We have a small storage room off the laundry room and I could hear DH rummaging around in there. I went to find out what he was doing and to make it short he was looking for the Ben Gay in the TOOL BOX!!!! He said he had it the other day and didn't know where he had put it and I told him he wouldn't have put it there. He went into the kitchen to look in the drawers that have NEVER held anything like that. I went in his bathroom and found it...... according to him he had looked in there but obviously his eyes didn't go above the 2 lower shelves.
Husband was looking all over for the TV remote today and I found it in plain site in his bedroom. It is just like he has tunnel vision. The bengay mentioned by Jean reminded me I found my can of bagbalm. Do any of you remember using that years ago? I am having a breaking out in my underarm area and so I applied it and feel so much better. It is almost odorless. I remember 60 years ago we had it for cow's utters and also used it ourselves in the home. You can still buy it at our local drug store. Good product.
I am going to Amazon and look up that key finder now.
Jean, that's nothing new at our house. Today I asked my husband to get the leaf blower from the shed. He didn't come back for the longest time and when I went to check he was just closing the doors. I asked him where the blower is and he said it's not in there. I opened the shed and the thing practically fell on my nose. This has been happening for some time now. I have almost given up asking him to get something because I end up having to look for it myself. Just another one of those frustrations with this disease.
I know DH can't always see what is in front of him which is why I went to see what he was doing. The main thing that got to me was DH looking for the BenGay in the tool box.
I cut my thumb in the kitchen and asked him to get me a bandaid in the left drawer by the bathroom sink. I waited and waited. Then he came out and asked me what I wanted. I repeated "a bandaid" and finally went to get it myself. Happens all the time. I feel bad for him. This would have never happened a ffew years ago. Very sad.
Yep - all of that happens here. Can't see what is right in front of him. Also took the dog out - we stay out with the dog when the dog is outside. My husband came in and I didn't see or hear the dog and about an hour later I saw the dog looking in the door window.Another corner turned.
Same thing here - can't see it right in front of him. He always wants to "help" me though. He takes the dishes out of the dishwasher - I can't find them. He cleans off the table after a meal - puts stuff in the freezer that shouldn't go there.....etc.I just go behind him when he's in another room. For awhile, he wouldn't lock any doors. Always had to go check all the doors before going to bed. He has just started to lock them again! Never know where this road will lead us. Hugs to all.
My wife often can't see what's in front of her. I have to point to the marmalade for her muffins, almost touching it, before she will see it. Another problem, which really irritates me, is trying to get her to take her medicines. I put the pills out, and give her a glass of water. If I then go to the kitchen to clean up, make the coffee, etc., I come back to find her moving the pills into a certain pattern, but not taking them. The only way I can get her to take them is to sit down with her and tell her to take each pill. Occasionally she will take them without encouragement, but not often. She has been on the coconut oil for 4 days, but I don't see any improvement yet.
Ditto, Ditto, Ditto and Ditto...DH can't see what is in plain sight and immediately asks for help or clarification. It is like an automatic response to any question. He also leaves every light on in the house. I constantly go behind him doing, un-doing and re-doing.
Jean21, don't discount the tool box, My FIL who had AD as well, had misplaced his electric shaver. My MIL looked all over the house for it for days, finally gave up and bought a new one, FIL kept telling her that my stepson had stolen it. And stepson was like grandpa I wouldn't steal you shaver, anyway about a month after she bought a new one for him. Guess where she found his? Out in the garage in his tool box..............LOL Rk
i keep dh meds in the days of the week pill box. when it is time for his meds i take them and pour that day or nights pills in an empty prescription bottle,i hand it to him first and he puts it up to his mouth like a tiny cup and turns it up in his mouth to get the pills out,then i take the bottle back and give him his water to wash them down and make sure he has gotten them all down. he hasn't been able to take his own meds for some time now and this is what i have found that is the easiest way for both of us,for now. yesterday i had to go and pay bills and pick up prescriptions. we got ready and he went with me. we went by our daughter's to visit and i was setting right beside him on the couch and he asked our daughter where i went, i said"i'm right here", and he said " there you are". i was setting right next to him. that hurt. i don't ask dh to get things for me anymore,because he can't. i was folding towels the other day and he picked up one,he wanted to help and feel useful. he couldn't fold it but he handed it to me all wadded up and i put it on the stack of towels just the way he wanted and told him how much he helped me,and that is how i put them away. there was no way i would have refolded that towel. jav
jav, my wife says the same thing: "I'm right here" when I ask why she is in some strange place. Her vocabulary is just a few words.
