Idiosyncrasys

[Norman]

Not sure if this is a good title but it will do for now.
Wondered what other carers saw,here are one or two to start off.
Peg has the usual tearing up paper tissues,makes chain like results.
Deposits them all over the house.
Insists on lying across the bed ,side to side,problem for me to get in.
Throws second pillow off the bed onto the floor.
Wears thick cardigan in hot weather.
Reverses the time om the clock, sees 11.15 as 5 to 3.
Most evenings I buy an evening newspaper,if I leave it on a chair or anywhere in the lounge, when I look for it it has been screwed up and shoved under a chair or cupboard
Norman

 

[mel]

Hi Norman

Peg has the usual tearing up paper tissues

In mums case toilet roll or newspaper

Insists on lying across the bed

Yes!!! I try to get her to straighten out....good job she's got a double bed!

Wears thick cardigan in hot weather.

sorry Norman....mum can do better....thick cardigan,2 jackets and a raincoat!!

Reverses the time om the clock, sees 11.15 as 5 to 3

Yes!

As far as newspapers go I always give her yesterdays paper because that usually gets taken apart,screwed up or torn!
Another I can think of....when mum looks at photos she takes them out of the album and neatly folds them up.....sadly I've had to remove the most precious ones as I don't want them destroyed...
Mum seems to need to "save" food....I usually find it in her handbag or jacket pockets....or more alarmingly...in her underwear....
I'm going to think more on this but felt I had to reply to what you'd already said!
Wendy

 

[Helena]

I am trying to fathom what my Mother does with her underwear ?

Its certainly never appeared in the washing pile

Maybe she does not wear any these days

! year ago my sister arrived to take her out to lunch and she was wandering around in just an old sweater

 

[May]

My Mum has a thing about tissues too, hides them in all sorts of places, some mentionable ,some not
Gathers up the remote controls and cordless phone and 'puts them away'.
Ditto family photos in frames
Tears up anything in envelopes including unopened post or cards etc waiting to be posted
Moves crockery from cupboard to cupboard
Sorts and re-sorts jewellery
and I'ld say Yes also to your comments about time and newspapers Norman

 

[DaisyG]

My husband has the tissues / toilet roll 'problem' ....

I've NEVER 'got it' .... so if anyone can expalin this P L E A S E do...


He can go through a toilet roll a day.... It's CRAZY
Sometimes he just pulls chunks off ... and puts them straight in the bin.
I can hear the bin 'click' .... over and over.


Sometimes he will stuff his pockets full.. and 'transfer' it to the bedroom..
Thinking I can't see the great wadge (?sp) .... sticking out of his pockets !!
He'll then stuff them all under his pillow.

He says i make him do this ... Yeah.. right !!


He also seems to be obsessed with newspapers.


Norman,
My husband has recently wanted to wear his 'hat with flaps'
when it's blazing hot outside.


He wants to keep 'counting out his money' (small coin purse)... but has no idea how to do this...
Purse will keep getting put back in his pocket ... taken out.... attempted counting... back in pocket ... over and over.....


He regularly forgets which 'side of the bed is his' .....

Forgets that I (his wife) sleeps with him.... !!
"What are yyoooouu doing in my bed?" I call it a 'big bear' moment....


Mel,
Yeah, we have the reversing the clock thing too.



Does anyone have the
Not believing the clock .. and the TV time .... and also not believing the date and day .... ?


Clothes he has are not his .....



Thought I'd add my bit to this thread...


There's more...

Take Care,

DaisyG

 

[Kayla]

Young children frequently reverse letters or even draw pictures upside down, so I wonder if reading a clock the wrong way is just a problem with the way the brain interprets what it sees. My Mum never seems to know whether it's morning, afternoon or evening and keeps talking about Christmas as if it will be quite soon. She also gets through a lot of tissues, but I guess it's just something that she can still manage to do. The brain controls sensations of being hot and cold, so perhaps people with Alzheimer's or Vascular Dementia genuinely feel cold, even in hot weather.Older people may also have poor blood circulation.

 

[Brucie]

The way I rationalised Jan's tissue paper, etc behaviours was as follows.

Her world started shrinking, along with her faculties. No longer could she play Rachmaninov on her piano from memory, no longer could she do crosswords, knit, cook, write her name, comprehend television. She became afraid of being outside, yet was scared of being in a house she no longer understood as home, and that with a man that she often seemed not to know.

What control could she have on her life, a woman who was always so much able to do things? What would she be able to trust? What was hers anyway?

I believe that in such circumstances Jan would take small steps to try to claim something from the world. Tissues, kleenex of toilet, come in small pieces [or can be made into smaller pieces easily] so they can be stashed away as something of hers. Likewise other, mostly small things - greetings cards, little pictures, could be saved. She would forget where she had put them, so would stash another lot away somewhere else.

 

[BeckyJan]

A few of these things are so familiar:
tearing up tissues (we should all have shares in Kleenex!)
seeing the time in reverse (that has been happening for a long time now)

I have not experienced the lying across the bed but that maybe due to the fact that David can hardly get into bed - he has great difficulty in lifting his legs.

