Alzheimer's Through The Eyes Of A Caregiver

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and my dads birthday... I havent seen him in two days, since he was sick then my mom was sick with a really bad case of the stomach virus... Tomorrow is also his 82nd Birthday... my brother is coming down from Maine and we are hoping to have a good old time... This may be the last time he has his birthday on Thanksgiving... sad but true he doesnt even know tomorrow is his birthday... He has progressed so far that he doesnt remember where he lives as I wrote about in a prior edition of my pages... Alzheimer's Where Do I Live

Now this has been a crazy week for him, up until Monday he came to my house for me to care for him all day, now I rush around in the morning and get my office packed up into a plastic bag and rush off into traffic so he can stay home most of the day... I feel more at peace with it because he knows where he is now... I wrote about why we changed over here... Alzheimer's Where Am I ?

His home nurse will be here soon and she will help take care of his daily needs, like a shower and shave... He has been asking to ride around and look at some places from when he was a kid.. I normally put him off as I have a million things to get done... Sometimes I forget that he wont be here for ever, and he did so much for me growing up so the least I can do is put my busy life on hold and take a car ride for a few hours... It will be a better present then anything I could buy him...

Tomorrow will be strange, we will tease Win (thats my stepdads name I call him dad most times) about his birthday and ask him if he knows it is Thanksgiving... See all the years I was growing up, he loved to make little remarks to make people laugh, we would tease him about being 17 years older then Mom, but it was all in a loving way... Now we do it to make life a little easier... We get a good laugh, he seems to enjoy being a part of the party...

There is a peace about him right now that I dont see at my house, he is sitting in his chair and looking through the same book for the 100th time with local pictures from WWII when he was growing up...I guess the move to here was right...

Now when I started these pages last week, I wasnt sure what I was going to write about, I just try to talk about what is goin on in his life, what I see in him, and I guess I am looking for a little peace of mind when I write...

Now the nurse will be here in a few minutes, so I need to close this out, get him thinking about a shower, and start gathering all his things together so he can look great on his 82nd birthday tomorrow...

Happy Thanksgiving Birthday, Win weither you think you are 73 or 82... May God Bless you as much as you have blessed me....