DW has always enjoyed the swimming pool. This year she is afraid of the water. She is so unstable she does not understand how to use a float. I put a life jacket on her and she still has the very uncomftable look on her face. She walks ok, but there is something about the water where she is unable to deal with the change. Last summer she enjoyed it so much. Now it is something she fears. Anyone else having this same issue?
I can't comment on the pool, however, my husband became afraid of washing his hair. He would yell in fear, as if we were trying to drown him. Thank goodness for No Rinse Shampoo. He still does not like water around his face.
Haven't witnessed that yet, but it doesn't seem surprising. Jeff has such a poor sense of space that I would expect the different-feeling conditions of being surrounded by water to further flummox, and anyone in advanced AD is going to begin to experience these visuospatial hallmarks of PCA eventually.
My dad had Parkinson's, and almost drowned himself in the shallow pool behind our vacation beach house a year or so before he died, by simply walking into the water, losing his balance, and not knowing how to right himself. My daughter, then 18, got him up and out. I remember an incident that same summer when my dad was trying to stand up from a low beach chair, and Jeff decided to help. But Jeff, having lost any sense of body mechanics, did not make any allowance for the backward weight of dad, as Jeff took his hands and pulled up. Thus, they were both about to fall over, dad backwards, Jeff forwards. I intervened in that case.
My point, overall, is that for all the cognitive loss, your wife is still aware, at a level, that she doesn't have the body awareness to manage water anymore.
yes they more than likely become afraid of water, any water. my DH had the same experience. i would walk him in the shallow end of pool and his face showed only tension and fear. the cooler water even warm pool water upset him and he wanted out asap. water is not their friend at any stage.
DH will still take a shower - but will not wash his face or shampoo his hair. Yes, Kadee, thank goodness for No Rinse Shampoo. He loves for me to use that on his hair - says it feels so good.
Charlie never cared for water sports but he always enjoyed his shower or bath, until dementia. He became very afraid of the shower and it was a struggle to get him bathed.