I can no longer be THAT blind to blame his behavior ALL on a UTI. 

Before I confirm stage six, which is highly suspect, I will see someone at the Alzheimer's Association tomorrow morning. We will see a neurologist in June, if not before so we can see if the Exelon Patch and Namenda will still need to be taken. What other meds does he need? I wonder.  

Sad update:  Kenny's mom, Margaret, has stage four cancer. She is in Orlando recovering from surgery that may not have gotten all the cancer. She will have chemo. Kenny told me she asked about me. She has been such a wonderful friend and fine Christian believer. I would choose her as a sister any day if I could. Her recovery is not guaranteed, but we have talked about our guaranteed future in heaven with our LORD. 

I am just not ready for all of this! 

Carol

What's Been Working Here, Folks

Next month we will have been married for 14 years. Dementia has been around since 2008. This cartoon from Pinterest board is us, although I don't have a cane and I color my hair to look younger and give it more body. Hubby doesn't get shaved every day also and he used to be a little taller than I am. He is frail now and I guess you would describe me as a spunkly old lady. So how is it working for us?

1. Help from others. We are so blessed that volunteer caregiver Kenny lives nearby and comes over at least once a day.  Pharis is our volunteer for yard and maintenance. Kenny will text me when there is a problem. He will change the TV channel for hubby, because at his stage of dementia, he doesn't use those remote controls. See HERE. Because I have Kenny, I can keep working to pay the bills which include a car payment now. March 24-29 I have 4 1/2 days of substitute teaching and Saturday for teaching a class for DUI offenders.

2. Routines. Kenny established routines for shaving and showering and continues to make valuable suggestions. When Kenny will be gone for three weeks, I will be the one to use these routines and I have taken careful note. I do seem to carry with me the wife nag factor, so it will be more difficult for me. Taking morning pills in the bedroom works for me because Kenny established that routine which I mainly carry out now. At this point I put a pill in hubby's mouth and instruct him to swallow it with water. If I don't get the morning pills for hubby accomplished and have to leave the house, I text or call Kenny who sees that hubby gets his morning pills.

3. Help from a chiropractor whom hubby sees every two weeks. Now hubby can walk fairly well, although he has that old person's hobble. Alzheimer's expert Teepa Snow even imitated how my husband walks.

4. Simple, affirmative dialogue. Have learned to get in front of hubby.  I often tell him I love him, and I do mean it. It seems that love takes enriching turns as the disease progresses. I know hubby would be there for me if the situation were reversed.

5. Simplifying life wherever and whenever possible. Perfectionism is absolutely gone in life as I approach my 70th year in June. Shaving my husband's whole head means we don't have to visit the barber now. Planning errands for the week rather than for the crisis moment. Have a car appointment on Monday--so won't teach that day.

6. Friends Sally and Jake. It is so pleasant to go to dinner with them as we did recently at Olive Garden, using a coupon. The husbands sit across from us and Sally and I can chat to the side. The guys turn up their humor when together. Jake is so wonderful helping hubby walk as he walks alongside of him just as Kenny does.

7. Soliciting prayer from others.

8. Realizing that this is exactly what the LORD in His providence has in mind for us and He will see us through. My husband is going downhill, and I thank God for every good day knowing that it is and will be getting worse.

Carol

New Normal in Caregiving Is Hard

This link Seven Stages from The Alzheimer's Reading Room describes the "new normal" stage that my husband is slinking into--perhaps stage five of seven. Every care receiver is different. My husband is no exception. He is different from other sufferers, but like them is trying to feel normal even as he:

• Struggles to express himself with the correct words. I have to
  
  stop my busy pace and concentrate on what he may be trying to say. 
• Wants to say "no" instead of "yes". I am so glad for the good routines established that keep things as "normal" as they can be. Taking morning pills with Kenny is a routine that works. Taking evening pills with me at 8 pm is a routine that works. Waking hubby up at 4 am for a pain pill works, in that I put it in his mouth and he slightly raises his head to swallow water and then goes back to sleep. 
• Has diminished taste buds and interest in food. Consequently I try to find what food will work for him. Fortunately I can give him coconut oil with that dark chocolate. 
• Has less knowledge of time.
• Lights up when I come home.

