Hi everyone,

I am mainly just wanting to talk, so yall can just listen if you want or chime in!!! :>

I am helping my parents pay bills, do pills, and this month, do Taxes. Of course, I do all the work, but it is just finding all the important papers, making lists and making copies and then seeing if the CPA needs more stuff!

Well, we are also (me mainly) making room for the 2004 papers - taking them out of the file cabinets and putting them in the secondary place!!! You would not believe where that is! :> So, I am going thru this box of 1997, 1996, and 1998 paperwork. Some is being thrown away, some being burned and some kept.

Well, I can now tell, that my dad was starting to get alzheimers right around that time. There are several missed bill payments (remember he is/was a perfectionist/engineer) and a note to the CPA, that said that he (my dad) could not think as well as he used to. He asked the CPA - his good friend to go over his figures really well. Remember, this is 1996, 10 years ago!

I told my sister and my husband, but that is it. I do not think it would help to tell either of my parents. It is just so weird. I never knew, that he started forgetting things, that far back!

Have yall ever come upon anything like that concerning your ad relatives? It makes you think - just how long does this disease really last???

I need to go thru more paperwork in the extra storage area, but, no time right now. Just about 3 more weeks til tax time. I sometimes bring it home to work on it, because I am not good at multi-tasking. And working at my parents home, is like trying to work and drinking hot tea and looking at pics and talking to 2 people at once!!! :> You get the idea.

Yall take care.

Love, Wannabe

No time to write much, but in the spring of 2001, we were incresingly concerned about my mother. When I visited her that June, she had 17 2' stacks of confusing mail for me to sort. At that time I told her it was time for me to see my father's investment books. She, who used to be an impecible record keeper, brought them to me saying with sorrow that she'd not been able to do a very good job recently. In fact, her records pretty much fizzled to an end about 3 years before. I still don't know if I found everything.

Group hug! Barbara :dizzy:

Wannabe,
I wonder about your question too. I really think that hubby is in the very very very very (is that enough verys?) early stages of the disease - way before anyone but me would think there is a problem. I imagine it will be quite a few years before the episodes will be frequent enough that others will notice - or before the neuropsych exam has abnormal results. And I think it may have started even before I noticed. A couple of years ago, I just happened to go over our tax forms - and found several errors that hubby had made (such as including interest paid in the interest earned category). I didn't make a big deal of it, but I did bring it to his attention and made the corrections. He was pretty upset about having made the errors and told me that figuring the taxes was my job from that point on. I probably should have gone over some of the previous years, but I didn't want to find any other errors and upset him further!

I think our first clue was my FIL calling my husband because he kept messing up his television remote control. My FIL had sold televisions for a living at his store so it was surprising. Then there was the time he bought a $10,000 money market CD, but didn't have the money in his checking account and then the time he showed up for church on the wrong day.

Jane

OMG !!! My FIL messes up his TV remote control and his VCR player all the time!!! His memory is shot too. We think it is because of mini strokes, but it could be AD??? cindy

My mom, too. She would call because her TV was broke. When I got there, it was fine but she'd messed up the remote.......or forgot how to work it.

Will never forget the time she called because the remote wouldn't work at all. I could barely hear her, and the phone kept beeping in my ear as she tried to change channels. When I finally asked her what color the remote was, she promptly replied, "White."

She was trying to use the cordless phone as a remote for the TV. And, I was on the line talking to her!!!!

Oh my! That one belongs on our humor thread! :)

My ex charge tried turning the Air Conditioning off the with phone, tried talking on the TV remote ... if it wasn't for the fact she was naked and standing on the lounge arm-rests, it would have been more humerous!

I'm beginning to like retrospect .. it's not nearly as bad as it was at the time LOL

cheers
Sally

Hi Everyone,

That amazes me! Just about everything yall are saying, seems to have happened to my dad or maybe my mom!!! I will elaborate later...

I just have to tell this one thing, for now - I am so tired, went to my parents house today and did not get home until 8 pm. I was going thru some more old papers last night, and there in the 1996 papers, I saw a MRI of his head (just the paperwork on it) in the medical part for that year. I think that the results were normal. It just amazes me that sometimes they do not tell anyone, that they do not feel quite right. My dad had already retured by then, so most people could not tell!

I need to tell my sister that part. Thanks for the information and stories. It is really interesting.

Bye for now, have to go to bed cause I am going to my parents in the am only tomorrow. I will probably just bring somemore paperwork home for the tax stuff.

Thanks again and take care.

Love,

Wannabe

OMG !!! My FIL messes up his TV remote control and his VCR player all the time!!! His memory is shot too. We think it is because of mini strokes, but it could be AD??? cindy


My FIL apparently had a few mini strokes before he started this behavior. His dementia probably arose from the strokes and he is in a lockdown AD unit now.

