November 3, 2024

These days John is less agitated, so we've reduced his daytime meds. I think that initially made him more aware, but that could also be a placebo effect. I thought he'd be more aware, so I think I see it. He has been quite stable for a few months. He still walks around all the time, but he stops to rest more often now. Recently when I was there he walked into a woman's room, grabbed her wheelchair, and proceeded to take her for a walk! The staff told me that he does this occassionally, and most of the time the women are fine with it. If they're not, the staff intercedes and frees the resident. It happens with the women because the majority of the residents are women. Plus, the men who are there typically aren't in wheelchairs yet. When it got hot later in the summer we tried dressing John in shorts and it worked! He'd been wearing adaptive clothing that are one piece outfits with sweats on the bottom and a shirt on top that are connected at the waist - but don't really appear to be conneccted when viewed from the front. The back has a long zipper. These outfits prevented John from partially undressing and peeing around the building. That's a dignity issue as well as a cleanliness issue. He'd been wearing them for a while, but they're too warm for hot days. Fortunately he didn't have accidents when we switched him back to traditional shorts and shirts. Now he wears his typical clothing all the time so that's nice. It makes it easier to change his briefs and clothes as well. John can still feed himself, but typically needs some help. I've noticed that often times when I arrive after dinner has started, that a staff memeber will already be helping him. When I get there they move on to help another resident and I take over with John. I often push food on his spoon, or reassemble a sandwich so it's easier for him to eat. One thing I always think is funny is that he looks clearly annoyed when I interfere with him trying to put a spoonful of food in his cup. It's strange but he often tries to do that. Then I try to prevent it, and he does a quick exhale of irritation. John doesn't typically say more that a word or two at a time. He might say 'don't' when I brush his teeth, or 'stop that'. But about a week ago we walked into his room after dinner and he said 'I need to blow my nose.' He expressed a true need! And spoke a full sentence! So I quickly grabbed a tissue, put it and his hand to his face, and he blew his nose. It was quite a moment.