8/3: rocketing around

8/3/09

I spent the weekend in Connecticut with Kate S. and Brianna, visiting Kate’s aunt and uncle. It was a nice, relaxing weekend – we swam in a lake, went to see Harry Potter, nothing too unusual, but it was a big deal – my first time going away without Dad in years. It was a struggle deciding to go – I felt guilty about wanting to do something without him and worried about his well-being while I was away. Michael agreed to watch him, and they ran into a few problems – Dad ate all his prepared meals for the weekend on Friday, leaving nothing for Saturday and Sunday, so Michal had to be resourceful, and on Sunday, Dad drank so much prune juice that he gave himself diarrhea – but overall things went well.

Arriving at Dad’s house yesterday, I found him standing at the kitchen table, in an agitated state. Once I got him calmed down, it turned out that he was upset because the phone kept ringing and he couldn’t find it.

Sitting down, he announced “there’s a campaign going now that’s supposed to wipe me out.” Startled, I asked him what he meant. “There’s some kind of a campaign against me,” he repeated. “Everyone else is in their 30s or 40s and I’m in my 80s. There are very few people in their 80s rocketing around and I’m rocketing around.” Ignoring the paranoid thinking, which is typical of Alzheimer’s patients, I started reminding him of the people he knows who are in their 80s and are still active. When I brought up Inga, and told him that she’s still writing novels, Dad actually remembered her and said, “I used to know her well, 30 or 40 or 50 years ago.”