My husband has FTD and so far his problems have been to do with emotions, energy, concentration and imagination. And his speech is very bad now, he can't organise his thoughts, and even a yes/no question can be quite upsetting. All these things make it difficult for him to manage socially and his relationship with our 6-year-old daughter has disintegrated due to his unpredictability. He can't work and his daily routine is shrinking. But he is not confused, knows where he is and who people are (though he forgets their names), he still cooks and manages himself physically. So I've been able to leave him alone in the house and he goes about his routines, often I suspect more peacefully than when he is having to cope with interactions. This has been so important for my daughter and me as we've been able to spend time together away from home just the two of us.
BUT the other day the kitchen roll caught fire when he was cooking. Luckily I saw it and called out to him, he reacted but a bit slowly, he put the kitchen roll in the sink, but didn't try to put it out. He didn't see that a plastic pack of snacks was also singed and still smouldering and melting next to the cooker so I ran over and put that in the sink too and put water over everything. He then grabbed it all and put it in the (plastic) bin straightaway without giving it a minute to cool down.
He then seemed annoyed that I opened the windows to get rid of the plastic fumes, as if I was making a fuss.
Now I'm wondering if I can leave him alone in the house again... My instinct is telling me no, I need to put something in place to make sure he doesn't cook unsupervised. But it's the very first time anything has happened and I'm doubting my instinct. Especially since it's a huge change. The thought of being stuck in the house all day isn't appealing and I certainly don't want to put our daughter through that too. Is there help? I don't know how far into the future to plan... What can I do? And how would I go about it? It's the first time I'm faced with potentially forcing something on my husband and I'm finding it very hard.
Very grateful for any thoughts
BUT the other day the kitchen roll caught fire when he was cooking. Luckily I saw it and called out to him, he reacted but a bit slowly, he put the kitchen roll in the sink, but didn't try to put it out. He didn't see that a plastic pack of snacks was also singed and still smouldering and melting next to the cooker so I ran over and put that in the sink too and put water over everything. He then grabbed it all and put it in the (plastic) bin straightaway without giving it a minute to cool down.
He then seemed annoyed that I opened the windows to get rid of the plastic fumes, as if I was making a fuss.
Now I'm wondering if I can leave him alone in the house again... My instinct is telling me no, I need to put something in place to make sure he doesn't cook unsupervised. But it's the very first time anything has happened and I'm doubting my instinct. Especially since it's a huge change. The thought of being stuck in the house all day isn't appealing and I certainly don't want to put our daughter through that too. Is there help? I don't know how far into the future to plan... What can I do? And how would I go about it? It's the first time I'm faced with potentially forcing something on my husband and I'm finding it very hard.
Very grateful for any thoughts
