Bob's progress

Well it’s been a couple of rough weeks, but we are still hanging in there. Sarah had her 16th birthday. We surprised her with a hot air balloon ride. It was a wonderful day. Pat came and sat with Bob while Tina, Rob, Sarah, and I went off for the morning. Great thanks and love goes out to Pat for allowing us to spend this special time with Sarah. She would have loved to have her Uncle and Grandfather with her, but Bob would not have been able to survive the day.

Bob had taken another turn for the worse. His behavior had gotten to be almost unbearable. He had gotten mean and aggressive. The doctor was forced to put him on an antipsychotic medication to control him. This has helped to a certain degree, but we are still having issues. He now requires 24 hour adult care. Sarah had been able to sit with him for an hour or so while Rob and I went to dinner once a week. That is no longer the case. He is doing things that she can’t take care of and needs an adult.

Hospice has been called in for us, but at this time he gets limited service from them. They come in once a week for about an hour. As time goes on they will give more and more help. Many people think that Hospice is only called in at the end of life and that isn’t true anymore. They can be with a family for three and four years sometimes. They get to know the family and help out more and more as the patient gets worse.

So what exactly is Bob doing? Well, I won’t go into all of it, because honestly, you just don’t want to know; but some of it is, trying to sit down in his chair when he is five feet from the chair. Then he falls on top of the chair and says we pushed him. He gets up at two AM and moves the toilet safety seat from the bathroom out in the hall. He refuses to eat dinner until we have to bribe, and threaten him with taking things away. If Rob is home he follows him everywhere and if Rob gets up to walk across the room he yells for him and tells him not to leave him. Yes, it has been a challenge.

While we try to sympathize with him, it gets hard because it is very frustrating. We are still working with the doctors to get some medication that will work for him. It will eventually get worked out. Tensions rise in the house, and we do explode every now and then. We go outside or retreat to our rooms until we are better and go back to deal with it again. And no, we don’t feel like saints, even though we have been told many times that is what we are. Many times we feel like devils because we have yelled, fussed, and fumed.

It’s not all bad though. There are times that we have good moments with him. He will say something funny, or Rob will sit and watch a movie with him. He will remember something from the past and tell us a story from when he was young. Those are good times and we relish in those moments. He was good for Pat on Sarah’s birthday, and we even went out as a whole family for dinner that evening.

Keep him in your thoughts. Foot ball season is fast approaching. I don’t know if he will be able to follow the games, we will just have to wait and see. He used to love watching sports, now they are confusing to him.