#Alzheimers #Alzwa #alzauthors #alzheimersSpeaks #endalz @ALZAUTHORS @james_s_russell,
These are glimpses of the joys in my life for the past week as a caregiver for Lynne.
I started a TikTok account after being coached by my grand-niece who is employed as a professional TikTok specialist. I planned to show multiple videos of Lynne’s face each time she saw me. For practice I videoed her at a table, another movement, then another. We got up to walk and then sat back down. As I recorded her expressions at the table I told her I was videotaping for my TikTok account. She pushed back her chair and pushed away my camera. “I don’t like this. I don’t like this. I’m not doing this.” When we walked in the hallways she seemed willing to let me take distant videos. I posted one of her walking past the open door of her apartment and discovering an easygoing friend hiding behind the door. Lynne said, “Oh, it’s Allie.” Allie peeked around the door to look at me. “Yes, I’m Allie.” I have not posted the rest of them. I have not learned to steady the camera. Her sister Pam says I need a holder and will give me one for Father’s Day.
Lynne grabbed her pants. “I really have to pee.” I got someone for her. We walked the hall afterward. As a concerned parent, I asked, “Did you go?” “Yes, good thing.” I chuckled, “It is a good thing to pee.” She swung her shoulders into me. “Shush, Dad.” “Why can’t we talk about peeing?” She laughed.
We walked side by side down the hall side when she veered near a pillar forcing me to head right for it. She kept veering so I bumped into it face first. She just laughed, shook her head, and walked on.
With a radiant face she pointed at a MedTech. “That’s Chester. He’s smart.”
She was at the end of a hallway walking toward me past a man in a wheelchair. She pointed at me and told the man, “That’s my dad.”
She liked the Frappuccino I poured into her doubled sized, “Slow down” coffee cup. She held the cup and straw to her lips several times until she drained it. Afterward Chester placed a bowl in front of her filled with ice cream covered in rivulets of chocolate sauce. She spooned bites into her mouth, one so large I was prepared to catch whatever did not make into her mouth, but she bit it in half and returned the spoon with the other half. She emptied the bowl without spilling. Chet and I agreed we could be making progress to maintain her weight.
Her hairdresser stopped me in the hall with a worried look. She had washed her hair and blow dried it, after which Lynn decided that was enough and walked away without getting it flat-ironed. “I didn’t charge her. I need your help.” I forgot. Every other Monday I have to entertain Lynne in the chair of her hairdresser to get through it. We set an appointment for next Monday when Pam could help both of us.
I’m blessed, we’re blessed, and now you’re blessed with these memories.