04/26/18 Thursday

Good morning ! First goodnight of sleep in three days and it makes such a difference ! Pain pills, muscle relaxers and three days non weight bearing (as well as numerous Reiki treatments) have paid off and I'm using just a crutch when I have the brace on. On the mend for sure !

BB and Paula, positive thoughts and good energy your way. I hope Ann is relaxing in to her adventure, and having the time of her life ! Devon, hope your pack is transitioning into the new order and that you see lots of your boy in them. Liz, how is DH adjusting to being home ? Shel..your conference is going to seem so tame in comparison to your awesome explorations ! David, hope your relief continues and that the finishing touches go quickly. Diane, it sounds like your front end realignment will enhance the purchase process.

Onward and upward !

Weight 117.8, calories 721.

I'm glad to hear you are on the mend Diane. A good nights sleep makes all the difference!

DH has adjusted to being at home but is escalating in his nastiness. Previously I was surprised at how relatively well he was dealing with having Alzheimer's but I guess he was just delaying his anger. The most recent issue for a while now beyond the chocolate wars is that he says I do too much for him. The day before yesterday I looked for activities at the local senior center (we haven't participated in the past). I found a men's coffee/conversation every other Wednesday and there was one yesterday morning. I asked him if he wanted to go and he said yes. Yesterday morning I reminded him and told him how much time he had to get ready and rushed into the shower. When I came out he was in his jacket so I told him he had time to eat breakfast while I got ready. 5 minutes prior to leaving I reminded him to use the bathroom and put his jacket back on. All normal these days as otherwise he wouldn't eat and would go into the bathroom as we were supposed to be walking out the door. When we arrived at the senior center I parked and started to get out with him. He said "NO, I'm going by myself" (in an angry tone). I said I was just going to make sure it was still on before I left. He yelled that he would take care of it and I don't let him do anything. I asked what if it is cancelled? He said he would call me. So I left for my errands. An hour later I came back and he wasn't there. Apparently he had to fill out forms to attend but couldn't figure out how to do it, so they let him leave! I called later btw and blasted them for letting someone not oriented enough to fill out a form leave alone. I drove all over town looking for him and was just heading for the police station when SIL said he'd arrived at her house (4 miles from the starting point). I shouldn't have gotten angry but I was not happy so he refused to get into the car to drive home. SIL ended up driving him. He said that: 1) I was "pissy" from the beginning rushing him in the morning, 2) I should have been waiting in the parking lot, 3) he didn't have a phone to call me (no reply to the suggestion of the people in the office to do so).

If this progresses, he is going to be taking off a lot. I know I have to get a GPS device on him, but it is evolving so much I think I'm going to be paying a lot of money for something that doesn't work in a year. I've been doing a fair amount of internet research on them and nothing seems ideal.

Well that's all there is to say. Hard to feel good about wanting to take him for activities right now...

Have a thoughtful Thursday.

Have you considered hiring a male companion/coach familiar with Alzheimer's ? Perhaps a neutral third party could broker guidelines for staying safe that could be written and illustrated with photos. Having something solid he participated in and could refer to that minimizes you appearing to be initiating directions. I can see a checklist near the door he exits with items like: use the bathroom; have ID; have phone . The coach could take a picture of him performing each of these behaviors to place next to each guideline.

Interesting thought. I can ask the people in the Alzheimer's organization we work with about that tomorrow. SIL and I are going to a conference they are sponsoring with Teepa Snow (well known dementia support person).

I just purchased an MX-Locare watch from Adiant Mobile ( https://www.adiantmobile.com/mx-locare-watch/). I felt that I had to do something.

I clicked on the link....looks like a great find!

My grandmother had early onset Alzheimer's and she got really nasty too (considering she started out mean, this was rough!).

Hi Guys,

I arrived in Las Vegas in time to get to TJ's before they closed. My hotel costs about what a Best Western would (and will be paid for by work) but the room is big and (for me) super fancy. Meeting starts this evening.

I have the car til late today. Decided to skip going to nearby Red Rock Canyon for a variety of reasons. I will likely get in a gym workout at some point.

DianeO, glad you are on the upswing. Liz, how scary! I am glad you purchased something. Don't worry that much about new technology coming. It is simply a medical expense. Also, as someone who has watched GPS stuff for years for various reasons, application changes move pretty slow. DianeO, thought your recommendations were so thoughtful/interesting! Indeed, you are a fixer.

I think of all of you when I hike. Nice things :) Cecily, you would have liked yesterday's....8 miles, steady climb up but never difficult, wide trail, glorious views/vistas, with Easter egg novelty mini-canyons thrown in for fun. Zion is known as a hiker park with a bazillion trails of varying lengths/difficulty so literally something for everyone. I mostly chose ones that included an icon of a stick figure falling off a triangle so I can't really complain. Too much.

Tha****er/canyon trail (called the Narrows) was the exception. A couple from Vancouver BC (Seattlelites feel like we are related to peeps from from Vancouver) have been coming to Zion for years as their favorite park and the Narrows is their very favorite trail of all time. It really was amazing. Drive over there and get 'er done!

I arrived at the state park (Valley of Fire??? Amazing landscape) after visitor center was closed. So, I headed up a trail that supposedly had petroglyphs and was sad that I didn't find the spot. I was looking for a sign that said "HERE ARE THE PETROGLYPHS" but a kind fellow hiker said that they had been on the rock walls the entire hike!!!! I was so busy hiking fast that I didn't notice them on the rock walls. They are pretty subtle but I love that their personal billboards have lasted.....well, I don't know how long they lasted because visitor center closed.

DianeS, this is worth a stop should you folks come out here. The trail was flat but pretty sandy. But, no reason to move fast because you need to stand and look at the rocks to see what you discover. And,plan to spend some time there (I was short on time.) Go super early or late cuz HOT HOT HOT. Great fun.

Find your recess.

Shel

by the way, there was a sign that said to report graffiti to the park rangers which wasn't surprising. But, they also added "this includes rock stacking" which I wouldn't have thought of. I'm not a rock stacker, but do see a lot of it out there. I can see why it is inappropriate in this particular spot, tho.

I-15 totally washed out one year when I was driving home from MI and we had a two hour detour through the Valley of Fire park. It made the irritation of such a long detour not so awful!

Signs on the drive thru the Valley kept warning about flash floods and I wondered what would one do? My disaster training has never included desert flash floods.

Also, do you just soak in lotion to keep from drying out? My skin was different even after a couple of days at Bryce.