In contrast I, the caregiver/lovegiver for my husband:

• Struggle to say the right words to my husband without appearing to nag, without giving too much information in what I say. It is quite a discipline to say one thought at a time. 
• Have to say "yes" to more responsibility and yet am simplifying and saying "no" to perfectionism and expectations.
• Have more knowledge of time, trying to multitask, and yet fearing caregiver burnout.
• Light up when I see him, yet do not feel "at home" at our home. Frankly, when I am teaching I feel more normal--I work for respite perhaps and also income. 

My new normal includes writing a dissertation in my "spare" time which often is while substitute teaching in good classes or early in the morning while hubby is sleeping. Currently I am writing the chapter on stress and depression and fighting both stress and depression personally. Time to book an appointment with the counselor. Time for prayer and meditating on God's Word. 

Graphics from Pinterest. 

Going Downhill: What Husband's Dementia Now Means

I wrote on June 5, 2013 HERE.  Before that, July 3, 2012 I reflected HERE. These posts and recent observations show clearly that hubby is going downhill.

Bird house was last project. 

The last thing I recall my husband building, was a bird feeding station that he carefully fixed on a pole that used to house a DirectWay TV dish that pointed south. We changed to cable and we did not need that stand cemented into the ground. Hubby came up with the birdhouse solution. This project was in the earlier stages of dementia and I did note how he seemed confused figuring out some of it. Somehow he has wanted to maintain his equipment in the workshop, and carpenters since then have remarked at how organized this workshop is. I laugh, because I have cluttered up that workshop with items we used to take camping and other junk to go in a yard sale. I long to make this workshop an exercise room and use it for my storage and even Pharis has offered to transform that room.  It's as if I do not want to let my husband's workshop go.  I want that workshop to continue as a carpenter's workshop even as I want my husband to continue to be the same.

But now hubby is going downhill.

How does this make me feel? It is very hard. Thursday night I reclined on our long couch in the den by my husband who was sitting in his spot watching TV. I was occupied by depressing thoughts and trying to pray.

Lord, I do not want things to change. I want arthritis to be the only thing wrong with hubby now. I want that new pill to fix the arthritis and I want him to walk even if it is with the walker. I want my mellow husband back. I feel guilty now going to the store without hubby who has wanted to accompany me everywhere.  The whole dynamics of our marriage is changing in that I have had "the better" and now have "the worse" of those marriage vows.  But, LORD, it is not all about me. I accept that you are using this situation for my sanctification and thank you for so many who have come along side of us. 

I wondered reclining on the couch if I needed an anti-depressant. Then Kenny and his brother-in-law came over. I got up from the couch to greet them. They were over borrowing tools from hubby's workshop. They needed tools to fix a car, but unfortunately hubby didn't have those tools as my husband's hobby had been carpentry, not auto-mechanics.

"What's wrong?" Kenny asked. "I usually see you upbeat."

"He's not getting up to walk and I am afraid of all that is coming." Kenny and Kevin promised to pray.

What do do about dinner Thursday night.  I started it, but hubby wanted to go out, forgetting his limitations. He hobbles to the bedroom to change from his jeans shorts and T-shirt into slacks and a nice shirt. This outing however would not be easy. I packed the 8 PM pain pill in my purse.

Usually hubby would interact with the waitress, but not Thursday night. The walker we took to the restaurant was stored elsewhere and I went to get it when we went to leave. "I don't need that!" But yes he did and does. He has memory of walking, but is in denial about his current limitations.

