I am asking for help. The occupational therapist came last week and this Thursday the nurse allocated by the memory clinic is coming. Its so hard O/H refuses outside help and gets very agitated when someone comes around asking questions he thinks we are plotting something against him. We want to help him ourselves and keep him at home as long as possible the decline just seems so quick maybe the medicine just needs longer to stabilize things I don't know. Can things improve? Is it possible to have such bad weeks for some good ones to come I don't know the answer has anyone seen an improvement after such a bad couple of weeks...............I hope so. This forum is the only place I can vent my thoughts with some answers to my questions...
It's good that you're sharing your thoughts here with us all, as everyone understands. I found it crass, insensitive and thoughtless that "professionals" would ask questions in front of John, that I would try to answer truthfully, sometimes in a sort of code, knowing I was distressing him - and there'd be hell to pay when they'd gone.
So, after a while, I decided to type up a "To Whom It May Concern" statement, which I updated regularly, and I would give this to the SW, nurse, GP etc, before they had a chance to ask me anything.
If they were visiting us at home, I'd invite them to sit down, whilst I made the coffee, give them the Statement, and then ask John to "help" me. He'd spend a good 5 minutes with me in the kitchen, arranging biscuits on a plate, which gave the person time to read through.
If we had to go elsewhere, I'd give the Statement to the receptionist, and ask that it be given to XYZ to read, before we went in. You're doing a brilliant job, Sweetie xxxx