Jane

A couple of funny things that have happened, now that you all mention it, is that one day my FIL had my Mom & I come over and search his apt. everywhere looking for his dang TV remote. We asked him about the one he was holding in his hand and he said "Oh no, not this one, I have another one" So we did a top to bottom search only to find out from my hubby later that he only had the one - the one he was holding!!! Then another time he called and said he couldn't find his apt. keys. He had looked everywhere. We rushed over and looked, no luck. Mom asked him "hey, have you been to the trash bin today?" "Well, yes, he replied, as a matter of fact, I cut off some pants that were too long and they didn't look good so I threw them out" was his reply. Mom & I looked at each other and then took off running to the trash bin. Luckily the trash truck hadn't been there yet and we retrieved the pants with keys in the pocket! Yes, you can look back and see some humor in things ( but just not at the time). Happy days to all, Cindy

The remote-seems to be a universal thing among AD sufferers. Dad has used the cordless phone to try to change channels on the tv. And then called my son in his room to "fix the tv". :)

Another thing he did every day at least once was put a cold cup of coffee in the microwave, turned it on and forgot it until it was cold again. Later, he would be searching the kitchen for his favorite mug. He'd give up pretty quickly and then pour more cold coffee into another mug, open the microwave and burst out laughing saying "There it is! I was looking all over for my cup!." I had the foresight to buy a microwave for mom and dad almost 25 years ago that had dials instead of buttons. I thought the ones with buttons would be too difficult for them. That's the only reason dad still knows how to use the dang thing. He can't dial a phone number now. I wish I would have kept his old rotary. He might have kept in better touch with his friends before they passed. No sense looking back and playing the "would'a should'a" game.

Oh yes ......... the microwave game ......... that was always a good one !!!

Sorry if that sounds sarcastic, I meant it nicely .... LOL

Ex-charge would leave her cold milk/coffee in the microwave for DAYS if I didn't check it (she went away for a week, and nobody used the microwave until the night she came back and I cooked dinner and found a green undulating mass in the microwave) ...

But her's was a push button .. confusing at the best of times with someone who has GOOD clarity (that would be ME if anybody needs clarification *chuckle*) .. but she would, more often than not, come upstairs and indicate she needed assistance. She would drag my hubby down (cause I'm not good with those technical type things) and "voila" it would work. She would indicate thanks and shoo us away, only to return a minute or so later and indicate it was broken again.

then on other days, she could use the dang thing without a hitch !!

Picky disease this is ........

Cheers
Sally

I just re-read my last post and thought of this. Just had to share. I'm wondering again. How is it that dad can remember which coffee mug is his favorite? We have probably around 20 mugs, all of which are different. Different designs, shapes and colors. He can't remember where the coffee mugs are located (same place they were 29 years ago when he moved here) but once he finds the mugs, he knows if his favorite is there or not. ???

Love, Barb

Barb,
There are so many similar instances with mom. She can remember particular things forever, but other things related to that "certain" item are long forgotten.

It does seem strange. Really strange.

Speaking of microwaves.......My FIL once put a travel mug with coffee in his microwave oven to heat it up - Oh he heated it up alright, left the darn thing on for 1 hour and it melted and ruined the microwave, not to mention the smell in his apt. was terrible! I guess they all have these problems in common to some degree. C

Hi Everyone,

I have kept up with reading all that yall are saying. It really is a strange illness. Because of the thing that the AD person remembers and does not remember! My dad does the same kind of things - about remembering. Especially, he almost all the time forgets what he was doing or what he was looking for. Just sits there and tries to remember or stand there in mid "shuffle" :> trying to remember where he was going and why! Sometimes I can help him and sometimes, I cannot. Cause I do not always know what he was fixing to do!

My dad hardly knows how to use the microwave. My mom does it. He is having the problem of cutting up his meat. Or trying to get the very last bit out of the bowl with a spoon or fork! It takes forever.

But, just like you guys, my dad does get the tv zapper mixed up and messed up! Him and my mom will push buttons on it, and then it just will not work. Like a channel will be gone! Or, they cannot play their vcr or dvd player. And the tv is so, so loud! I cannot turn it down, cause I got yelled at once for doing so. So, I just go into the other room and start working or leave. No talking, when they are watching tv!!! My sister will come 4 hr. to visit and they would rather watch tv, than talk with her!!!

My dad has stages, where some times he can dial the phone and sometimes, he cannot. That is weird too. Because, the times when he can do one thing, are sometime the exact same time area when he can not do other things normally. Does that make any sense? They come and they go. But, I believe they are going more now. Because his meds are no longer helping him.

I must tell another new thing. Well it is not really new, just the first time that I have seen and heard my dad do it. When I was there Tuesday, he told my mom to just stand there and not move. He said there was a mouse or an animal over against the other wall. So, we looked and saw nothing. (My mom has seen him have hallucinations before, but not me.) There was a mirror (long) there and a bunch of junk! So, I played along and told my mom to move a couple of things and see if the "thing" was still there. We saw nothing. But he said he had been hearing noises over there! My mom kept saying that his medicines were making him see things. But, I told him it just was not there anymore and changed the subject!

Later when he was napping, I told her just to play along and not argue and try to change the subject or do whatever things yall do, so there will not be an arguement.

I also told my mom, that it will probably happen more often. It is really weird, when you hear them and see them do that for the first time - they really believe they see and hear something!!!

Well, off the subject again. Yall take care. Off to get some rest, we went to my husbands 91 year old dads house today!!! If nothing goes wrong, no caregiving, except by phone and paperwork, til Monday or Tuesday!!!!! Yeah!!!!! :> :> :>

Bye.

Love, Wannabe

Quick note - my mother seemed to forget things that had to be done in sequence, like numbers, math, and working mechanical things. The washing, dryer, microwave, and remote didn't work.

If an object was in plain sight, she'd remember.

It is a puzzlement, for sure. Barbara :)