DH is still continent, but has started this new habit when he goes to the bathroom and poops. He may/may not clean himself afterward so the live-in aide is there to assist. Now DH doesn't flush the toilet and worse yet he won't allow the aide to flush it. he stands there, looks into the bowl, counts what's in the bowl and then threatens to hit the aide if he does flush. This morning I woke up to DH shouting "DON"T FLUSH IT"; then I heard the toilet flush and more shouting "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" which he repeated at least 20 times.
It may help you to remember that an Alzheimer patient goes through all of the developmental stages of growing up, except they go through them backwards. In other words, if they begin the disease at age 70, as they progress, their mental and emotional ages regress to young adulthood, teenage, child, toddler, baby. If you have children, do you remember your toddlers being fascinated with their poop? Your husband's behavior may be reflective of his age regression.
Gosh, the tv ads for meds don't mention this sort of thing, do they? Wish the public could see that it's not just some sweet little old lady who can't quite remember someone's name. I vote for some real life poop ads to educate people about this disease!
LFL i think maybe joan has a point of the fascination.. like toddlers. maybe the aide could maneuver to hit the flush while hes still sitting while distracting? like offering a candy or such. then there would be nothing for him to fuss over. i guess in the scheme of things we can still be a bit grateful he only wants to LOOK at it. grin.
i guess i can say i could do some pretty darn realistic poop ads. :)my guess is they dont touch this more 'disturbing' sides of the disease so people dont freak out. disgust and fear isnt how they probably want to acheive public awareness.
we don't have children yet I do recognize this as a regression to a 2-3 year old. That really wasn't my question. I was asking for some techniques to deal with this stage. Divvi, thanks, we'll try some other distraction techniques...so far we've had mixed results.
LFL maybe try a couple of those blue water sanitizers to see if the change of color in water helps? i use them in the commodes and the water turns a dark blue? just a thought. we never know what can work.