Ok with nonsense these days.

I was determined to get an enormous quantity of Concert Association membership checks processed today, so I took my box of work with me to Sunrise, so I could do it while keeping Jeff company. I’m happy to report I accomplished my bare minimum (opening envelopes, sorting checks from paperwork,) but I’ve got more than plenty of databasing left to complete.

Meanwhile we paused for Jeff’s lunch (he was doing better than usual with scooping chili into his own mouth,) then Dot the visiting piano player, a brief stroll in the sunshine, a couple of bathroom excursions, and an occasional other resident wandering in. In which case, I’d have a conversation like this: Linda (the other resident:) “diddo yubba really so?” Me: “Yes, I think you’re right!” Linda: (with a bit more conviction) “do na na giddum is it.” Me: “Yeah, me too.” Then one of the caregivers called her.

Meanwhile, I put the iPod nano tunes on shuffle, sat Jeff in the bouncy IKEA chair, and spread my stuff out on the new comforter I had just bought and put on his bed.

I don’t really have a good idea what makes a difference to him and what does not. Mostly he sits and dozes or half-dozes. He doesn’t look at me much of the time, because he is frequently functionally blind and doesn’t process visual information in a very useful way. I remember once reading about a woman in the later stages of Posterior Cortical Atrophy, and she was for all practical purposes blind, but these are things you don’t really expect until they come to you. Now they’ve come to us.

When I went to Sunrise at lunchtime, Jeff was just finished getting a haircut from Valerie at the small salon upstairs. All the caregivers in his “neighborhood” said they loved his haircut but missed his curls. Exactly how I always feel.

I’m happy we’re, for now, done with the hospital and back to easy access. Does he miss me when I’m not there? I don’t know. I know he asks. I bought a wipe-off board which I leave on the counter in his room. Usually I write something like “Emily will be back soon!” if I don’t have something more specific such as “Emily is driving Gabe to North Carolina” to write. At this point, Jeff can’t read it, but I figure the caregivers can read it to him.