I think I have mentioned several times that you never know what you are going to get with dementia as presentation can change so quickly.  Last night was a prime example as Maureen went through her bed time routine she couldn’t find her toothbrush or paste.  All sorts of recriminations and accusations took place, until I came to her rescue and remembered where she had put her toothbrush.  We went through a similar trauma this morning as she hunted for her slippers.

When the hunt is on I am one of the enemy: there is no end to the suggestions of aiding and abetting that might have gone on.  I’m long enough in the tooth now to know that this behaviour is not going to change.  What I simply have to do is try to minimise the times it happens.  I have to get my act together and make sure things are in place at key times of the day.

I developed a helpful catch phrase yesterday for the morning routine.  In answer to Maureen’s perpetual question over what to where: ‘it’s on the chair’.  That reminds me I must put out a set of clothes shortly to ease early morning distress.  I now have to think of a catch phrase for the preparation for bed routine.

Generally, when it is time to turn in Maureen is on her last legs.  As she puts it:’she is falling asleep as she stumbles up the stairs’.  From today  all the gear that she needs must be at her finger tips.   Her favourite pillows have to be in place, toothbushes and paste have to be in her toilet bag.  If she hasn’t got her P J’s on under her trousers they need to be on the bed.

These routines are so simple to carry out that they are easily overlooked.  As ‘nitram’ from Talking Point keeps reminding me: ‘Fail to prepare; prepare to fail’.

Postscript:  It’s just come to me the catch phrase for the bed time routine: ‘don’t stand there and scratch your head – it’s all on the bed’.