December 28, 2024

After dinner and our grooming routine tonight, I loaded John into the car and took him to see the Christmas Sparkleball neighborhood nearby. The neighborhood has lots of lights but is different in that the neighbors have made tons of sparkleball christmas light balls that are hung from trees and houses throughout the streets. We drove around listening to music John likes as he looked out the car window at all the light displays. He seemed to enjoy it. He paid attention to the scenes around him as he sat silently in the car. Once he tried to open the car door but I reached over and moved his hand away. Then on the way back we were sitting at a traffic light and he popped the car door open. I quickly leaned over and grabbed the door and pulled it shut right away but that spooked me a bit. Since the seizure like activity that John had last month, he seemed to be more aware and spoke a bit more for about a week. Then he reverted back to his prior self - which is more silent and less involved in what is going on around him. One thing we've noticed lately is that he spends more time with the ladies! Sometimes he can be found walking with a woman, holding her hand as they stroll. This happens with various women - not just one! I like that he finds some connection that way and joke about his girlfriends and how he's a ladies man now! John's suite mate (their rooms share a bathroom) died earlier this month. He was healthier than John, but fell and was taken to a hospital. He had a heart attack and died at the hospital. That was sudden and sad. Now I'm interested to see who might move into that space in the near future. I've heard people say that Alzheimer's Disease is death before death. That's so true. It's certainly a life changing experience caring for John, as I'm sure it is for everyone in my position. November was National Caregivers Month. Since I didn't mention it last month here's a thought I read about caregivers - it's something that resonated with me: If you know someone who is caregiving, be curious about them. Just because they look fine doesn't mean they are. Not saying anything about their person AND them comes off as dismissive. So ask. Ask how their person is. Ask how they are. And keep asking.