Triple Cocktail of Lorazepam, Haldol, and morphine at 8:00 a.m. Classic Cheyne-Stokes breathing throughout the day. Very peaceful.
#Stage4Alzheimers

We are having an End of Life service tomorrow. Father’s hospice is at home. #Stage4Alzheimers

Father is very weak, and can no longer assist us much in changing his position in the hospital pain. 99.3 °F and some pain which we cannot pin down. The CNA will be here in an hour. #Stage4Alzheimers

He may yet perk up –it happens, even at this stage. Currently he is no longer processing, confusing me with my brother and so on. #UCC Pastor Heather has been informed, and Nurse Ashley will be here as scheduled at 11:00 p.m. I’d spent the night.
#Stage4Alzheimers

As per the on-call hospice nurse’s instruction I have given Father three sublingual doses of morphine. He’s been steady-state restive, albeit not combative, and the Haldol hadn’t had much effect. Haldol! That stuff will knock out a moose!
#Stage4Alzheimers

Bringing my sweet Maine Coon Danni to my parents’ tomorrow as a welcome distraction and to provide emotional support. It’ll be a reunion! #Stage4Alzheimers

The hospital bed is providing a whole new set of logistical challenges for mother. We have no idea how long we’ll be in this situation. #Stage4Alzheimers

Mother called at 10:30 a.m. because she couldn’t get Dad out of bed. In a nutshell he’ll be shifting from home hospice care to end-of-life care at a hospice sooner rather than later.

It’s been a productive day.

#Stage4Alzheimers

Maneuvering Dad around yesterday was fairly easy. He never remembers that he has a catheter. Mercifully he doesn't step on the tube. Always says he has to pee. The man is dealing with decades of muscle memory, after all; the automatic pee machinery is new. He tucked into his large-print thriller, and I into the space opera Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey. Science fiction is my comfort zone. Eight-volume series! #SF #Stage4Alzheimers

Inasmuch as Mother can’t leave Dad alone even momentarily (no longer ambulatory, his short-term memory is shot, etc.) I have use of the car. I can get over there pdq in any case, and we autistics generally speaking deal well with emergencies. It’s the day-to-day living that wears you out! And as I told our pastor, I’ll collapse later. #Stage4Alzheimers

Lafayette, we are here! °°°Ran some errands. Couldn’t do everything I wanted because my brother hasn’t deposited my PERSI disability yet, so the hookers & blow will have to wait. °°°Father is getting steadily worse. Social worker and care home next. #Stage4Alzheimers

I was so lethargic yesterday I did nothing but throw my clothes over my pyjamas and buy some PBR Extra, my father's declining conditions have finally caught up with me. The hospice nurse will be over today with options ﹘he can no longer bear his own weight, much less operate a Foley catheter properly. #Stage4Alzheimers

Dad’s being fitted with a Foley by a nurse who looks like she just got out of junior high °°°Someone must’ve poked the weather with a stick because the sun is out °°°Year is off to a good start, everything considered. #Stage4Alzheimers

My brother and his wife are having lunch with our parents. Crucially they'll be taking in for themselves just how far Dad has gone downhill. (When he doesn't remember haven fallen, he doesn't remember the firemen. It's been several times in a row now.)
#Stage4Alzheimers

Welp, it's been a year. Adios 2022. I've been knitting my brain back together, #COVID wreaks havoc in slow motion, and my father proceeds from #Stage4Alzheimers.

Dad, alas, keeps falling. I.e. he collapses to the floor and can't get up and mother has to call the fire department. I've lost track of how many times this has happen in the past few days. He no longer recalls falling, or who the president is. Institutionalization is days away. #Stage4Alzheimers

Spoke with Pastor Helen (pseudonym) yesterday, and seeing my parents in their native habitat she was shocked by my father's decline. Nothing she hadn't seen before in her 25 years of ministry ﹘the ailing present well, as far as they are able. ︒︒︒The hospice shower people show up today for the first time.︒︒︒Furthermore I'm seeing Pastor Heather in MY native habitat this afternoon.
#Stage4Alzheimers

The fire department had to come out for times recently, including #Xmas2022 Eve Eve & Christmas Eve, to get Dad safely off the floor. He can no longer retain new information. A segue to a care home or hospice is next. #Stage4Alzheimers

Much end-of-life discussion yesterday. Dad keeps falling.
#Stage4Alzheimers

Evermore reading.
See grandkids, have Mexican.
Final Xmas rites.

#Xmas2022
#Stage4Alzheimers