"Use it or lose it," you hear about walking and artritis. I took the urinal away from him on Friday thinking that going to the bathroom would encourage walking. However, Friday night he wanted that urinal rather than walk to the bathroom and I came to observe that he had peed in his jeans during the day. Slowly he changed out of them as he got ready for bed. I have been helping him and notice all I have to do now that he did over a month ago.

1. I retire his false teeth to be soaked over night. In the morning I get his full uppers and partial lower false teeth for him along with new Seabond that keeps the uppers in place. 
2. Taking meds is a battle of the will. Kenny said that Friday morning after I had left the house to substitute teach, it was an effort to get hubby to take pills. He was stubborn for me last night as well. 
3. Shaving and showering is done with Kenny's help.
4. Dog Ziggy "needs" a ride in the wheel chair--translation hubby doesn't want to use the walker. 
5. He has a worried look on his face, reminiscent of my father and uncle as they aged.  These two relatives did not have dementia, but did have that worried look.  Kenny thinks that my husband's eyes look different.
6. Hubby doesn't answer phones now in the last several days. Friday morning when I got to school and called, Kenny answered the phone and gave the receiver to my husband. 

Yes coconut oil, and Alzheimer's meds have delayed the inevitable. Yes I have been a Pollyanna. It is here, folks, what I interviewed Dolores, LaTane and Laurie about. What I have read in Linda 

Born's book and Linda Fisher's book and other books. What I have heard in the Alzheimer's Association Support Meetings.  Ready or not, here IT comes--the very difficult days of being an Alzheimer's caregiver. 

Friday I finished reading a novel, Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly, to the special education students I have been substituting for this past month. In that novel middle school student character Vernon has to let go to a special needs young neighbor, Ronald, whom he had been mentoring. Vernon experienced anger at Maxine, Ronald's alcoholic mother, and grief when Ronald was carted off to live with relatives in another state. Vernon had done so much for Ronald--sponsored him in The Special Olympics and told others about Ronald saying his first word. Vernon ran alongside the car that carted Ronald off with Ronald looking back in the window. Finally the car sped off and Vernon falls, rolls and hits concrete:

I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I hurt all over. A hand moved up my legs and back, feeling for broken bones. It moved around my neck and rested on my face. It smelled familiar. "Vernon," Daddy said. "I'm here." (p. 180)

My students and I had quite a discussion on all the emotions of Vernon went through in the book. I know that my Father in heaven is there for me now, but I hurt all over emotionally. I must blog whether anyone reads this or not.

This Saturday morning hubby asks me what street we live on. Every time I cough he asks me if I am okay. He is sad he says today. He says he misses Jake and Sally who have been out of town. I miss them also. His son calls from Virginia and I talk with him about the deterioration which is evident to the son after he talks with his dad. Hubby takes forever to do anything. I edit his pills--no vitamins and fish oil--but other essentials have not been taken. He waits in his wheel chair watching TV for over an hour, not sure when he will sit in his padded spot. After some time the spot calls to him and he makes it there when I am in the den blogging.

As I am writing this post Kenny comes over for the ritual shaving and shower. Hubby is resistant to the shower, but we manage. Thank you LORD, for Kenny and the prayers of you all who read this.

Added Sunday, Sept. 29: It's official. I am only allowed one day at the PITY PARTY according to Jean Milsap, 20 year caregiver whom I interviewed in July here. So be it! The lady has spoken! 

Questions, But No Answers

I am up in the middle of the night with more questions than answers.

To recap hubby was in the hospital from Tuesday evening through Thursday morning and this doesn't quality as "three days". I suspect that his UTI included this time or started during this time. Then when he returned to the emergency room Saturday night officially UTI was diagnosed and he was sent home with an antibiotic prescription. Imodium was added because of diarrhea from the antibiotic.

What kind of at-home care does Medicare cover? Maybe none. Maybe Preferred Care doesn't do what I need it to do.

