This morning DH seemed to be particularly confused. He is still wondering when we're going to vote. Looks at the calendar and the clock constantly. Asks when the first day of spring is and when are we going off daylight savings time.
I asked him what 100 minus 7 was. It took him quite a while but he finally answered 93. I asked what 93 minus 7 was. He answered correctly 3-4 times. Then I asked him to spell 'world.' He did. Then I asked him to spell it backward. He did.
Then he asked--with a suspicious look on his face--why are you asking me these questions? Are you tryng to figure out if I'm crazy?
I had to do some back pedaling and say I was just curious and was trying to make a game with him.
I'm not sure he bought it. I won't be doing that again. Although I would really like to know how much he has declined. I know in my heart it's been quite a bit but he can still do the subtraction thing and spell 'world' frontward and backward.
Mawzy-I can't count or spell backwards at all. Never could. I've started to use coconut oil so watch out for the new me. The only changes I've seen so far is a queasy stomach and weight gain.
My DH would think there were two Carol's. I guess one was good & the other evil. When he would get mad at me he would Want to know when Carol was coming home & insist I have the other Carol call him. I would go into another room & call him on the cell phone. Worked really great until the day he walked into my rom & caught me. He was so disappointed because he said he thought he could trust me. Needless I never tried that trick again.
Mawzy, as someone has stated before, the MMSE scores can bounce around all over the place. My DH only scored 23 out of 30 but is very high functioning. His doctor said she had one patient who scored 28 but couldn't dress herself or find the bathroom. I think the caregiver knows more about their decline than any test can determine.
We got creative. DD talked with Andrea casually, and then told her that she wanted to show Andrea something. She gave her the sheet of paper, and told her to draw a clock on it. Then she would call in the granddaughter and draw some hands on it and ask the granddaughter to 'tell the time'. She'd use the exercises to kind of play games and involve Andrea in a sneaky way. It worked.
Mawzy, keep trying. As trisinger said find creative ways. I did a word document with different test on it, I copy it off say look at this neat quiz I found on the internet, want to take it with me? and we both take the test. I follow his lead, if he can't do something, I say well you did better than me! He gets a kick out of always doing better than me and has never been upset about taking it.
Nothing works forever. I am grateful when something works for my DH same way twice. If it works a third time...wwwhhhoooooaaa!!!! & yeah! We all do what we can for as long as it lasts.