I have taken a number of measures to address the increased challenge of changes in Maureen’s presentation. Something has to give if I’m to have sufficient time and energy to meet Maureen’s needs.  I’ve decided  to drop out of a couple of distance learning courses on dementia.  I can use professional staff, the Alzheimer’s Reading Room, and Teepa’s Snow’s tutorials to address specific concerns as they arise.

I need to slow down on my attempts to make the house more Dementia Friendly.  My early morning assaults on various parts of the house have to stop.  Moving my clothes into the spare bedroom to help Maureen see that the front bedroom is hers will have to take its time. I have to learn to strike a balance between having a reasonable amount of rest and making the home environment more suited to Maureen’s needs.  Opportunities for day-time catch up rest need to be seized when the opportunity arises: I had a lovely couple of hours’ yesterday afternoon.

‘Maureen’s car’ will remain on the drive unless she needs me to take her somewhere or has given me permission to use it.

I have now requested that we shorten Monday and Wednesday’s carer sits by an hour, and have an additional two sit on Tuesday or Thursday.

My next away day has been pencilled in for April the 6th. We are going to review the arrangement for wall to wall care closer to the day, to address Maureen’s complaints about being ‘baby sat’.

We both need to have a health check with our G P.  It is possible that infection is causing changes in Maureen’s presentation.  I am always reassured that Dr Munjal keeps an open mind on additional medication being the answer to changes in presentation.  Current wisdom is that such medication should carry a  black box warning.

I need to chat to Dr Munjal about  my strategy to avoid surgery on my shoulder.  I also need to seek his advice on how to improve my sleep pattern and get more rest.

Our journey seems to be getting more arduous and we need to see if we can take an easier route.  We are fortunate that some of our advisers support our biopsychosocial approach to dementia.  I shudder to think what it must be like to have to deal with, and be surrounded by, those who are sticking to the biomedical model.