Thursday 29 April 2010

Back to doing the time warp.

Okaasan must be feeling stronger - she is back to strange comings and goings.

Tuesday night Yujiro cooked up a pork and kimchee thing - and Okaasan who'd set out for a walk at 5.30 pm, went to the local soba restaurant for a cup of tea...felt hungry and ended up ordering dinner.
She didn't take the telephone either, so we couldn't find her and contact her. At 7.30 pm Yujiro walked around the streets looking for his mum, at 8 pm she came home and didn't want his dinner.

Last night at 6.15 pm I was standing in the kitchen starting to make dinner - chopsticks on the table, pans of things bubbling away, chopping the salad....and Okaasan set out. I pointed to all the preparations and said: "Dinner will be at 7 pm, so you have 40 minutes!"...and off she set (in the rain and wind and cold)....
Came home at 7. 30 pm. This time wanted dinner. So we washed our plates and heated the food up again. Yujiro apologised to me...

All the dementia books talk about this: how people become energised in the evening or night. Then inappropriate desire to go out and do something. We are lucky she is going out at 5/6 pm and not 2 am of course!
Last night's weather was terrible - nobody would WANT to go out in that. Most people would get to the front door and think: "Nah! I'll stay inside!". But not Okaasan, somehow she thought it was a good time to totter off down the street.
All day she sits in front of the TV and does nothing...then late afternoon something switches in her mind and she gets ready for going out, spends ages hunting around for keys/umbrella/purse/bag/handkerchief etc...and finally gets going....whatever the weather or preparations for dinner.

I saw the Alice in Wonderland movie the other day. I saw parallels with our life.

2 comments:

  1. Do you find she gets really energetic near a full moon? I'm not joking. I was talking to a friend that works in a nursing home and she said that just before and leading up to a full moon, all the people with dementia start getting really energetic, they start talking and wandering around alot during the night and evening. She said that they all know when a full moon is coming because the patients start getting restless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now there's a thought! Actually, yes - I have read about this too and I reckon there is a lot in it...prison staff say prisoners are more active/agressive around full moon....
    Is it full moon time now? I'm vaguely aware I've seen a moon the last few nights...
    Probably the kittens are programmed into that too....yikes.....

    ReplyDelete