A Good Week

Well, it has been a hard week starting out, but ended up being great. The week started out bad because Bob was told by someone, he wasn’t drinking real beer. Opps! Can you see the large balloon floating above Bob’s head going "KAPOW"?

Poor Bob, it was like being told Santa isn’t real. We all know St. Nicholas is alive and well in all of us. Just like the beer he is drinking is totally real; it just contains a very small amount of alcohol.

Like the child who discovers from a friend that Santa isn’t real, he started questioning other things we were telling him. When we would get in the car, he didn’t believe we were really going to a field trip, he thought we were taking him to a nursing home. The trust was gone. It was going to take time to get it back. Thank goodness Alzheimer’s patients don’t remember a lot of short term things, because it only took about four days.

Bob got mail this week. That was a nice surprise for him. He received a card from my parents earlier in the week and then latter in the week his niece sent him UK’s basketball schedule. I will try to get that schedule posted on the blog. He was surprised and happy to get mail. He started the other day after we had been out to get the mail out of the mail box and Sarah stopped him. I had to giggle because I knew he was thinking there was something for him. I walked over and took the mail, looked through the stack, and told him he did get something, I handed him an advertisement. That ad is still sitting on his dresser.

Thursday, we had a lot of running around to do, and I took Bob and Sarah with me. We drove all over town to various places and even though he wasn’t happy it was good for him to just be out of the house. Bob is happy just to sit in his room all day. I know it is because he is comfortable with the four walls. There isn’t anything that changes there. The only thing he needs to concentrate on is the TV and he can look away every now and then. When he is in the car he is being forced to see many different things. It is too much for his mind sometimes.

Friday, we went to the park and the kids worked on art projects for our local VA nursing home. Bob enjoyed being at the park and he even painted some. He liked watching the kids work on the crafts, although he said he felt like they were out doing him with painting styles. I told him a true artist paints from the heart and not the head.

After the park we went to a pottery place and he painted some more on some ceramic pieces. It was a very artsy day. He had a great time and after the pottery painting he was looking at things on the side of the road asking about stores and buildings. That made me feel good, knowing he was having a good day. Music helps a lot also. I make sure that I have soothing music in the car with him.

He really liked the ceramics and was talking to me about painting more, and how he was going to think of different painting styles for when I take him back.----Take him back? Oh dear, here we go again…

Give him a ring this weekend. He loves to hear from you all. He says it’s been weeks since he has talked to anyone though. And if he tells you it’s been days since he has eaten, don’t believe him it has most likely just been hours.