jmgoyder

wings and things

Jul 5

3. Existence

by jmgoyder

One of the most poignant conversations I’ve ever had with Anthony was a few months ago. From time to time he comes out with the most profound observations and I scribble these into my notebook because I know that later – sometimes much later – I won’t believe that he really said that.

Me: Is it okay if I write a book about you, Ants?

Anthony: No.

Me: Why?

Anthony: Because I don’t exist.

Was this dreadful statement about not existing a wisecrack, a joke, sarcasm? Anthony always had the most incredible attitude to life, and still has! He has no idea that he has Dementia and, now that he is virtually bed-ridden, I just tell him it’s the Parkinson’s Disease that makes him so tired.

Way back when we weren’t even married, there was an enormous spider in the kitchen which I rather shriekingly killed with a can of mortein. Later on, Anthony came in from milking the cows and I told him about my adventure. He looked at me, grief-stricken. “That was my pet spider, Jules!”

I was devastated! How could this man possibly ever love me when I had killed his pet spider? How could I make amends? Could I find another spider that looked like the one I’d killed? Did pet shops sell spiders?

We had a rather subdued meal until finally, unable to contain his mirth, Anthony guffawed and admitted that he was just joking. I am yet to experience a ‘phew’ quite like that!

And what is the point of this chapter? Well, maybe – just maybe, Anthony is just fooling around with us. Maybe he doesn’t have Dementia after all. Maybe these recent years have been a strange nightmare.

Me: Is it okay with you if I write a book about that spider, Ants?

Anthony: Of course.

 

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Jul 4

1. Sixteen Kilometres

by jmgoyder

I have been wanting to write a book about our experience of Dementia for some time so this is a chapter draft. I am numbering them so I can keep track. Any feedback appreciated.

SIXTEEN KILOMETRES

When Anthony says he has run sixteen kilometres, fixed all of the fences around the farm, and found the rogue mouse, do I correct him? Of course not!
Yes, Anthony used to love running around the paddocks (for the sheer joy of running). He also used to love the fiddly aspects of fixing fences, and I vividly remember his hilarious determination to eliminate a mouse, using a fly swat, in the hallway of our house.
So, when Anthony talks about these things as if they have just happened, I go with the flow by acknowledging these accomplishments, hallucinations and memories. I only ever contradict Anthony, if what he is seeing, or sensing, is distressing to him (more about this later).
Anthony: There he is in the corner, Jules.
Me: Who?
Anthony: The baby.
Me: You mean Ming?
Anthony: That furry one there [pointing to the corner of the room where is nothing]
Me: So is it a dog or a child?
Anthony: A bit of both.
Anthony sometimes forgets that Ming (our 23-year-old son) is all grown up, so he often ‘sees’ Ming as a baby or toddler. This hallucinatory thing mostly happens when I am visiting by myself. When Ming visits by himself, Anthony often misrecognises Ming as a cousin, uncle, even a deceased relative. I had already prepared Ming for the inevitability of Anthony not recognising us so, when it happens to Ming, it’s okay.
To some people, the idea of not being recognised by a spouse or parent or friend is the last straw. It’s quite common for relatives and friends to stop visiting a loved one, because they aren’t recognised. So what! As long as you recognise him or her, then surely that’s what counts. People with Dementia don’t intentionally hurt the people they used to know so well; they don’t intentionally misrecognise.
Anthony: Where’s Julie?
Me: I am Julie.
Anthony: Oh, that’s right.
Maybe it’s the constancy of my visits, maybe it’s because, despite Anthony’s Dementia, he and I still adore each other, maybe it’s just luck, but Anthony almost always knows who I am. I am so glad that I’ve been transcribing our dialogues for so long because, even though these conversations are mostly short and sweet, they are like gold to me.
Not long ago, I entered his nursing home room after days of not being able to visit because I was sick. It was the best welcome I have ever received (from anyone):
Anthony: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I was just trying to conjure you.
Me: Oh, Ants – I’ve been so sick!
Anthony: Yes, I know. The kids told me.
Me: Are you okay?
Anthony: I’ve been running.
Me: Again? No wonder you look so tired! How far did you run this time?
Anthony: Sixteen kilometres.

