Dad has been in memory care now for a couple months and seems to be settling in. He seems to have one nurse that he connects with and sticks too. And in memory care - they have a lot more experience in his dementia.  The particular nurse he likes in memory care had a mechanic for a dad too - so she talks about cars and machines with him a lot. 

In February, dad got Covid, and got dizzy and fell. He broke his nose, got two black eyes, and had a small brain bleed. He was in the hospital for one night. I can’t remember if I wrote that in an update before, but since then, his walking has gotten very unsteady. He has started physical and occupational therapy for his gait, and they will assess if he ever needs a walker to help with balance. 

Obviously a brain bleed only heightens dementia symptoms, so that was really unfortunate. 

The lower half of his legs have been swollen recently, which could be due to so many things - less walking, different foods, or just plainly weird brain stuff turning off. They took a blood panel to see if they could see anything immediately fixable, but nothing showed up. So just another new thing to work with. He wear compression socks everyday now which should help. 

My mom’s sister visited last month, and it was hard to tell if dad remembered her or not, but he sort of carries on with whoever is around him. That is the nice thing - he assumes if you are chatting with him that you must be a friend. It’s the same couple of sentences or thoughts over and over but he does seem to crack himself up a lot. 

We knew when mom passed there would be a big step down, and of course, that’s what we have seen. It’s really really hard to see someone you love go through any type of dementia. If you are in the same boat - my sincerest love goes out to you. We are in a club no one wants to be in. 

I appreciate those of you who have stuck around to read updates on dad - even though they aren’t pretty or fun to read.  But I know some of you have reached out  and asked and I wanted to get this out in the world. 

Thanks for the love -

Emily