It was an interesting weekend with mom and dad staying with us at the beach. We picked them up Saturday, stopping for lunch along the way back, with plans for a “Back to School” barbeque on Sunday. Dad was in pretty good form throughout, with no “phantom pains” popping up. He was engaged with mom, in terms of knowing who she is and talking to her. His sense of humor is still intact and he came out with some zingers that had us all in stitches. Mom still overreacts to misstatements and would probably do better by just leaving him alone, rather than telling him he looks like he needs a pillow, a blanket, a sweater, yada, yada, yada!

At one point he did ask mom if “those people” were still at their apartment, and it was evident his reality changed the minute he was back home. Shortly after we dropped them off, mom called asking if we’d stop back because dad was refusing to take his meds and she didn’t want to fight about it anymore. Turns out he did actually take his meds but was balking at taking a vitamin, which is part of his normal routine. We were too far away to go back but Patty took over and he didn’t remember fighting with mom about it. Seems like he’s most confused when he is at home, which is odd, but he’s convinced there are more “women” in the condo and they’re not Marie, his wife. When he’s around the chaos of the whole family together, he’s less confused. He’ll get mixed up with the names but seems to get great delight from the great-grandkids, not to mention our cat. Whenever Ricky’s in the house, dad is talking to him and teasing him…we, of course, have to worry about the cat getting under foot and tripping one of them, but dad looks like he gets great pleasure from watching him. There is no way that they should take on the responsibility of a pet, however, I can see the benefit of having cats and/or small dogs as part of a long term care facility…they always seem to bring a smile to the faces of those who don’t have a whole lot to be happy about.