I went to see my husband today and I was feeding him and it looked like he wanted the spoon so I gave it to him in his right hand, because he is right handed. He took the spoon and moved it to his left hand to try and feed himself. I thought that was strange, and I wanted to know if anyone had the same thing happen and is this part of the disease.
I remember someone mentioning that on another thread. Since our spouses are essentially going backwards in life - many children start out using their left hand before changing to the right hand later on (in the old days they forced kids to change). I think that is the conclusion we came up with why it happens.
They forget which hand they use. In the "handwriting" thread I reported that Sid seems to have forgotten how he used to sign his name. They forget everything.
If they want to feed themselves and the muscles of one arm aren't working, they will switch to the other in order to get the job done. It really doesn't matter any more.....As long as they can feed themselves, you are lucky! <grin> Sometimes the right one works, and sometimes the left one works...and sometimes neither work...and sometimes they will both work. You never know from this point on.
L. nowadays uses his hands interchangably with a fork when he eats. He even uses his fingers, which he never EVER EVER used to do even with pizza or fried chicken. On the other hand, today he was carefully attempting to eat his crackers without removing them from the plastic they were wrapped in. There is also a funny thing when he eats, he will spear his fork out beyond his plate. His depth perception gets screwed up, but only occasionally.
This happened to my husband. About a month after he was placed in assisted living, he had to go to the hospital. By the time we returned to the ALF, he needed something to eat. I had them get his dinner. He picked up the fork with his left hand and ate with it. In the 20+ years that we have been married, he never at with his left hand. I contacted his brother and sister about it and learned that when he was young he was left handed. He is in that age group where they were 'corrected' to use the right hand. He hasn't done it since to my knowledge but I believe that the disease is close to killing the part of the brain where he learned to use his right hand.