 

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Jun 17

Making mistakes

by jmgoyder

This afternoon, my first niece, Ashtyn, came to visit us in the nursing home. I was holding Anthony’s hand and chatting about the Sydney conference to Ash, unaware that sleepy-looking Anthony was listening intently, especially when I lowered my voice.

You see, I obviously don’t want Ants to know Ming and I are going to be away for a few days because I don’t want him to feel abandoned, so I wasn’t going to tell him. And I didn’t anticipate that he would pick up on my conversation with Ashtyn in any accurate way because just before she arrived he’d asked me to clear away the mess of non-existent champagne glasses on the window ledge.

But, as soon as Ashtyn left, Anthony said, “So why didn’t you tell me you were going to Sydney?”

Sprung! I fumbled around with reasons and excuses and reassurances that it wouldn’t be for ages, all the little lies tucked inside my throat like baby mosquitoes, and it took ages to convince him that I wasn’t leaving him.

Oh well, I have three days before we go, so I will spend as much time as possible with Ants at the nursing home. It was a mistake to talk so openly in front of him about my own plans and I accidentally made him feel excluded – argh.

Another lesson learned.

The thing that saved the situation was when I remarked on how beautiful Ashtyn looked (pregnant with second child) and he said, “She knows how to do it.”

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Jun 15

Dementia Dilemmas

by jmgoyder

Okay, so in just a few days, Ming and I will be talking about how we have dealt with Anthony’s Dementia, including the nursing home decision. I have prepared a talk that mostly deals with the positives of our experience. It is, after all, a conference about happiness.

The trouble is that our own experience is possibly unique and may not resemble other people’s experiences of Dementia. So I am probably going to have to be very careful not to generalise, to pay respect to those carers who are dealing with personality changes, behavioural difficulties, and the horribleness of a loved one not recognising another loved one.

It is nearly six years since we finally (mutually) made the nursing home decision and, yes, the first year was a blank of heartbreak. But, since that horrible first year, I have made the nursing home my home too.

Today:

Me: Ants, I so love your big nose!

Anthony: You just want to see me naked, Jules!

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Apr 20

The dream

by jmgoyder

I have various versions of the same dream about once a week. It’s always some sort of party, or wedding, or get-together but the venues change from dream to dream. The ‘characters’ in these dreams usually include old friends, close relatives and always Ming, but he is often either a baby or child.

In each of these weekly dreams, Anthony is extremely incapacitated and in a wheelchair; the destination is hours away from the safety of the nursing home; and it’s only when we get there that I realise I have forgotten his medications for Parkinson’s Disease (the timing of which is vital).

So, in each of the dreams, I am either searching my handbag for a stray pill, or trying to decide whether to drive all the way back to the nursing home. I am totally panicked and trying to figure out who can help me get Anthony from his wheelchair out to the car, but people are milling around him, happy to see him but concerned about him being in a wheelchair etc.

Because this is a dream I am, of course, leaping tall buildings and smashing windows and unlocking safes in my frantic search for Anthony’s pills – all to no avail. So I get back to the party, or whatever it is, and am relieved to see that Ants isn’t slumped too badly in his wheelchair. I rush to him and kneel, apologising for forgetting his medications and all of a sudden he gets up and is fine – robust, loud, laughing and hugging me as if the whole thing was some sort of bizarre practical joke. The relief that washes over me in the dream is so wonderful that it wakes me up.

So, when I wake up, it takes me about a minute to get my bearings and realise it was a dream but it never makes me sad. Instead, this recurring dream gives me enormous joy because it reminds me in so many ways how fantastic our life together has been.

I hope I get that dream again tonight.

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Apr 15

Pip, the therapy dog

by jmgoyder

Recently, I have been at a bit of a loss for words, not for any particular reason, just feeling quiet. Also I have been quite preoccupied with Pip, our four-and-a-half-months-old miniature schnauzer.

I am training Pip to be a therapy dog and we are now a few weeks into “puppy pre-school.” So far, she is very good at sitting for food but not very good at obeying any other commands although she is house-trained simply because she is an inside/outside dog; and luckily she chooses outside to do her business.

Pip is already relatively well-behaved in the three nursing homes I take her to, including Anthony’s. For the most part, I keep her on a leash but in Anthony’s room she will now settle on her own pillow on the floor near his armchair for a good couple of hours. I keep her pillow, a container of dog biscuits and a water bowl in one of Anthony’s cupboards. In the other two nursing homes, the joy I see on some of the residents’ faces, when they see, pat or even hold Pip, is beautiful.

