Another day to begin and I just feel like staying under the covers! My DH asks me "Why are you always tired. You should go to he Dr.!"
I think of yesterday. ..a typical day in AD for a spouse. Respond to "What's on the agenda? " many times. Calm DH down when he loses patience with grandchildren. Try to figure out what he is trying to say when he can't find the right words to express himself. Not respond when he snaps at me. Thank him for making the bed ( minus the mattress cover. Going grocery shopping with him...many challenges there. Knots in my stomach as he tells me how to drive and gets annoyed when I don't do as he says ex pull out of spot as another car is behind. Make dinner, eat salad first. Phone disrupts rest of dinner for five minutes. Return to serve chicken etc. and he has cleared the table after salad, is putting on shoes to go out and forgot we didn't eat the dinner! This was a new one and very upsetting. Totally mixed up about going to daughter's for FATHER's Day . "What day is it" Aren't we going to eat the steaks thee now?" "Who is going t o be there?" "Are they coming here?"
Just a few examples of a typical AD day. Know we all can relate to this! SO WHY AM I SO TIRED?.!,,
Please don't even feel guilty. You are there for your spouse day and night...rainy days...sunny days...even when your sick ....tired with exhaustion of all the demands that are required from being a caretaker's spouse. I say "caretaker's spouse" because being a caretaker is demanding enough , however, when it's our husband or wife we are caring for if becomes not only physically demanding, but emotionally devastating. So many tears...and nobody to wipe our eyes dry!
I know exactly why you are tired, worn-out, stressed out and burned out...exactly why all of us are. We not only continue our jobs that we once had, but now we have so many addition chores. Driving them to doctors, dentists, shopping, cooking, cleaning, balancing the checkbook, budgeting, yardwork and right down to taking out the trash. Our social life is nil...all of our life is revolved round this dreaded disease which occupies us morning and night. We crash on our pillows beat down only to do the grind tomorrow.
Lorrie I remember when Dado first started to forget he had had, or not had, dinner. We would eat, then no sooner would I clean up and he would be saying with irritation, when are we going to eat? It is devastating I know, to witness such a lapse of memory.
As for tired, of course you are tired , even if you get a good night's sleep. Depression lurks I am sure, even for the strongest of us. I mean, now I can sleep all I want and almost do all I want, and I still feel so tired. For me, I know it is emotional. yuk I hate feeling like I just want to sleep all the time.
One of the first things my husband became confused about was food. Things like Coco described above as well as choosing a favorite food to the exclusion of all others and then suddenly finding that food repulsive.
Lorrie, I know that feeling. Cats plastered against me, hearing the morning birds; I was so comfortable and savored every moment until the slamming, etc. started. If that was between his room and bathroom that was one thing, but what if it was going to be a morning that he decided to go out the front door, or into the garage- the panic in me intensified moment by moment.
As he slept more and more, so did I, especially in the afternoon. But this is not the kind of exhaustion that sleep can help very much.