Being a Care Partner for someone with dementia is a steep learning curve.  Dementia is an unrelenting teacher – get it wrong and  it’s unlikely you will get off with lines or detention.  I got it wrong yesterday, and paid the price.

My first mistake was to travel on Sunday.  On the way down to London Network Rail apologised that overnight work was causing us to run late.  Things were even worse on my return journey as no trains were going to Doncaster from Kings Cross because of problems with overhead cables.  Nipping across to St Pancrass added a couple of hours to my journey but at least I got home by eleven.

As soon as I walked in I sensed that little had changed since my departure.  Mrs Dementia looked sternly at me, and launched into a verbal tirade as soon as Sue had clocked off. There’s  little point in listing the accusations or her command of Anglo Saxon. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take her back to ‘where she lived’ as we were already there.

With the battle showing no sign of cooling down I summoned assistance from Rapid Response.  A little like a visit to the dentist the pain had eased when they arrived following trailing Maureen on a walk .  Fortunately, the stars were out at one in the morning, and the pavements were safe to walk on.

Later this morning and Mrs Dementia is in full flow once again.  Maureen is time travelling and confusing me with her ex-husband.  She is now repeating to  me,all those things she must have said to him at the dreadful time in her life.

Thankfully, Chloe our carer is here now.  We have just had a good chat about how rapidly Maureen’s condition is progressing.  We are so fortunate with the quality of our carers, and as always Chloe has helped me to put matters into perspective.

It’s a lovely sunny morning today in Cleethorpes.  I’m off shortly on ‘Shank’s Pony’: even with my hips it has to be a more reliable form of transport than British Rail!