The other one is 'water' - if he gets the chance he just lets it run and seems to need gallons just to rinse a glass.

The cardigan in hot weather! (on the hottest day of the year he had a cardigan and central heating on!).

Reading! - he enjoys certain books and reads them time after time. The present one 'Malloy and Me' he has had two weeks and is on the third reading. Its a 'softy' book and he sheds tears over it.

I often wonder at what stage we are on in this 'journey'. (David does not always fit into any special stage in the '7 stage' list.)

What a mystery all this is. Beckyjan

 

[Brucie]

Has anyone had the wearing of a single glove, even in summer?

Picture below, which was taken in 2001, and coincided with a period of listing - unusually that was to Jan's right.

hugely poignant at this distance....

 

[Margarita]

He also seems to be obsessed with newspapers.

Like my mum because she wants to read the Zodiac sigh,(I read it for her ) then keeps them all under her bed. I take dog for walk then get the paper In the morning I never get to read newspaper because mum pulls it all apart , so I get 2 newspaper I don’t throw away the Newspapers away let mum keep them under the bed ,because one day am going to wash the windows in the front room with the newspapers & washing up liquid.

Now as I look around front room I see them all over the place and am always picking up Tissue paper toilet paper

 

[mel]

Hi Bruce
Yes we've had the single glove....always reminded me of Alvin Stardust!
Wendy

 

[rummy]

Hi all,
I think the brain just does a short circuit and they do these things, thinking they are doing something else? The ladies in my Mom's AD unit all do something or another. One lady was a life long cleaner so they gave her a broom, she goes around sweeping, making everyones beds and trys to feed everyone else. Another worked in a laundry so they gave her wash rags that she will fold and refold all day. another looks through magazines and tears out the pages. My Mom, she constantly redecorates the place with another lady in the middle of the ni ght. Every morning the head CNA comes in the books and plants are in different places. So funny. They all, dress for winter and if you touch them, they feel cold. I don't think their bodies generate any heat ! It was 108 degrees here yesterday and my Mom had on a winter sweater. Go figure! Noone has passed out from the heat so I guess it is okay!
Debbie

 

[Helena]

I am wondering though whether theres a difference in these things between Ad sufferers and Vascular Dementia sufferers because my Mother has not yet got to wearing winter clothes and always complains about hot weather

 

[Kayla]

My Mum has Vascular Dementia and she feels the cold, even on a hot day, although she didn't wear a cardigan in the heatwave. She also has rheumatoid arthritis, which might affect her circulation and she is also in a wheelchair.
Kayla

 

[Lila13]

My mother wandered out in a thin nightie in rain and on frosty nights. But may have been deliberately trying to catch her death of cold.

Sometimes wanted winter clothes on hot days and sometimes summer clothes on cold days.

But I think the sudden mini-heatwave was one of the things that killed her.

Lila

 

[katieberesford]

Boy can I relate to the toilet tissue problem! We go through toilet paper like its going out of fashion! Where does it all go to!!!

After supper David and I usually watch tv and if I pop out of the room for any reason, say to make us a drink, answer the phone or go to the bathroom David thinks it is time for bed and no matter what time it is when I return the lounge is in darkness, tele off, lights off, doors locked and David getting into his jimjams! Sometimes I don't want to go to bed at 9pm ahhhhhhh. Sometimes I need the loo so bad, but know when I return everything will have been switched off so sit with my legs crossed not daring to leave the room. Just typing this makes me laugh and see the funny side.

Kitchen roll, why do I find kitchen roll between every plate and saucepan in the cupboards?????

 

[Cate]

Hi All

Yep we have shares in Kleenex to. They are rolled up and stuffed everywhere, also positioned around the room so as to 'navigate'!!! A real drag is when I dont check her pockets properly and one gets away and finds its way into the washing machine, ugh, our best friend is the clothes brush in these circumstances.

Feeling the cold, mum has all her curtains closed, and pegged together, my son reckons he's visiting nan in her 'cave'. During the really hot weather her lounge was so stuffy my brother bought her a fan, she viewed this akin to being a tiger in the corner, so out went the fan.

Roll on the cold weather, she thinks her bay window (behind the pegged curtains) is colder than her fridge, so this is where she transfers food from the fridge to, and cannot understand why the milk is lumpy! Anyone for a cuppa??
Deep joy.
Keep smiling all.
Love
Cate

 

[Margarita]

Kayla You have brought back a memory of my mother before mum had brain scan was told she had AD.

We was living in Gibraltar

It was winter; the weather I can tell you in winter is colder then England because we our by the sea. I had gone out to a nightclub left mum in bed with my brother in his room.

As I was walking home I could see someone in there nightdress leaning over a wall as I got closer I saw it was my mum. All I think that could of what happen that mum forgotten I told her john my brother was looking after her so went out looking for me.

Another time in summer mum got dress I called out was she ready yes said mum as I go in her room she has her winter jumper on with a tea shirt on top trouser and winter coat

Cate yes in the past we all new thats If the sugar, milk peanut better, was missing, all we had to do is look in mum cupboard; all hidden away at the back of the cupboard.