Sunday, August 29, 2010

Dad got up at 7:45 this morning. I can always hear him because when he starts toward the bathroom, he begins hocking and then spits into the toilet. I waited for him to use the bathroom and made him wash his hands. We came back to his room and I changed his Depend and helped him put on a clean t-shirt and pajama bottoms. On the weekends I have Dad wear cotton leisure pants and house shoes because if it were me, that's what I would want to wear! I asked if he wanted to get up or lay back down and he said he wanted to lay down. Thank heavens. I needed the extra sleep. We had company last night for dinner and I didn't get to bed until about midnight. I laid back down and almost fell asleep when I heard Dad again. It was 8:15 and he was ready to get up. I made him some rice krispies with peaches. I did lay back down briefly, but Van was up getting ready to go help with a river cleanup. I missed church today and stayed home all day with Dad, just the two of us. Dad spent some of his time out on his swing, looking at the paper. He spent some time at the kitchen bar, looking through books and math cards. The rest of the time he spent in his recliner, occasionally looking at the television. More and more often, Dad is becoming resistant to getting up for anything, including eating. When I told him supper was ready, he said he wasn't ready to eat. It was really that he didn't want take the effort to get up and move to the table. I usually tell him what we're having and that helps. After each meal, we have Dad get up from the table and go to the bathroom to wash his teeth. If we don't he will take out his teeth at the table and proceed to suck the food from them. He is always resistant to get up from the table, but again we say things like "You have food on your teeth" or "We need to walk over here" or "Let's walk outside". Also, if Dad doesn't clean his teeth, he continues to spit and spit and spit. Once this afternoon Dad came in to my bedroom as I was ironing. He patted me on the back and reached over and kissed my cheek. It's amazing how far away he sometimes seems when he has no memories to connect to us. But for a second I can look into his sparkling little diamond eyes and see him there.