"Larry's World"

Alzheimer's and Dementia is hard and not for the faint of heart as I have said before, however, you have to find joy and laughter when you can.  There are very few (if any) days that I pick daddy up from Pace that there isn't a "story" of events that took place that day.  Yesterday was no exception to that.  Here is how the afternoon conversation went as I picked him up.
At first he seemed very frustrated and testy.  The young lady at the front desk caught me to give me a piece of paper which turned out to be his daily report.  I said has he had a bad day and she responded with, no, not really, he seemed to have a good day.  I said, good.  He seems frazzled right now.  We walk out and he says, boy has this been a messed up day.  I'm thinking, oh Lord, now what.  So, they have a new activity director and he isn't a huge fan (yet).  He says she talks to them like they are little kids and he does not like that and she pushes for them to participate.  Well, in her defense, she is new and they want them to participate as much as possible in as many activities as possible as that helps this disease with the socializing and working his brain muscles. So I just let him vent.  Then the fun starts.  He says, I really about messed up today.  I said what did you do?  This is the rest of the story:


Daddy:  Well, Bo (he's a worker at Pace) came to me and said, "do you want a sweet treat?  It's yours".  Of course he said yes.  Bo hands him a jar with blue stuff in it, but no spoon or fork so daddy puts some in his hand and tries it.  It was crunchy so he chewed it up and his first thought is it was salty, but he just kept eating on it until his first bite was gone.  Bo comes back over and said, did you eat some of that?  Daddy said, "well, yes, you gave it to me".  Bo kind of freaks out, grabs a nurse, she then brings him a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a cup and says "brush your teeth really well".  He said why?  Wait for it....   That's crystals that you made, not food.  LOL!  They were worried to death at first.  Now, had this been something terribly dangerous I highly doubt they would have even allowed them to make it.  Also, he had his crystals he made (and of course Miss Emma's crystals), because they are in the freezer at home.  I'm not sure where these other crystals came from, but I figured if it was that big a deal they would have gone straight to Dr. Martin and had him checked out.  So, of course, since he thought this was a big deal and he had really messed up I just said, well, if you start pooping crystals we will know, huh?  Then I said, you know, if I could request, if you are going to poop anything could you make it diamonds.  We had a big laugh.  Then daddy said if his poop was shiny he would put it in a jar and take it back to Bo.  LOL!  That man definitely does not make for a boring day.


His daily report was super cute and the first one we have received.  It stated this:




Larry... 2-19-20
Vital signs:  BP 97/63, heart rate: 63, oxygen level: 91%
Intake lunch:  100% (of course)
Bowel movement (yes) -- Self care
Mood:  Cheerful
Day center activity/participation:  Full (not surprised)


Misc. information for the day:
Had a very good, laugh and joked around. 


LOL...  He definitely makes his days good regardless where he is.  You have to find those little moments that remind you that you are doing the right thing for him at this stage in his life.