At medication time, I have to hand her each pill and tell her to swallow it. I also make her drink some water to wash it down. I must watch carefully as sometimes the pill falls to the floor and I have to retrieve it.
At meal time, she eats a bit and then starts playing with her food. I have to tell her "eat this" or "eat that" several dozen times during a meal. Its getting to be a study in nearly force feeding.
Rk, The tool box may not have surprised me so much if my DH had been the handy one. He wasn't and isn't, I am the one who takes care of whatever I can. When I can't I call a pro.
JAV, don't get hurt by anything. I keep tellign myself, my reward is in heaven. (grin) Anyway, my DH decided to straighten the garage yesterday, I had just done that, and vacuumed the floor in there because I found broken glass, and don't want a flat... Anyway, I went out there to tell him to come back in, it's cold in the garage, and you wouldn't believe the shambles I found. I keep toys for the grandies out there, and who knows where they are. i keep telling him to straighten out his own stuff, but that'll never happen, it's my stuff that annoys him. I sell for others on EBAY and I have stuff there which I haven't sold yet, or which didn't sell and I need to return it, or in this case, I had sold but hadn't mailed because yesterday was Veteran's day and the PO was closed. I had to go out there this AM to find what he had done with the stuff. Thank goodness he didn't throw anything away.
There are three things here that we are talking about, and I've experienced all of them with my husband.
The first is not seeing things that are in plain sight. My husband literally could not find the fork on his placemat once. He had a spoon in his hand for his noodle soup, but they were long noodles and I suggested he try a fork for them and I had put one out. He has failed to see the bottle opener and glass I put out when he was opening up a bottle of beer. Etc.
I've gotten the "there you are" more than once. But generally not when I am sitting right next to him. He will suddenly find me in the computer room when he was in the living room. I think he thought I had left the house without telling him.
He can't follow directions and get me anything. When he lost that ability it was very frustrating. It was one of the things I really did depend on him to do, but now he can't do it at all.
Well, I'll have to admit that my husband has never been able to find anything, even in plain sight! That was a given and even the children knew it when they were young, and would "find" things for Daddy! <grin> Of course, now with AD, he finally has an excuse!
Last year he lost the ability to follow directions and/or get me anything. <sigh>
He's started throwing 2 year old temper tantrums now! Last night he opened the cabinets over the oven and reached in and got a package of chocolate fondue that he was going to open and eat (right after dinner!) straight from the package. When my daughter took that away, he grabbed a doughnut mix box and tried to open that. When I said "no, we just had dinner and you don't need to eat anything right now," he threw the box at me. So, being a well adjusted adult who has excellent manners and a good disposition, I told him to "GO TO BED!" - and he did! (It was 8 p.m.) When I went to bed at 11 p.m., he smiled and hugged me - he had forgotten all about it!
It always makes me feel better to know the rest of you have the same problems that I do. :) Last week my husband flushed a washcloth down the toilet and plugged it (temporarily, thank goodness) Anyway, I asked him to bring me the plunger. Guess what I got? a bottle of bleach. And, I could never figure out why he couldn't see things that were right in front of him. I knew his eyesight was fine. Just part of the AD, I've learned.
Carolyn, Be glad it wasn't 2/3 of a jar of whole dill pickles. Plugged the toilet but good! And just below where the plunger could do any good, or even a houshold auger. <LOL>
No, Thank goodness. Those are too expensive for us. Just the store brand, but his 'logic'--"they went bad so I flushed them"--just wasn't nice and sharp. Now, nothing but what is supposed to go down is put in the toilet, and he has a "knife" to cut up big hunks so they don't get stuck. <grin> Of course that means I have to dispose of flushable garbage elsewise so I don't violate the rule either. Oh the work we save ourselves by making more somewhere else.
Something else yesterday. DH had an appointment with a gastroentologist and has known about it for a few weeks because he kept bringing it up and checking the calendar. Before we left he is going through a whole bunch of things he is going to tell the doctor and I told him to keep it simple. He doesn't explain himself very well anyway.
We get to the doctors office and I fill a form out for DH just checking off what pills he takes and that he isn't allergic to anything etc. While we are sitting waiting he asks me if I would have done that if he hadn't come!!! I told him if he hadn't come neither of us would have been there. A bit later he asks me why we are there. I tell him because he is having problems and our family doctor referred him here. Then he wants to know what kind of problems he is having. When we finally see the doctor and he is asked what the problem is he tells the doctor he doesn't have a problem and he feels fine. Needless to say I end up doing the talking. By the time we left I was ready to choke him. I decided we would stop at one of the nicer restaraunts for dinner mainly because I needed a drink.