If a patient needs skilled nursing or rehabilitation care at home, either Medicare Part A (following a minimum three-day hospital stay) or Part B (no hospital-stay requirement) can cover it. A Medicare Part C Medicare Advantage plan similarly covers home care. The care can be provided in the patient's home or anywhere else he or she stays. If a patient meets the requirements to qualify for home care (see next page), Medicare covers skilled nursing or rehabilitation care and physical and speech therapy as needed while the patient recovers from an illness, condition, or injury. Medicare also covers needed medical supplies and equipment.

If a patient needs only nonmedical home care and assistance, such as help with eating, dressing, walking, meal preparation, and housekeeping, Medicare does not cover it. However, if a patient is getting Medicare coverage for skilled nursing or therapy at home, Medicare usually pays for limited visits by an aide from a home care agency to help with personal care. If Medicare covers skilled home care for the patient, it also covers the services of an occupational therapist to help him or her relearn how to accomplish daily personal care and household tasks safely.See this link.

The primary care physician faxed an application to a nursing home that doesn't cover Preferred Care and so hubby was not admitted there. That nursing home also called the hospital which said my husband wasn't admitted. However, as I wrote in the last blog, I did check that he was admitted. Are there two kinds of admission? I have already had an end-of-the-day phone cut off from Preferred Care after being on hold for 34 minutes. I may not get answers on the weekend.

Kenny, his new volunteer caregiver and I, his wife and health care surrogate, are concerned. Others watch at a distance and are equally concerned and have suggested more help. My husband's daughter and my pastor advised that I get him physical therapy.

Again it is the weekend and there isn't much I can do. I stopped by his doctor today after returning to substitute teach (I have essentially been off two weeks) to request a "script" for home health care or outpatient therapy. At the end of the day I wasn't able to see his doctor, but just left a note.

So questions remain:

• Why didn't the Senior Center call my cell phone on April 9th? I wasn't working that day because it was the day I set aside to attend that Alzheimer's Association support group every month. My cell phone was on.
• Was he really admitted so our expenses will be paid?
• Is there some kidney problem as was hinted in the first emergency room visit? He has a lot of gas now.
• Why would my husband's doctor think my hubby was at the stage where he needed a nursing home permanently? He is still in the stage of Alzheimer's I described 7/8/12 as part one here. I have not had to write a part two yet. Perhaps it was just the circumstances of that day and the hospital visits.
• What professional will give me definitive answers after actually examining my husband? My Alzheimer's Association support group is the second Tuesday of next month. I always go to that meeting unless something else comes up. May 14th is a long time away.
• Was that the right hospital emergency room to take him to? Should I have driven farther? Years ago before his dementia hubby drove himself to the same emergency room after his legs were burned from setting fire to trash in the back yard. At that time he was sent home that very night from the emergency room, only to return to be admitted to the hospital the next day by a doctor. After a few days again they wanted to send him home again before he was ready. However,  they did get him outpatient therapy when he did finally return home. Why weren't we given outpatient therapy for his UTI?

Meanwhile my hubby is improving--so much better than last Sunday. Every day he is better and I can't see that he is in another stage of Alzheimer's. Yes hubby is doing well, but he could benefit from more help if he is having trouble bouncing back from the UTI. He does not have the wonderful sparkly personality I am used to.

When I left a note for his doctor Friday afternoon that he needs more care, I was talking with a patient (not a senior citizen) who can't get medicine she needs because of Obamacare. She has questions about Obamacare and I gave her this article here. We all have questions about Obamacare and what is down the road. Will we seniors receive adequate care if others are not now?

Subjective reporting here,

Carol

Hubby in Hospital--Part Two

DH:  When can I get out?

