Plan B

I am continually amazed at how many things have changed in such a short time.  Scott's short term memory is almost completely gone and in the course of just a few minutes I can answer the same questions numerous times.  Scott is kind and sweet but with early onset Alzheimer he has also became extremely obsessed about certain things.  I talked earlier about his need for a shower and just yesterday he took four showers.  One before bed, two in the middle of the night, and one this morning.  I am married to "Mr. Clean!"  He spends much of the day sleeping and so I was trying to keep him awake until about 10 p.m. thinking that he would sleep a little better if he was more tired.  What has happened is that each afternoon, usually around 3 p.m. he wants to know when he can go to bed.  With Katie here we just reminded him on a regular basis that it would be best to wait until about 9:30 before he took his medicines and then he could go to bed.  After Katie left to go over to Angela and Andy's yesterday he immediately wanted to know when he could go to bed and I gave him the regular speech about trying to stay up until 9:30 before taking his meds and going to bed.  At 8 he again asked if he could go to bed and I explained that it wasn't even really dark yet but if he was really wanting to go to bed that was okay.  That was all he needed to hear and he headed down the hallway.  At 10 p.m. I heard him walking in the hallway and he came out, looked at me and asked, "is it alright if I go to bed now?"  I assured him it was and he turned around and went back to the bedroom. Sometimes you just have to choose your battles--and I did!  I have to admit I kind of felt a little guilty last night because it was so nice to not have him glaring at me when I would explain he still needed to wait a little longer.  I don't think he slept that well but he definitely sleeps much of the day away so I am sure he gets enough rest to function.

This is one of the few things he still enjoys doing--reading.