Problems telling the time

[clematis]

Hi. I need help please. My husband has vascular dementia and can now no longer tell the time and also has little understanding of the passage of time. If something is happening at 7pm he will ask every few minutes how much longer to go. Even 6 hours before hand he wants to know if he has time to go to the loo etc etc. In his world 5 minutes could be 5 hours.I am finding it difficult to cope with as it seems to be constant.
Many thanks.

 

[Chaucer 1931]

Hi Clematis,

Just wanted to say your husbands not alone with this issue,my mum cannot read a clock face now,she seems to think the clock is wrong or in other words,I have altered it!
What I have got for her is a easy read large digital clock,that is just like the old ones back in the 1980,s.
It did help her for a while,but she says it's not a proper clock now!
Hope this might help you a bit,

Jane

 

[Di Lavers]

Mum cannot really tell the time. I got her a talking watch but she won't use it. Told her Wednesday that I would take her out Thursday. She would not go to bed and kept coming into the room every two hours all through the night. Kept showing her the clock but could not understand why the shops were not open at 3.30. Could not grasp that it was night. She loves her watch but can now only tell me which numbers the hands are pointing to - so now it is 8 and 9 not 8.45.

 

[clematis]

Mum cannot really tell the time. I got her a talking watch but she won't use it. Told her Wednesday that I would take her out Thursday. She would not go to bed and kept coming into the room every two hours all through the night. Kept showing her the clock but could not understand why the shops were not open at 3.30. Could not grasp that it was night. She loves her watch but can now only tell me which numbers the hands are pointing to - so now it is 8 and 9 not 8.45.

Thanks for your response. How do you manage to keep calm? I struggle with keeping my patience/temper.I know that its not his fault but .....

I got him a kids clock. It helps a bit as the hour hand is green and the minute hand is red- so when the green hand gets to the 7 ......

 

[Spamar]

Don't tell them too far in advance, that helps! I rarely tell OH what's on until we get up in the morning. If there is something early, like bus for daycare, I tell him as soon as we get up, if it's later in the day, I don't tell him until he's eating breakfast, an hour or so later.
Obviously not so easy when you are caring for someone who lives elsewhere.

 

[Di Lavers]

It is very difficult but I have been told that she will pick up on my mood so to try and stay as calm as I can. It seems to work. I just get very tired but it has seemed to calm her. Good luck I know how hard it can be. Mum is also obsessed with having a hankie as well. If she is playing with it I know she is upset about something. Di

Spamar - I usually do not tell mum until the day but on this occasion she wanted something in particular and I said the shops were shut and we would have to get it next day. It was to calm her down and to get her to bed.

 

[Rageddy Anne]

Don't tell them too far in advance, that helps! I rarely tell OH what's on until we get up in the morning. If there is something early, like bus for daycare, I tell him as soon as we get up, if it's later in the day, I don't tell him until he's eating breakfast, an hour or so later.
Obviously not so easy when you are caring for someone who lives elsewhere.

If I tell my husband we're going to do something much later in the day he usually appears ready in his outdoor clothes a few minutes later. I'm thinking of hiding the calendar as he pores over it for ages, getting more and more worried about things that are happening next week. Seems to me it's better to introduce one thing at a time, and close to when it's going to happen.