Dementia is not forgetting a grandchild's birthday. It is forgetting who they are.
Dementia is asking the same question. Again.
Dementia is wearing slip-on shoes because you have forgotten how to tie shoe laces. You are not likely to ever relearn how to tie them.
Dementia is asking when a person is going to visit when they have been dead for decades.
Dementia is asking when a person is going to visit when they left 10 minutes ago.
Dementia is asking the same question. Again.
Dementia is not just losing your way. It is never knowing the way in the first place.
Dementia is not remembering that you broke a bone in your foot.
Dementia is asking why your foot hurts all the time.
Dementia is a series of inappropriate responses.
Dementia is biting your nails. Please don't bite your nails. Dementia is biting your nails. Please don't bite your nails.
Dementia is asking the same question. Again.
Dementia is asking to go home. The house in question was sold decades ago.
Dementia is swinging from cooperative to confrontational and back on a moment's notice.
Dementia is pouring your pills into the water cup instead of your mouth.
Dementia is wandering the house at all hours of the night.
Dementia is asking the same question. Again.
Dementia is napping. Until your companion naps, and then you are out the front door. Woohoo!
Dementia is pouring water into your pill cup instead of your mouth.
Dementia is asking to go "home". The house in question was sold decades ago.
Dementia is expecting kindness in every interaction while being unable to respond in kind.
Dementia is being concerned with modesty one minute and being stark naked the next.
Dementia is biting your nails. Please don't bite your nails.
Dementia is thinking that your family has abandoned you. Your family is standing right in front of you.
Dementia is wondering where the guy who was in your room earlier in the morning has gone. It was your son. He has a day job.
Dementia is removing the night light from the socket in the bathroom because "I have to turn out all the lights."
Dementia is not being able to see well enough at night to be able to find the light switch.
Dementia is asking the same question. Again.
Dementia is not giving your family any good options while they are giving you the best options available.
Dementia is always closing the bathroom door despite being told to leave it open.
Dementia is wetting yourself because you forgot where the toilet is and the bathroom door is closed.
Dementia is asking the same question. Again.
A modest postscript. This was written over several weeks/months. I started receiving spam emails for dementia-related services after I started writing but well before it was posted. The emails started showing up at an email address not directly associated with this blog long before I published the piece. With Google, we are the product, not the customer.
