December 26, 2016
Christmas with Jane! We had all planned to visit with her yesterday & celebrate but my dad texted my brother & I saying not to come – Jane was having a bad day & just needed to sleep. So we went today.
Jane had another seizure late Thursday night / early Friday morning. My dad said she was really quiet on Saturday. Yesterday she just didn’t want to get up. She had been up for breakfast & her caregivers gave her a bath & got her dressed for the day, but she fell asleep in the chair in the front room. My dad really struggled to get her to wake up for him – when she finally did, she was super tired, so he opted to put her back to bed. She was sleeping soundly when he left her.
Today she was up again for breakfast but you can visibly see the seizure has taken its toll on her body. She moves very slowly, hunches over & from my viewpoint, everything just seems harder for her. She did have one clear moment with me where she recognized me, smiled at me & leaned in to give me a hug. But that moment quickly left. I brought her a new shirt & sweater for Christmas (she’s wearing the new sweater in this pic), but I’m not sure if she really comprehended it was a gift for her. She fell asleep shortly after I took this picture & it took some persuasion to get her to wake back up. We were able to get her up & walking & headed back to her room.
It is not uncommon for dementia patients to be awake at night & sleep during the day. It’s unclear to me if this is part of Jane’s problem or if she is just really tired from her body attempting to heal after the seizure. I will visit her again on Wednesday & hope to see an improvement. It does not appear she is in pain, just really tired. She had a good breakfast this morning & did eat all her lunch today too so she still has an appetite. I made fudge for the caregivers & Jane took a piece & enjoyed it – so those are positive signs to me. She lost her ability to effective communicate quite some time ago so it does make it more challenging to know for sure. However today she was able to nod yes or no when I asked her questions & I believe she does still understand what I say to her. We just take things day by day.