Anthony smiles at the way I fuss over Pip and I keep hearing myself sounding like an old woman with a little dog (ha!) But, despite his initial reaction to her puppyhood “It’s just a dog, Jules”, he and she have now bonded.

Me: Do you love her, Ants?

Anthony: Well who wouldn’t, Jules.

At home, Pip is now a hurricane of energy; she races in and out of the house and terrorises Jack, our Irish terrier who is still so in awe of her that he stands back when I feed them both and only eats Pip’s leftovers!

Every morning, I am greeted first thing with a deep growl from Pip, which is her rude way of asking me for breakfast. The closer I get to the refrigerator, the deeper the growl. Ming and I are getting a lot of laughs out of this hilarious new addition to the family.

Apparently I can register Pip as a therapy dog once she has undertaken further training so I am looking into this.

So, even though I’ve gone a bit quiet lately, it’s an accepting kind of quietness. I found out the other day that Anthony is now a ‘full hoist’ which means he is unable to walk at all. I had assumed that he was still maybe able to walk, using the walker, in the mornings, but I guess I was a bit nervous to ask the question because I didn’t want to know(?)

Oh how much I wish I had made more of the last time I saw Anthony walk using his walker – that shuffle-sprint-stall that I have known for nearly a decade. It seems impossible that he would now be more or less bed-ridden but I am an idiot to not have seen this coming.

And, as I contemplate whether to cry or not, I see from the front window of what used to be Anthony’s mother’s bedroom – now my study – a black fur-ball of absolute joy racing towards the front door.

Yipping with delight, Pip enters the quiet.

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Mar 15

How to interpret a conversation that doesn’t make sense

by jmgoyder

One of the most difficult situations, when caring for and/or about a person with dementia, is how to make sense of that person’s unflow of words, or else silence.

Anthony’s previously loud voice has, over time, diminished to a whisper (Parkinson’s disease) and his ability to put words together coherently has been affected by Dementia. So conversations (as in the ‘dementia dialogues’ I write about from time to time) are becoming more and more difficult. Sometimes I find myself trying to interpret sounds, rather than words, and sometimes I find myself trying desperately to read his silence.

I haven’t seen Anthony for five days because on the weekend Ming, Meg and I attended my nephew’s fantastic wedding down south. This was an eight-hour return trip so we stayed the night.

And now I have a cold, so my determination to get to the nursing home in the late afternoons has been thwarted despite good intentions. The guilt, and missing Anthony, is difficult to cope with but obviously I don’t want to spread germs in a nursing home environment.

One of the greatest comforts to me is the relationships formed with other bloggers and it has been wonderful to reconnect with them over the last few days. I was feeling guilty about not reading other people’s posts when they were reading mine but I now realise that blogging doesn’t need to be like that and that people are more than understanding of bouts of silence.

At my nephew’s wedding,  I was, as we all were, filled with joy for the happy couple and their gorgeous little daughter. But, later in the evening, I experienced a moment of such intense misery that I could hardly breathe because of Anthony’s absence. My nephew and Ants have always had a wonderful connection, and I know that Anthony would have wanted to be there. Anyway, Ming got me through that moment and I went back to party mode -ha!

A few weeks ago, this was my short conversation with Anthony:

Me: Ants, is it okay if I write a book about you?

Anthony: No!

Me: But why not?

Anthony: Because I don’t exist.

I will never know what Anthony meant by this; was he being cryptic, humorous, philosophical? Was he being deliberately or accidentally poignant?

As Anthony becomes more silent, these transcribed ‘Dementia dialogues’ have become absolutely vital in terms of giving me conversational cues. Topics like the town he grew up in, our son, Ming, various nephews and nieces, farming, fences, cattle, the dairy …. all of these topics are interesting and important to Ants.

Eventually, Anthony will probably be totally silent so, from now on, I am going to record every single word he says.

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Mar 9

Blogging and reciprocation

by jmgoyder

Apart from the fact that my blogging has come down a notch in terms of frequency, I also have the guilts about not responding to others’ blogs so am going to catch up in next few weeks. In other words I am going to shut up and listen!  It has been a low period of time over the last few months and I so appreciate the support given to me by blog, Facebook and day-to-day friends. My turn now – to reciprocate.

