Maureen’s emotional memory remains intact; whilst her short-term memory is shot: a familiar tale with dementia.  You only have to see her in a maternal role to see that she is still the ‘full shilling’ in that mode.  When she is in the company of young children she comes into her own and has no misgivings about getting things wrong.   Whenever either of her sons comes to see her she goes into hostess mode to convince them that her stroke recovery is well underway.

She must have gone into overdrive yesterday when her youngest son popped in for a couple of hours.  He said that she never stopped talking: since he went she has never stopped sleeping!  It’s been over 24 hours since his departure and she’s been asleep for most of the time.  She keeps telling me that she is tired and all she wants to do is sleep.  I have learned in the past to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’.  Usually it takes three days to recover from a visit of her sons.   Maureen has long forgotten that her son came yesterday and has no idea what has caused her exhaustion. 

We need a ‘rain check’ from the Home Treatment Team to make sure we are on message with our approach to cognitive stimulation.  The following extract from an article in MindStart outlines the issues:

‘Mental Stimulation Activities Slow Dementia

A 2012 review of multiple research trials of cognitive stimulation activities with dementia patients, like puzzles, games, and reminiscing, showed a benefit in maintaining their thinking and daily living abilities. The benefits were greater than any medication effects. In addition, there was an improved quality of life for the person and an increased ability to communicate.

I have decided to integrate gratitude into my daily posts rather than make Saturday’s a ‘Small Sprinkle of Gratitude’.  I’m taking a leaf out of Jennifer Tucker’s blog with this approach to showing gratitude.

There is always so much to blog about but the bizarre events of yesterday take some beating.  I let Maureen sleep late after her performance of the night before.  I’m sure all great singers need to rest their vocal chords after being on stage for almost three hours.

 Gail or carer arrived on schedule and was off doing our weekly shop.  I decided to put my feet up and must have ‘bobbed off’, as they say round here.  When I came round all seemed quiet upstairs so I let ‘sleeping dogs lie’ for a while longer.  Around noon I went upstairs and couldn’t find Maureen and assumed she’d scarpered whilst I had been in the land of nod.  Gail returned heavily laden with shopping as I began to widen my search. I helped her unload her car and then sped off in ours to look for Maureen in her usual haunts. 

I spent about a quarter of an hour looking for Maureen around our neighbourhood..  A wider search revealed nothing so I returned home in a bit of a panic.  I was about to call the police when I decided to check upstairs once again and found Maureen asleep in bed.  There is only one word to describe what had happened: bizarre – as my search for her earlier couldn’t have been more thorough.

I have no idea what had happened.  When Maureen eventually woke I described that I had lost her; without learning anything new.  The interesting thing is that she went on to sleep for most of the remainder of the day: goodness knows what she had been up to in her ‘absence’.

Measures have already been undertaken to avoid the Invisible Woman getting up to her antics in the future’.  I have activated the alarm on the front door and keys will no longer be so conveniently kept in locks . That should put an end to her going missing or my panic attacks!  I’ve just remembered I need to update my Good Music page and there’s one number that simply has to go on there today.

I slept beside Maureen in bed again last night: ‘very interesting’ as my dear old dad would have said – more on that a little later.