Today he seems okay but hasn't mentioned the appointment. I wonder if he remembers it. I hope this isn't a sign of a downward trend.
Jean21, it may have been just one of his off days. This thing we're dealing with comes and goes. I find that when my DH has an off day, he really doesn't remember much about it the next day. Some days he is so completely normal I think his meds and supplements must have "cured" him. Then I get a dose of reality like you did during your visit to the doctor. I don't think this necessarily means your DH has turned the corner to a new stage, especially since he seems okay today.
Dazed one of the reasons I think DH may be getting worse is he has had 3 or 4 "off the wall" epsodes since last November. He was Dx'd in September 2007 and has been on Aricept since then so I wonder if it isn't working as weel as it was. I guess I'll find out. LOL
We have been holed up in the bedroom the better part of the weekend since i wasnt feeling so hot. thank goodness for the deadbolt or he'd have been all over the house getting into stuff! DH was constantly turning the bedroom TV off on all day with the buttons on the TV. i didnt care i was trying to nap but like toddlers (remember??) you nap with one eye open. i watched him on 2 occasions turn the TV off then stand on his tiptoes and look down into the TV with his nose to the glass to try to find the people on the TV..awwww..first,.it made me smile then saddened me to know he has lost so much. he did it over and over and just couldnt understand why the screen went blank and seemed quite relieved and surprised when i turned it back on with the remote:). sigh...seems the losses are coming faster these days. good thing is he smiles alot so all is not a loss. Divvi
Divvi, I hope I can be as patient as you when DH goes through these things. (If he does). Right now I have to admit I am not very patient. It is really frustrating to me to keep going over the same thing again and again. I know it raises my BP and that is the one thing I don't need so I will ask the doctor tomorrow if there is something I can take to calm me down.
I hope you are feeling much better and your teeth/gums are healing well. Jean
Tonight my dh called me from our bathroom. He was sitting there naked and said he couldn't find the bathtub. (That bathroom has a walkin shower) I told him it was in the other bathroom and he said, oh, first time I did that. I led him in the correct bathroom and he showered and dressed himself. Change in a minute.
Last week I went to a memorial service at our church for one of the older ladies. I brought home the card from the service and finally took it out of my bag. DH read it and said she was 4 years older than him, she was born 1917. I told him he was born 1928 and he said he thought it was 1921. That is the date of his birthday. Sometimes I am really surprised at the things he can't remember.....that is the big problem. He isn't incontinent, shaves and showers with any help, can make himself a sandwich or a cup of tea or coffee, goes for a walk most days and finds his way home without a problem. Sometimes I wonder how long he will stay in this mild stage. He was dx'd in September 2007 and it was the same stage then. I don't suppose there is any way for figuring out how long a stage can last but it would be nice to know when to expect a change in behaviour.
Jean21, My DH was DX'd in 2003 - very mild. He has not declined much at all! Only takes 10 mg. namenda and 5 mg. aricept, BP med, vitamins. He is 86! As long as I keep him from stressful situations, he is pretty much okay. Just can't travel with him. Doesn't do well with that at all. I don't think there is any way to figure out how long a stage can last. Our doctors are amazed at him staying at this level for so long. Of course, he still has the short term memory problem big time, but most of the time it's not a big problem - just me getting stressed answering the same question a dozen times in 10 minutes. LOL . I guess we can be thankful they can do things for themselves - and hope it continues.
Vickie, My DH is on the same meds except he takes the Namenda twice a day and 10mg's of Aricept. BP med is Lisinopril 10mg's and Centrum Silver. I know what you mean about answering the same question over and over. The only time he really gets me worked up is when he starts talking about his sister (in Ohio) who is much worse than him with AZ and he just doesn't get it about her not remembering almost everything. I try not to bring her name up especially since I will be responsible for paying her bills online starting next month!!!!!! Maybe he won't remember I am doing that and won't ask any questions. LOL
For a while my supply of forks kept decreasing. Took a while to realize DH was throwing them in in the garbage when he cleared away his plate after a meal. I had to buy a new supply and now am careful to always clear the dishes before he gets a chance. That, and check the garbage for stray forks. :)
"Hey Honey, while you are up, will you bring me a Coke" This has always been a sort of family game. My LO may go into the kitchen and almost anything can happen next. Bring back a knapkin or kleenix. Bring something out of freezer or from tool drawer. It is no longer a game!!!!! grin