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Mar 6

Dementia and experimentation

by jmgoyder

Yes I realise this sounds a bit like the title of a horror movie (and in the past few hundred years people with Dementia were misunderstood, undiagnosed, and treated cruelly under a regime of ‘care’). So the idea of experimenting is a little fraught.

But now (2017) the institutionalised care of people, like Anthony, who suffer from dementia, is kinder. So the ‘experimentation’ I refer to in the title of this post is my own.

Let me explain:

I was recently made aware that Anthony was exhibiting antagonistic behaviour toward carers, particularly in the late afternoon when they were trying to put him to bed. It was a terrible shock to discover this so yesterday I decided to go to the nursing home later than usual. I already knew, via hearsay, that it had now become necessary to put Anthony to bed earlier rather than later and that 4pm was the ideal time. If it were left any later, he would become more rigid and resistant to the hoist, the handling, due to the confusion of his sundowning (a late afternoon phenomenon that exacerbates the confusion of Dementia).

Once I realised this, I decided to adjust my visits from early to late so that I could calm Anthony before and after the bed-time ritual. Yesterday, I did this for the first time: I was there in Anthony’s room before the carers came in to put him to bed; I told him I would be back very soon to give him his evening meal, and vacated the room for about 15 minutes. When I returned, Anthony was comfortably in bed, happy to see me again and even happier for me to feed him his meal.

And, when I left him, he was smiling. So I guess this will be my new routine from now on. I have resisted the idea of a routine until now but I think it’s probably time I paid attention to the rather obvious findings of this experiment.

A. Anthony is more prone to exhibiting antagonistic behaviour later in the day;

B. Anthony is more confused in the late afternoon;

C. Anthony may settle into sleep better if I give him a good-night kiss, even if it’s only 5pm.

So it’s useful to know that later-in-the-day visits are more comforting to Ants than morning/noon visits. This way I can be around before and after the bed-time routine and, hopefully, diffuse Anthony’s distress, fear, and confusion.

Me: Ants, the nurses are going to put you to bed and then I’ll come back to give you your meal, okay?

Anthony: Okay, but it’s a bit unorthodox, Jules.

Perhaps I am the one being experimented on – ha!

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Mar 4

Still Anthony

by jmgoyder

One of the things I’ve been most grateful for over the last few years of Anthony’s dementia is that his personality hasn’t changed. He is still easy-going, gregarious, humorous, accepting and gentle. Like Alice in Lisa Genova’s book, Still Alice, Anthony is still Anthony.

Or he was.

The other day, about an hour before Ming and I were due to give a talk to a group of Dementia Practice students, he rang me from the nursing home to say that Anthony had broken a staff member’s hand.

What?

Apparently Anthony has been exhibiting out-of-character behaviours recently, partly due to a urinary tract infection. He is antagonistic and physically resists being put to bed etc. It is painful for me to imagine such scenes as Anthony doesn’t behave like this when I am there so this has come as a shock to Ming and to me. I also feel terrible that someone was injured.

But, picture this:

You have no idea where you are. It’s 4pm but you don’t know that. Two women in uniform approach you with a big piece of machinery [hoist].They are trying to explain something to you but you don’t understand – something about a bed. As they begin to undress you, you try to say no, that you are cold, but you can’t remember the words so you lash out. You are so terrified that the adrenaline kicks in and you fight. If you could flee, you would, but your legs won’t work. You wonder where Julie is and why she’s not there. Who are these women, with their gentle voices and strong arms and why are they putting you into the machine?

Anthony is scared.

In one of the support groups I attend, a woman recently described how her husband’s gentle personality switched overnight; he became angry, jealous and threatening. She said, “I didn’t recognise him. He was a different person.” At the time I thought how lucky we were that this hadn’t happened to Anthony.

Ming and I admitted to the Dementia Practice students that the possibility of Anthony’s personality changing was a brand new challenge. Perhaps I should visit later in the day than earlier so that I can calm Anthony down. I know I thought of this idea ages ago, for different reasons. I’ll ask the staff what they think when I go in today.

I have been preparing myself for the possibility that one day Anthony might not recognise who I am.

It never occurred to me until now that one day I might not recognise who he is.

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