I invite you to log onto the home page -www.thealzheimerspouse.com" , and read my new blog. I don't know if anyone noticed, but I was nowhere to be found on the Internet yesterday. I shall not go into a rant about what I think of Florida Power and Light. I will concentrate on what happens when there is no power in the house with a mentally and physically disabled adult.
Reminds me of trying to survive two hurricanes in a row with a totally confused and belligerent spouse. I think I would have run out into traffic if there had been any cars on the road. I think the gerbil on the wheel that powers Joan's development must have fallen asleep as we were fine.
bluedaze, your remark reminded me of when I was teaching in a K-8 school in Illinois. For a tornado drill the entire school went down to the home ec room in the basement. One of the teachers said that if she had to be cooped up there very long that she'd just go outdoors and walk down the center of the busy street in front of the school. :)
I have already seen how Paul reacts with even the smallest changes-so I was worried with winter coming about power outages,we already had a generator but you had to us a pull sting to start it-no problem for him BEFORE but now he can not do anything like that.So rather than worry about another problem I sold our second car and bought a generator with a push button start.One winter worry down-many more to go I am sure.Battery powered camp lights are very handy too.Now if it only that easy to shovel the driveway or clear the highways we would be all set!!!
We lost power during an ice storm last winter. We had a generator so we were able to keep the furnace and refrigerator going. If things got too tough for him, I would put him in the car and put a DVD in and drive around and let him watch a movie. We had the battery operated lights, too.
Joan, any change no matter how small can cause them to react. Last week, I made chili cheese dogs. We usually have these every week and we both love them. This time, I added a can of corn. DH really likes adding corn to dishes and I thought it would be a nice change. DH first wanted to know why I added the corn. I told him that I knew he liked Mexi corn and had me add corn to other dishes. He complained about the corn with every bite. It caused a real problem for us.
You are so right when you say that we need to limit changes in their lives. I would have handled the power outage the same way you did. I would have figured that staying in the home would be less of a change than going to a hotel. Sometimes, no matter which way we handle a situation, it is the wrong way.
That is so ironic! The same thing happened to my DH. I was gone too, the power went out for 1 hour because someone had a car accident and hit a pole and half of our town was out of power. Where I was they didn't lose power so I had no idea that it had happened until I got home. He told me that it scared him more after the power had come back on than when it went off. He was laying on the couch and lost all track of time and orientation(He does this most of the time). I am so glad that he was alright otherwise, it could have been so much worse.