Spouse with AD, likely mid term, 3 or 4 years of gradual decline.

[1 Old Arkie]

She does all the things you would expect along with several I would never have thought of! It feels as though I have a 85 year old, child! Her physical health is fairly good... she can get around the house on her rollator and go to bathroom alone and get a glass from cabinet and get a water or milk by herself. Her memory retention in non-existent! She never knows what she will eat when I ask because she can't remember what food she has had before, or if she liked it! Consequently, she gets the same thing for her meals every day! I read other's posts and can so identify with them. I told my wife I will keep her at home and care for her as long as I can and as long as she will help me. After several very exasperating years, I have learned to accept her erratic actions and live with them. The thing that irritates me most is her inclination to throw away everything she doesn't know what is. She goes in the kitchen and every day I dig jars of food and salt shakers, open packages of anything... bread, cookies crackers, out of trash. (I keep a clean liner every day) she takes an apple and cuts a small slice out and eats it and throws apple in trash... peel a banana and throw it all in the trash...oranges the same. I even discovered some of her jewelry in the waste basket by the bed. She, of course, had no idea how they got there. I discovered her wedding rings on the wrong hand and wrong finger. I took her good jewelry and put it away. If she doesn't like some clothes I give her to wear, they disappear, never to be found. Again, she has no idea where they went. , will not change clothes at all unless I insist and stand over her till it happens. She sleeps in her clothes and I insist she change underclothes every morning, but if I send her to do it, she will go stay in bedroom awhile and come back and swear she changed. I go look and can't find any she took off so we have a disagreement😉I hand her meds to her in morning and if I turn my head, they disappear. She, of course, swears she took them. I ask where the cup is I had them in... she doesn't know! I often never find the cup and can only hope she took the meds. (I have found them in trash a time or two.) Why did you throw them in trash, I ask! Her answer is, because I didn't know what they were for! No need to explain!!!!!!

 

[SeaSwallow]

Hello @1 Old Arkie This must be so difficult for you to deal with. You did the right thing by hiding her good jewellery.
I do not know how social care works in the US but I do hope that you get some breaks from caring as it can be so tiring.