Tag Archives: Alzheimer’s problem solving

Care Giver of Care Partner?

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Gerontologist Elaine Eshbaugh’s recent post The Complicated Dynamics of the Care Partnership on her blog Welcome to Dementialand, offers a nuanced consideration of what she calls “the care partner relationship.”  I have been trying all week to get my head around the concept. I can’t say I’ve succeed, but Elaine’s piece sure has got me thinking about Ralph and my interactions.

To be honest, the first paragraphs, in which she described public advocacy by those with dementia as “the most exciting development in the field of dementia,” did not grab me. I’ve never been comfortable with the narrow focus of advocacy for specific diseases, including ones that have directly touched my life like heart disease and breast cancer, given the big existential issues like climate change no one is facing. And Ralph definitely has no interest in advocating or joining any kind of Alzheimer’s community, and the word dementia is not a term he embraces at all

But then Elaine wrote this:

 

In some circles, we are replacing the term “caregiver” with “care partner” to identify the partnership that develops between the person living with dementia and those who care for them.

Yes, it is a partnership. It is certainly a shared experience.

But being a person with dementia and a care partner are different roles.

 

I have to think about what I think about this change in nomenclature. Do I think of myself as a care partner? I am not sure. Marriage is supposed to be a partnership. Ralph and I are married. So yes I am his partner. But that is not what Elaine is talking about. Do I honestly feel like a partner? Frankly a lot of the time I feel most like a caring care manager.

But then again, last weekend we did have a moment of genuine care partnership, in the most literal sense.  Ralph recently had minor surgery ago to remove a squamous cell carcinoma on his arm and I have been in charge of changing the bandage daily. Because Ralph’s skin reacted badly to regular bandage and tape, I’ve had to apply the cotton bandaging with paper tape. Paper tape is a pain. I struggled getting it unspooled smoothly the first day while Ralph stood by patiently with his bare arm lifted until I finally got the tape on his skin. The next morning the damn tape was all stuck back together again. I dug at it with a scissor with little success. Then Ralph, whose natural ability for all things mechanical has been mostly dormant for four years, sprang into action and unspooled the tape in a neat single layer. After I applied the tape to his arm, I and was planning to use a q-tip stick to keep it unstuck.

“No,” Ralph said, “Just fold over the tip and it won’t stick.”

“Wow, why didn’t I think of that?”

He shrugged, matter of fact and clear-headed.

A nice small moment, but it would be dishonest to end here because it was the exception not the rule. Well, not exactly the exception. He will also bring me a cup of coffee in the morning if I ask him to. He will punch in my cell number on his phone so I can find mine. He will take the dishes to the counter by the sink. He will come with me to the dump. They are all small rituals that he will perform if I ask. What was different with the bandage is that he took the initiative to come up with a solution. That is the rare event for us.

But again, Elaine writes about partnership not in terms of equal but in terms of shared experience. And yes, living with a husband who is cognitively impaired is a shared experience. But it is mostly me sharing his experience. Ralph’s interest in my experience of the world is limited. Still, lately I have been trying to create more shared experience. I dragged him out for pizza last weekend and then for Mexican a few days later. Both times we had the same conversation.

“Do I have to go?”

“Yes. I don’t feel like cooking and I really think you’ll like it.”

Each time he did enjoy himself immensely.

I have also given him a new “job” to share. On several occasions in the last few months our dog Lola was caught crossing the busy road in front of our farm; so we (meaning me along with Ralph’s niece who was visiting at the time) decided to put in a newfangled GPS electric fence. Training the dog to know her limits is part of the process and requires once of those weird collars. I have added to Ralph’s daily life list changing the collar batter every morning when he wakes up, putting the collar on Lola before she goes outside, and taking it off every night before she goes to bed in her crate. I watch over the proceedings and make sure the jobs get done—it helps that Lola seems to love her collar and stands close to the counter waiting for it.

In terms of serious decision-making and even companionship, I still can’t say I feel in a partnership with Ralph. But even before his diagnosis, our marital partnership was a struggle because he liked being in charge and I had to fight to be heard; now it is a struggle because I am in charge and he is increasingly disengaged.

But these small acts of asking Ralph to share tasks and experiences have worked, up to a point. At least they give us a sense, however fleeting, of participating together in our life.

Making Change in Dollars and Sense

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Today I sent Ralph on an errand. That’s right, I sent him off to perform a task without me there to oversee him. I gave him a twenty dollar bill and asked him to go to the gas station down the road, buy “something,” ie cigarettes, and bring me a five and 3 singles back with the change.

Asking Ralph to perform tasks is not something I do a lot obviously. He used to handle all the manual chores that required any skill. He did electrical, plumbing, carpentry, auto repair, you name it. He wouldn’t let me hang a picture because he didn’t think I could meet his critical standards. What he never did was run errands. He was not one to go out of his way on the way home from work to pick up milk, or a kid from school for that matter.

Now he is more than willing to do whatever I ask. Willing just not capable.