Me: When the doctor says so.
DH: Where am I now?
Me: You are at our wonderful Plant City South Florida Baptist Hospital.
DH: I am going to leave in my hospital gown.
Me: No you are not. We both had to come here because we were bad. I swallowed your pills by accident in December. I was a bad girl and I had to come here. You did not take your pills on Tuesday or eat all day and you were a bad boy so you came here. [See post here when I took hubby's pills.] I needed to know if you had had a stroke also. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Margaret Thatcher had stroke this past week. Hubby had been able to stick out his tongue, but he was very confused Tuesday afternoon. I couldn't chance it and as I wrote in Post One, I drove him to the emergency room where he was also checked for a urinary infection. 

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE.
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

That was Tuesday night and Wednesday the more food we got down hubby the better he walked, went to the bathroom, etc. But still he did not have his "walking papers". His socks were red, rather than green--the hospital code for walkers and non-walkers.


DH: Carol, you live in never-never land. I can leave now. [Techically this is true, but not wise for him.]
Me: They have to release you from the hospital.  
DH: I can walk out of here.  
Me: Right! Walk out in your hospital gown and they take you right to the funny farm!  

I watched carefully the nurse as she assisted him walk to the room bathroom and instructed him how to get back into bed. I quizzed the nurse on taking pills with the apple sauce. You don't have to open the capsules or crush the meds. You just put them in the apple sauce and they soften that way for several minutes and then he eats the apple sauce with knowledge that he is also being a good boy taking his pills.

From the Alzheimer's support group one gentleman sent me this email I read from my notebook computer on Wednesday:

So sorry to read about your Hubby. I didn't look around when you left to see who came. That must have been horrible for him sitting there all day. Strange someone did not pick up on what was happening. I sure hope things work out for him to the good. I will read the blog to stay up-dated. You take care of yourself too, Carol.

I also wondered why the Senior Center had not called me Tuesday.

Yesterday in the hospital I was in touch with family and friends on my iPhone and notebook computer. I read email on my iPhone. I read blogs on my small computer. I played Words With Friends and updated those people on my husband with the Words With Friends chat box. I texted family and friends. Hubby kept wanting to know when he could go home and kept talking about our dog. He had no idea about all my technology that kept me occupied when we weren't talking and I was answering the same questions over and over again.

Finally near 6 pm Wednesday night the neurologist came. This specialist asked my husband questions such as what was the year, what was the season and where he was. I am on planet earth, he said.  He flunked all answers. The neurologist said he would review the chart and see when he could be released.

They have had my body long enough, hubby said, but he would not be released Wednesday night and I headed home.

When I got home I put the port-a-potty thing below we had in the attic from hubby's heart attack in 2004 on his bathroom toilet, now making our home even more Alzheimer's ready.


Handles for getting up and down.
He might as well get used to this.  

During the day Wednesday I was so pleased to see that a family friend had put in a gate to connect our property and our back yard neighbor's property for new help for my husband. This gentleman also fixed another gate I had bent backing up our gas guzzler some time ago. Such a blessing and he will also mow our 7/10 acre so I don't have to nag my husband about the lawn or have him accept a woman (me) mowing a lawn.

This morning. Our dog objected to my getting ready to leaving him again, but I told the bright dog I am going to see "Daddy" and he stopped barking and I head again for the hospital. I had seen that Dallas, TX Geriatric Care Manager Carole Larkin had posted a comment below on Part One of Hubby in Hospital on this blog.  I took Carole Larkin's professional advice and checked on my husband's admission to the hospital when I got there this morning. He had been admitted.I got to see his primary care physician briefly. He would go home.

When I got to his hospital room he was eating his food without coaching! Perhaps he had learned his lesson which I would repeat again and again now also explaining why he would have a volunteer caregiver Kenny visiting my husband when I was working. Hospital staff wheeled hubby to our car and we left the hospital.

Kenny came over to our house this afternoon and we went over procedures. Kenny will use that new gate on days I leave the house to see that my husband gets up, has his pills in his apple sauce, has breakfast and has lunch and has enough water and other liquids.

While Kenny was here our friends Sally and Jake came over and brought us dinner and Kenny was able to meet Jake who may stop by sometimes while Sally runs an errand! Jake was here last Saturday when I taught all day.

