Daily Living

Thanks to Catherine, Brian has been back on aricept for the past few weeks. However, he continues to show changes from Alzheimer’s. Where as before, the changes were on a weekly basis, I am seeing changes on a daily basis. Each day is a learning process. It is frustrating for Brian when he spills or makes a mess and he is so apologetic, saying over and over again how sorry he is. I tell him he doesn’t need to be sorry, it is his disease process and it is not his fault. But he does feel badly to not be in control of himself. I feel his sorrow for this loss of self and I try to make light of the situation for him. Alzheimer’s is such a mean disease. Brian is conscious that his life and memory are slipping by and he can’t do anything about it. He is not angry about it and only rarely shows frustration. It is scary for him. We continue to joke and laugh about it and that makes him feel better. The other day he said that that president had this. He meant Ronald Reagan. I told him that Ronald did go through the same things as he was experiencing and if Ron and Nancy could do it, so could we. We both thought that was funny and now when faced with a situation, I refer to ourselves as Ron and Nancy. While laughing helps a lot, it doesn’t always work. Yesterday, as I was cleaning up a mess, Brian said he didn’t know how I could handle things every day and he was sorry I had to do this. I told him that I do it because I love him and I know that he would do the same for me if our positions were reversed.