I think
Mother Nature is confused and can’t decide what season this is. We had April
showers in March, and March winds in April. One day, I wear a T-shirt and
capris, and the next, I wear my Sherpa-lined pants and my heaviest hoodie.
I’m
confused about not only the weather, but also the day of the week. Like most
retired people, my husband and I often have a discussion about the day of the
week, especially when it is time to take our nightly meds. We usually wind up
looking at our phones, because those darned things always know what day it is.
The
older we get, the more confused we are. Add to that my husband’s hearing
problems. He often thinks I’ve not told him something or that I have told him
something that doesn’t make any sense. In all fairness, I do have a habit of
starting a story in the middle and working my way to both ends. Sometimes the
difference between what I say and what he hears is quite humorous.
I drive
three different vehicles and, of course, no two are alike. Where one has
windshield wipers, another has a turn signal. The gearshifts, lights, radios,
hands free calling, are in different places. I drove my ten-year-old Chevy
Malibu for the first time in months and hit a rainstorm. I couldn’t figure out
how to turn on the wipers! I had to pull off the road and locate them. By the
time I figured it out, the rain stopped.
When we
leave the house, we put our PC’s in a secure location. I went outside soon
after we returned from town. My husband wanted to work on his PC so he
retrieved it. When I came in, he was telling me how he couldn’t get signed on.
He had even looked up his password, and it didn’t work. Finally, he discovered
he had my HP instead of his.
A
little confusion can cause a few laughs, and a lot of “Yes, that’s happened to
me.” The confusion caused by Alzheimer’s can be funny at times, but
heartbreaking too. It’s so much better to laugh than to get hurt feelings. I
tried jogging Jim’s memory with some old photos. I pulled out the photo album
that he had in Vietnam. He had taken a photo of me in my yellow bikini on our
Hawaiian honeymoon. I pointed to the picture and said, “Do you know who that
is?” He looked at me and said, “I have no idea.” It was a bittersweet moment. I
told my co-workers about it the next day, and one of them quipped, “Bring the
photo in and see if any of us knows who it is.” Well, now, that did put things
into perspective.
I have
moments of panic when I think I’ve forgotten to pay a bill or an important
appointment. I’ve used a few tricks that work most of the time. I put reminders
on my phone, but I do have a habit of getting the a.m. or p.m. wrong. It
doesn’t do a bit of good for the reminder to pop up at 10 p.m. when it was
supposed to be 10 a.m. So far, I haven’t missed an appointment where they would
bill me for not showing up.
I’ve
started an electronic to-do list where I put upcoming events or bills. Then instead
of deleting them, I use a strike-through font so I can see that I really did
take care of the statement. That helps a lot when you get a second notice back
to back with the first one.
The
three times I have the most confusion are (1) when I’m stressed, (2) when I’m
tired, and (3) when I’m not feeling well. No wonder I’m in a constant state of
confusion—I have two of the three most days of the week, and periodically all
three at once.
Copyright
© April 2022 by L.S. Fisher
http://earlyonset.blogspot.com
#ENDALZ
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