05/12/2021
As the dementia has progressed, Tudy's perception of time has slowly deteriorated. We have a clock in the kitchen that clearly shows time, date, day of the week, and time of the day (morning, afternoon, evening), which helped in the beginning, but now she is forgetting to even look at that.
Talking about things that are in the future, such as medical appointments, birthdays, or Christmas can be rife for frustration. As an example, last Christmas, we were going to Brooke's family to have dinner after I finished work on Christmas Day. For a few weeks prior, she was confused about when we were going, thinking it was that day, or the next day. She'd come out with shirts asking to get our opinion on which one she should wear. Then she would be upset and frustrated that it was still days away.
We now either have to not talk about something, then right before we're going somewhere tell her to get ready as we are doing such and such. Or we have to do a countdown, so she can visually see a reminder of when something is happening.
As soon as we started to put up Christmas decorations, she started asked about how long away it is, and what plans we have. So I made a days until Christmas countdown, and Brooke and I sing a little ditty about it and dance around and make it fun for her.
After she goes to bed each night, we stick the next day's number on, so that when she gets up each morning, she can immediately see it is still days away. The frustration level is so much less already.
Jodie (& Brooke)
