Chapter 613 - Odds and Ends

 Some time ago I mentioned that she had spent days pulling threads from a length of wide lace attached to gold coloured  ribbon band. Days and hours upon hours. At one point she had difficulty breaking the threads so I gave her a small pair of scissors which were then used to pick at the ribbon creating more fine threads. She is unable to tell me why she does this to pieces of fabric. Below is an example of the work she does for no obvious purpose; the fluffy residue eventually goes in the bin or attaches to our clothing like brightly coloured cob webs.

A few days ago I took her to an appointment with a surgeon to discuss her rectal prolapse. Although a pleasant person he was disinterested in her medical history and asked very little about her current condition. I had showed him photos that are vivid enough I suppose. His message was quite plain; he stated what her age was, he asked her bluntly whether she wanted surgery to which she answered "No". He told me the prolapse needed to be pushed back in otherwise it will dry, bleed and ulcerate and should it not be possible to push it back then it was to be considered a hospital emergency. He said surgery would result in 2-3 weeks in rehab. We left with me taking the hint "at her age avoid surgery and cope with the current situation". So I now wear gloves after she uses the commode and during transfers to bed.

I am very relieved that I took her to see the specialist because I have rid myself of a guilt feeling of not exploring all avenues to care for her. Although I felt somewhat thwarted that I was unable to give all the vivid details I intended (these professionals should give an old bloke a hearing to get things off the chest), other than photos which are very easy to take when the patient is seated upon a commode shower chair. Interestingly, she does not object to me presenting doctors with such graphic evidence, such details are probably of little concern to someone with serious cognitive decline. I show images to avoid a doctor asking her to hop up on a couch (which she is unable to do anyway). But I am very relieved that she shook her head and said "No" when he asked her directly whether she wanted an operation. That was all she said during the consultation.

Yesterday morning she displayed a different behaviour to usual; I had got her up and on the commode before  giving her breakfast which she didn't want (unusual), then she became a little stressed, her legs were dyskinetic (not unusual) and when I asked she said she felt strange and tight. She agreed to return to bed before a carer came to shower her. She went to sleep, waking mid morning when I showered her then gave her breakfast. After breakfast the same symptoms returned so I returned her to bed again and by lunch time she remained asleep. I took her blood pressure, pulse and oxygen readings, all a little low yet OK for someone in bed asleep. She woke refreshed about 1230.

She continues taking one Symmetrel after breakfast. I doubt Symmetrel has much impact on her dyskinesia. I mislaid the FitBit I attach to her right leg so my attempts to track the bouts of dyskinesia and compare with that taken in 2018/19 have come to nothing so far. I found where I had absent mindedly left the FitBit so her dyskinesia is being monitored once again.

I recently attended a Zoomed presentation about dementia activities in the home. A free tablet based game application called "A Better Visit" was mentioned. I downloaded the application which consists of a number of activities of which she found finger painting exercises satisfying; a finger rubbed on the screen causes line drawings to become coloured or another where a blank screen fills with a photograph as the screen is rubbed. Other more complicated activities did not attract her interest. As always, she has a knack of escaping from an application into screen management activities. She does it so easily without knowing the implications. Anyway, she found some games for pre-school kids (I must have installed it ages ago) one of which consisted of extremely simple jig saw puzzles, I think the simplest consisted of only six pieces, with options to display piece outlines and/or faint background images of the scene to be built. She had difficulty placing the six pieces, demonstrating how much her cognitive abilities have deteriorated.

This afternoon I took her outside to look at the plants in our raised garden bed. As always she cannot resist "pruning" plants of dead leaves. I let her do it as she wasn't doing any damage. Later I found her rubbing her lower arms because they were itchy. Calamine cream cured the itchiness. The warmer weather has started to cause bright red rashes on her legs and tummy as in previous hot weather.