Tag Archives: Alzheimer’s spouse energy

A Mental Vacation from Memoryland

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resting woman

You have probably noticed that haven’t posted for awhile. Several friends have emailed to make sure nothing is wrong.

All is well. Everything is fine and as normal as Memoryland gets. No crises. While the slow drip of slippage continues, a little more silence here, a little less appetite there, there have been no significant changes in Ralph’s cognition or his mood. At least none that I’ve noticed.

Really, the truth is I haven’t been paying as much attention to him as I usually do. I was about to add as maybe I should, but the truth is, he seems to be fine without my hovering. What I have been concentrating on instead is

  1. The practicalities of re-directing our lives as I look forward to a move: Dealing with realtors and financial advisors. Overseeing what’s left of our business. Considering needs like doctors and bank accounts that I need to re-order. Wondering how to pare down 40 years of a life to make it transportable to a smaller footprint.             At first I was too overwhelmed to think about, let alone write about, the plethora of business decisions I have to make (ie which of the properties Ralph bought at the end of his career–when his cognitive powers had already diminished–to sell, how to move quickly enough to find a new home if I sell the farm faster than I expect, how to move at all if the farm doesn’t sell in a reasonable time). But while I’m still anxious, I’ve begun to enjoy the challenge of fitting the pieces of our financial jigsaw puzzle into place.  I enjoy the number crunching and I definitely enjoy roaming through realtor.com to look at houses for sale…
  1. Myself. Yep, I admit it. I have been wrapped up my own life.  I’ve been working with a growing roster of clients in my new mini-career as an editor (work I can do as easily from Nola as from here), I’ve been traveling to see kids and grandkids. I have started a drawing class and can’t stop drawing whenever I have a free minute. I’ve been promoting my friend photographer MaryBeth Meehan outdoor outsized portrait project Seeing Newnan, which has the community buzzing. I’ve been writing on my own.

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Of course, I am getting Ralph to his doctor appointments. Keeping track of his meds and his food. Writing his daily life list that seems to be getting longer as I add more activities in danger of being forgotten if I’m not around to nag, like showering. I just have not been obsessing about him while I can afford not to. It’s almost as if I’ve set up a savings account with the energy I don’t need to expend now and may need to call on later. At least that’s what I tell myself when the guilt starts rising.

TAKING THINGS IN HAND

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decision.jpg

 

So big confession: I have been in a great mood lately.

Is that allowed? I ask.

YES! I answer (except I can’t help that little gulp of uncertainty. Is someone whose spouse has a degenerative neurological condition allowed to be happy?)

Nothing dramatic has changed in our present to make me happier. Ralph seems pretty much the same although he now needs his written schedule of reminders in a way he didn’t a few months ago and I’m including more details. His energy also remains about the same, i.e. low. A glitch in the Emory study has held up his supply of experimental Ritalin but I haven’t noticed any drop—in retrospect I realize that the slight uptake I’d noticed before Christmas was more situational than medical and disappeared once he was home and back in his routine.

The change is in my focus. Facing that we were not going to end up in Apalachicola seems to have opened a door for me. The future may not be the one I planned, but it is lying out there for me to shape. There is a relief in acknowledging what I have to let go. So Ralph and I will not be travelling together (but really he never liked to travel to the same places I did) or going to movies together (see previous parenthesis). And yes, I will be making all decisions about our finances and health and homes and meals for that matter. And yes his location on the Alzheimer’s continuum will slide downward and there will be difficult choices to make. I see the clock ticking.

But taking things in hand has energized me.

I have made some decisions involving our rental properties, our main source of income, including renovations Ralph might not have done but are necessary for our millennial tenants who demand more than the hippies, slackers and gen-xers who used to rent from us.

More important, I have decided about our living situation. I have told Ralph we are moving to Nola in two years. Actually I have told him daily.

Conversation #1:

“In two years I’ll be too old to live isolated out here. The driving will be too difficult. I think we should move to Nola.”

“I don’t want to move to Nola. What about the dogs.”

“We’ll have a yard for the dogs. And think how much you’ll enjoy hanging out with BabyRalph.”

“Maybe.”

Conversation #2:

“So in two years, when we move to Nola…”

“Why would we want to do that?”

“In two years I’ll be too old to live isolated out and doing all the driving will be too difficult.”

“I don’t want to move to Nola. What about the dogs.”

“We’ll have a yard for the dogs. And think how much you’ll enjoy hanging out with BabyRalph.”

“Well, I guess.”

Conversation #3,4,5,6…

“So in two years, when we move to Nola…”

“Why would we want to do that?”

“In two years I’ll be too old to live here isolated and…

 

A real estate agent is coming by Monday to discuss a sales strategy for the farm (not an easy sell). Dreading having Ralph present and running off the agent in some of the ways he has run off various servicemen, I screwed up my courage this morning and told him about the meeting because I’m not ready to not tell.

“Do you want to be there?”

“Not really. You can take notes can’t you?”

So basically, Ralph has more or less acquiesced. I am left to handle the details (and keep reminding him the plan). The thought of moving and all it will take is daunting. But also exhilarating. So yes, I have been on Zillow quite a bit. But ironically, I’ve also found new enthusiasm for my life now. I have more going on in my professional life than in several years. And I’ve started drawing lessons and am sitting in front of pad and pencils instead of the television. I’m even dieting, sort of. Is this joy or an attack of mania, I’m not sure, but I don’t feel manic anxiety.

I know things will get more complicated. I know I am in for sorrow. But right now Ralph and I are traveling more or less together. I don’t mind being his navigator, car mechanic and chauffeur because I still have the luxury of being able to pursue my own interests.  As for Ralph, he’s willing, and less unhappy than I’d expected, to come along for the ride as long as he doesn’t have to drive.