Multiple blessings. I have had help for fences, for lawn mowing, for advice from the nurse and from Carole Larkin and now have an magnanimous volunteer such as neighbor Kenny. Thanks for dinner, Sally and Jake also--delicious salad from Bob Evans.

I just think this whole experience has shown

wonderful answers to prayer

and thank all of you who have been

praying and helping.

Hubby in Hospital--Part One

Yesterday morning I picked up Jake and drove Jake and hubby to the Senior Center where they spend Tuesdays. Jake finished his breakfast in the car but hubby still had his breakfast and had not swallowed his pills in the car. With the air of a staff sergeant I brought hubby's breakfast and morning pills into the Senior Center. Later in the day I would attend the 2 pm monthly Alzheimer's Association Support Group at First Baptist and either Sally or I would pick up the husbands.

Sally took care of a sick grandchild yesterday and did not go to the support group. She picked up our husbands about 3 pm. She came to the support group with the grandchild leaving the two husbands in her car and said that my hubby was not himself. He had not taken his pills, not eaten his breakfast nor eaten the Senior Center lunch. He had sat at the center all day. Jake was very concerned as Sally was.

I left the meeting and Sally drove hubby to where our car was parked. It took some coaching to get hubby into our car. When we got home I decided to take him to the front of the house rather than through the garage where with all the junk there and the step up to the family room. I figured easy access to the front door and no step up was the best route to his easy spot by the big screen TV.

However, hubby was not getting out of the car. I feared the worse--a stroke, although he could stick out his tongue. I called his primary care physician's office and proceeded to the emergency room at the hospital where I had gone myself last December in an ambulance.  I could get him there quickly myself without waiting for an ambulance and having to pay some of the ambulance cost that insurance doesn't cover.

After the four plus hours, the emergency room staff ruled out a urinary tract infection or a stroke. I requested  food for him and finally some came about 8:30 PM. He ate only a little--the only food all day. He had some apple sauce and a little bit of turkey, and a taste of jello.

The decision was made to admit him for further observation. I drove home last night so ready to cry. With melatonin from the health food store I was able to get maybe six hours of sleep and I came back to the hospital with this notebook computer where I am typing now and with my iPhone and its charger for contact with people outside the hospital. So glad you can use those devices in the hospital now.

The nurse came in this morning to give hubby his medicine.

Nurse: Give me your name and your date of birth.

Hubby had some trouble with these two instructions. I explained to the nurse that she asked him two questions and he only responds to one idea at a time.

"By law you have to give the date of birth when I give you your medicine," my husband's nurse said.

He was able to give his name and date of birth finally with one question at a time. 


Me to the nurse: What if they have dementia and can't give you their date of birth?

Nurse: I keep going until they can answer something-- maybe they can give the year.

Me: He can't give you that. (He will just cover himself by saying that he doesn't bother with those details because he can check a calendar for the year.)

She proceeded to give him his medicine in apple sauce! I have to try that!

APPLE SAUCE!

The answer for the Pill Pusher me!

In order to be released, my husband needs to see the neurologist. Also, he is really shakey on his feet.



pottery dog, apple sauce



Perhaps hubby is going into a further stage of Alzheimer's. Out of ignorance or bliss I considered my husband in the first stage of Alzheimer's. Stages are different for everyone. Last year a nurse and reporter had contacted me to use hubby as proof of coconut oil. The reporter said I wasn't giving him enough, however, but whatever I have given him I feel has kept him fairly functional for a long time (since December of 2008).

Hubby kept asking: When was the last time we were home? When can I leave this jail? He told the nurse, I have seen you for two weeks. (He has no concept of time now.) I bring a ceramic dog to the hospital and he has this nicknack on his chest, reminding him of our dog.

I am sleepy here at the hospital. Going in search of coffee or caffeine. Thanks for your prayers, folks.