'Dad, it's Mike. Why aren't you at day care today?'
'At what?'
'Day care.'
'Day care?'
'Yes. Echelon.' This is the name of the place.
'Oh, yes. I, I don't know. Maybe, maybe I overslept.'
'No, you didn't, because you called me at eight o'clock this morning.'
'Did I?'
'Yes.'
'Well, I go on a Wednesday.'
'You go on Wednesdays and Mondays, too.'
'Do I? When did that start?'
'Quite a long time ago.'
'It's very hot here.' This seemed to signal lack of interest in the subject of day care.
'Yes. Dad, you were worried about getting your pacemaker checked. The appointment has been fixed for next month.'
'My pacemaker?'
'Yes, you called about it this morning.'
'Oh, yes. You're looking after that are you?'
'Yeah, just leave that to me.'
'It's very hot here. Is it hot where you are?'
'Yes, it is.'
'It's very hot here.'
'There's nothing I can do about that.'
Well, at least he laughed at that.
I am a bit concerned at his apparent recent mental decline. If I look for reasons, I might blame the reduction of the Aricept dosage from seven days a week to five. Since the nurses now come more or less at lunch time (to catch mum in a 'waking' state) they have skipped Mondays and Wednesday visits, because dad is not there to mediate. Consequently, both mum and dad are getting a lower weekly dosage. Would such a reduction have a noticeable effect? I shall ask Dr Humerus tomorrow when I see her with mum.
Off on a tangent...
I mentioned dad's apparent loss of clarity, such as it was, to Rachel later on. She said that dad had called her earlier in the day and had appeared quite coherent. He wanted to ask her if they still made soap the old way, because he couldn't get used to this 'new stuff', meaning the sorbolene that I had installed in place of the drying, grey veined bars of soap that once lurked in all corners of the bathroom, laundry and kitchen. A few days ago he had tried to persuade me to switch him and mum back to good old bars of soap, but I'd resisted on that occasion. Today, Rachel did as I would have done, and conceded to him. We'll have to find other ways to use up the approximately two litres of sorbolene that I had positioned around the house.
I am surprised that so many of the social services' suggestions don't work:
- sorbolene doesn't get used
- the shower stool is placed outside the shower cubicle when dad showers, mum simply doesn't shower
- the cat food dispenser is usually emptied, separated, and misplaced
- signs get taken down without being read
- food left around the house is just as likely to be secreted away or given to the cats
- etc