So my request was an experiment of sort. He still drives to the gas station daily for his cigarettes so getting there and back was not an issue. And willingness clearly was no problem; he offered to leave that minute. But remembering to bring me what I ask for…there we’ve had problems in the past. Even if I call him while he’s at the store or he calls me from the store to double check, he’s still likely to come home empty-handed. In the past he’s resisted taking written reminders but lately he’s become more dependent on his daily written life list.

So I wrote down a note, bring me change for this twenty.

He read the note. I reminded him I needed to end up with 8 dollars and he could keep the rest for his own use (I usually make sure he has about twenty dollars in his wallet at all times.) He looked with worry at the note again.

I took it back and wrote a new note. Bring me three 1$ bills and, one 5$ bill.

He read the note and nodded. I turned back to the stove as he put on his coat and started to the door. He stopped.

I can’t remember where I put the note or the twenty dollar bill.

He patted his jacket pockets. I checked his wallet. No note. I was about to write a new own when I saw a corner of the note poking up from the breast pocket of his shirt. I put note and cash in his wallet. He couldn’t buy his cigarettes without  seeing the note—well, unless he used his credit card, his usual payment method.

I sent him off with misgivings but fifteen minutes he was back. With 3 singles and a 5.He was casual as he handed over the bills, but I could sense he was feeling the same buzz of thrill and relief I was at a job well done.

Success is measured differently these days.

Ralph’s Annual Alzheimer’s Test, 2018

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No surprise, Ralph’s subscription to Alzheimer’s has been renewed. I know the analogy is illogical but that’s how I sometimes think of his annual mental check up.

Does that seem blasé?

It’s just that every July the routine is so similar. We get to the building after a long anxious car ride, Ralph takes the standard hour long test while I meet with our Nurse Practitioner Stephanie privately, I tell her (every time) that I sense Ralph growing less engaged, Ralph joins us after his test and Stephanie checks the results before telling us that he has pretty much held steady. Some element of the test usually shows what she calls “a little slippage” from the previous year but never as much slippage as I expected or think I’ve noticed.

For instance, this year his tests results showed that compared to last year, he forgot three more words on the word retention section or two connection on the connect-number-and letters section (a test I found difficult myself when I took it as a part of Emory’s healthy aging study). Stephanie seemed less concerned about those scores than she was that he had answered two more answers denoting possible depression than he had last year. So we have upped his lexapro back to what it was a few years ago when in retrospect he seemed almost jolly.

I think Stephanie is wonderful, perceptive and caring. I think so particularly after she specifically asked if I still travelled to see my grandson; I said yes with a bit of embarrassed hesitancy, remembering a call from a friend who with best of intentions told me Ralph seemed lonely.

“Well you definitely should,” Stephanie began and in that half second before the next word I groaned to myself that she’d found me out as a caregiver will to abandon her caregivee), “continue those trips.”

So I love and believe totally in Stephanie.

But after four or is it five years, I’ve finally acknowledged to myself that the annual test is limited in its efficacy. My personal test results for Ralph were a little different this year. What I noted were two concrete-ish differences from a year ago and maybe a third.

  1. On our to Emory Ralph told me he was beginning to feel foggy more often. “Foggy” is a term he used a lot before he went on his medications way back when he was first diagnosed but has not used much since. I was a little, if not exactly alarmed, concerned. (Of course, when I brought up what he’d said in front of Stephanie, he didn’t remember saying any such thing and denied any new fogginess.)
  2. Two or three years ago, Ralph happily agreed when I suggested we pick up Cuban sandwich at a funky joint nearby that we used to frequent when we lived in the city. The next year he became less enthusiastic about the inconvenience of going out of our way to a restaurant. Instead we fell into the habit of dropping by the on-site café every time we came to Emory, which was quite frequent while Ralph was in his now defunct Merck study. But after this visit when I suggested the café, he demurred, not exactly adamant but firm. He wanted to swing through a drive-through, lately pretty much the only place he’ll reluctantly eat away from home. The Emory café is nothing special but the food is relatively healthy and I have always looked forward to that little break in our routine, a little moment of civilized social normalcy. That his unwillingness to eat in a café was upset me may say more about me than Ralph. Food has always been kind of passion. I feel the loss of eating out sharply. It was one of the few activity we always shared as a couple, both of us adventurous and willing to try pretty much anything, both of us fascinated by the culture of food, both of us drawn to both high and low cuisine. I briefly thought of insisting we go to the café, and maybe I should have. Instead I acquiesced and swung us into a Burger King. But I was resentful. After ordering Ralph his sandwich and soda, I passive-aggressively ordered only a diet soda for myself, while reminding Ralph, “I’m on a diet and there is nothing on the menu I could eat.” (Oh, please, I was starving by then dying for a greasy burger.)
  3. Bonus difference point, He didn’t notice I was upset. Me being passive-aggressive and resentful is nothing new in our relationship. It may have been the bedrock of our relationship: whenever I got passive-aggressively resentful, Ralph more than noticed and would turn surly and aggressive back. So I honestly don’t know if change number three is for the better or worse….