The last few months have found us settling into some kind of routine in our new home. We have our Grandson Callen
who is now 16 months old with us for 3 days a week. On Wednesday
evening we always look at one another and say "what will we do between
now and Monday?" This child has been the best medicine that a Grandpa
with AD could ever get. For most of the time Gerry is pretty happy
about him being there with us. He plays with him and the child
absolutely wants to hang onto him all the time. He finally said "Gra-Pa"
very clearly yesterday. I hate that he said it yesterday because today
Gerry finally got his new hearing aids. What a great benefit the VA
and these hearing aids are. For weeks now he has been very excited to
get them. Today unfortunately, I have found it hard to find things to
talk to him about. I'm aware that if I'm not careful I'll yell at him
rather than just talk, this is gonna take some getting used to. Yeah, I
know it's all about me, huh? You have to realize that it has been many
years that this has been a problem and over the past 2 years it has
become a normal thing in our lives - him not hearing - me either yelling
or not talking. I know this will be so much better.
Since
my last post there have been changes. Gerry had a period of time that
he was having kidney problems. Stones. Despite fever, delirium,
falling multiple times and going to 2 different emergency rooms then to a
top Urologist - no one ever found anything wrong with him. He does
have kidney stones, but they saw none on the move. Then, don't know
where it came from but his Potassium went up too high. The doctor
called him every other day and had him come in for countless blood tests
keeping check on it. Finally after 2 weeks of changing things and
starting things, like no bananas and fish oil, it went back to normal.
But from all that good things happened. He gained much confidence in
his new doctor, so that was good. Then......................
Later on a follow up to this PCP, he was given a new med for diabetic neuropathy in a small spot on his foot. Always a concern for a diabetic. The new med is Neurontin. I don't know if this medicine made a difference in his AD or not, but if it did it was a good difference. It's helping the neuropathy
some. He is sleeping better every night. His thought process is
clearer, he isn't as agitated, he seems to laugh a little more.
Thanksgiving with the kids was very nice, a lot of people around, even
people he didn't know and he talked a lot. He didn't withdraw from
everyone like he has been.
Christmas time was much different. A breakthrough, I think
or was it a progression of the AD? That is my question now. I hate
this!! Why can't I just let what will happen - happen? Gerry was a
musician in the Air Force for 23 years and before that he played him
trumpet in school from age 10. It has been so many years since he would
listen to music. I contacted the band unit he retired from, even though no one he knows is left there, and asked them if they could send him a cd of their music. To our delight they sent 2 cd's
right before Christmas!! At first I didn't think he would listen. But
as we traveled on Christmas Day to see the kids I popped in a cd
that had one of his favorite tunes on it and he turned it up. He
listened very intently and made comments of all the differences of the
song being played by these younger guys as opposed to what he remembered
it sounding like when his band played it. I don't care whether he
could actually hear the differences or not, I was just elated that he
was even listening. After that we listened to both cd's
the rest of the way and it was heavenly. But it doesn't end there.
Later that night at our son's house, the two of them went upstairs and
listened to jazz music together. This is something that has not even
been heard of for many years. His son played his old trumpet when he
was in high school and kept the horn just in case his son might
want to play it in school when he was old enough. This year in school
Nathan his Grandson is learning to play the same trumpet and when we
visited he played it for the first time for Grandpa. Another great
treat for him was when his son played several songs on his Bagpipes for
the first time!! He plays with his hometown Fire Dept. as he is a
Paramedic/Fireman. He's only been playing pipes for a couple years, but
it was so good!
And remember he only got his hearing aids today, so it wasn't his hearing that made him listen.
So here's what I'm wondering - it's been 23+ years since he retired.
Could it be that in his mind he has gone back to those days of listening
to music and playing music? Or has the new medication and fish oil
that he's taking made some difference in his brain? I really don't care
what it is, I'm just happy it's happening. Another thing that I've
tried to do lately is to bring some old friends into his life from those
AF days. I luckily found some of his favorite people on Facebook
and I've passed along stories and pictures and info about them on to
him. I can't get him to communicate with them yet but I'm hoping. At
least he hasn't asked me not to do it, which if he didn't like it he
would ask me to please don't do that. He has done that before about
some things.
As I mentioned before Gerry's Mother lives
with his sister who will not allow them to see one another. But since
July he has been talking to Mom on the telephone on a regular basis and
their conversations have increased and gotten better as time goes on. On the downside - hey wait a minute - I have no downside at this time!!!!
