Tonight I experienced a bit of what the future holds for dad...it was not pretty, in fact it kind of scared me.
After dinner tonight, I went up to my bedroom to write a film review for a music class I am taking. At about 9:00 p.m. I could hear dad puttering around in his room, so I went down to check on him. Oh my!
Let me begin by saying dad always makes his bed. Lately he hasn't been doing as good a job, but I still let him do it. (mostly because I'm afraid if I do it for him he will forget how) When I walked into his room the bed was no longer made...it.was.a.MESS! The bedspread and blankets were going every which way, half on and half off the bed, and his TV tray was laying on the bed with some of the blankets twisted through the legs. Dad was standing there, with his pajama shirt on in-side-out and over his regular shirt, staring at his dresser with a lost look on his face.
When I said, "Oh, what happened here?" he said he didn't know. I asked if he was ready to go to bed, and he said he was, so I showed him that he had his regular shirt on under his jammie shirt. I told him to go ahead and take off both shirts and we would start over. Then while he was taking off the shirts I went to get his denture cup from the bathroom. When I came back into the bedroom, he had taken off the jammie shirt and unbuttoned the other shirt, but was just standing there, like he couldn't remember what he was doing. I reminded him that he needed to finish taking off the shirt so he could change into his pj's. As I was putting the shirt in his hamper (which is in his closet) he started to put on his jammie shirt. When I came out of the closet, dad was trying to pull the jammie shirt over his head, but he had his arms going into the sleeves through the neck of the shirt. I helped him get his arms out, then turned it around and told him it would be easier if he put his arms up through the bottom where there was more room. But as I was trying to give it to him to do, he just looked at me, so I helped him get his arms into the sleeves and pulled it over his head. I told him next he needed to take off his pants, and put on his pajama bottoms, so he sat down on the bed and started pulling at the bottoms of his pant legs. I told him that wouldn't work, that he needed to stand up, so he stood up and started pulling down at the thigh area of the pant legs and when nothing happened he started pulling on the crotch area. WOW! Was this the man that woke up at 4 o'clock this morning and dressed himself? I asked if he wanted some help, and he said yes, then sat down on the bed. I told him it would be easier if he was standing up, but he just looked at me like he didn't understand what I was saying. I tried to help him stand up, but he put his feet straight out in front of him, so he ended up falling back on the bed. After that happened, I told him to stay laying down while I undid the button and zipper, then I lifted his legs up and pulled on his pockets to get the pants out from under him. When it came time to put on his jammie bottoms, he was a little more helpful. I got his legs into the pantlegs and then he was able to stand and pull them up with some coaching.
Next came the dentures. The usual routine is that I hand him the denture cup and ask him to put his dentures in it, so I can soak them. Tonight as I handed him the denture cup and asked him to put his teeth in it, he put it up to his mouth like he was going to drink from it. I told him it wasn't to drink from, but I needed him to put his teeth in it, and he just held it to his mouth. When I realized he wasn't understanding I told him to open his mouth, so I could get his teeth...kinda creepy putting your fingers in someone else's mouth!
As I was putting the denture cleanser in the cup to soak the dentures, I could hear dad coughing and remembered he'd been coughing at dinner also. It sounded like a chest cold, so I told dad I was going to get him some cough medicine. Earlier, as I was putting his pajama bottoms on him he asked for a drink of water, but when I handed him his water bottle he didn't know what to do with it. And when I held it up to his mouth for a drink, he couldn't swallow from the bottle and ended up spitting the water everywhere. I knew I wanted to give dad some cough medicine, but I remembered he'd had a hard time swallowing the water, so I used a medicine syringe that the pharmacist had given us with the medicine. I explained to dad that I was going to squirt the medicine into his mouth and he would need to swallow it. He nodded like he understood, but after I squirted the medicine into his mouth he stared chewing. Luckily he kept his moth closed though. The cough medicine is really nasty tasting, so I planned on giving dad a sip of water after the medicine. This time I held the bottle up to dad's mouth for him to sip from, then after he got just a small sip I took the bottle away. He chewed the water just like he had chewed the medicine.
After giving him the medicine, I help him get under the covers and tucked him in. Then I realized not only was he having a hard time remembering how to do things, he hadn't really been talking either. He had been answering questions with a quick yes or a nod. So after I tucked him in, I asked him if he remembered me. He nodded yes, so I asked if he knew my name. He nodded yes again, but still no talking. So I asked him if he could say my name, he nodded, then said "You're the one..." I waited for the rest, but it never came. I decided not to press the matter, and I just started with our usual Good Night routine..."Good Night dad, I love you" and was pleasantly surprised when he replied, "Good Night dear-heart, I love you too."
