September 26, 2021

This week we had an appointment with John's psychiatrist again. We agreed to give Seroquel a try. It's an anti-psychotic that is used fairly commonly with Alzheimer's. We haven't seen any significant change from other medication modifications we've tried, so we're giving this one a try. He's on the lowest dose and has taken it for 2 days now. I haven't seen much of a difference yet, but we'll see. A side effect is drowsiness but so far that hasn't been an issue either. We'll give it more time. One weird thing that sticks out to me this week - John asked me "What happens if there are bugs crawling into my brain?" I assured him that there were no bugs around us and that nothing was crawling into his brain. Still, it's certainly off-putting. Since John is so agitated in the morning, and both Jordan and I have trouble getting him out of the car at Easter Seals, they are going to try come out to get him to see if that helps him with the transition. We also have trouble initially getting him into the car. He usually is angry that he doesn't have his own car and thinks he needs to spend the day working on getting his own car. I tell him both our cars are his and that we share the cars, but it doesn't help. Edna at Easter Seals says she's noticed that he's getting worse more quickly now. She's taking him out on Thursdays - they spend the whole day in the community. They've been playing raquetball in the park, have lunch, then go to the movies. This week he worked up a sweat playing raquetball and needed to change his clothes. Edna sent John to the bathroom 3 times to change his clothes. Each time he was in the bathroom for about 10 minutes, but never changed his clothes. One time he went to the bathroom while in the bathroom, but apparently didn't use a seat cover. He was very concerned about germs because of this and spent the following 2 days worrying about it. He showered a few times over it, but he sees no need to use soap. Water only. Then he's really annoyed when I wash him with soap. The repeated showers had no impact on the germ issue however. He remembers the germs but doesn't remember showering multiple times to clean off the germs. John does better when he's busy, but it's difficult to keep him busy when I have household things to get done. He's is much calmer when other people are around. He somehow knows to act more appropriately. But when it's just me and Jordan, he unleashes his frustration on us. We are both targets, but of course me more that her. Everything we do upsets him. We damage his hearing when we make a bit of noise putting a plate on the counter. Or when we talk to the dogs. Or when we can't find something he's recently moved somewhere else. He's very critical of everything - things we do, or things we don't do. We make too much noise. We don't understand what he's trying to say. I make him take his medications when clearly they're killing him. I put deoderant on him. I tell him he shouldn't wear a flannel shirt when it's 90 degrees outside. The list goes on and on. We understand he's frustrated and yearning for independence, but it's difficult to be on the receiving end of his crticisms and negativity for hours every day. Hmm.....maybe I should try some of those weed gummies I got him!