I snapped on a rubber glove today just for Dad. OH, the things we do for him. But I'll get to that in a minute.
It was time for Dad's yearly physical, and since the nurse practitioner we were previously seeing left the office to work elsewhere, we were happy to meet the new Doctor. Overall, Dad is looking pretty healthy -- good blood pressure, no fever, high spirits etc. The nurse did an Alzheimer's test on Dad... for those of you not familiar with these tests, they ask questions like: What year is it? What season is it? Can you name 3 objects? Repeat after me... Depending on how many questions are answered and answered correctly, they can usually get an idea of what stage of dementia they are dealing with.
Not surprisingly Dad couldn't do any of the test. So, it's safe to say he's advanced Alzheimer's at least in the cognitive stage. He can still talk, and sometimes say words or small sentences that make sense, but a lot of time it's gibberish. But physically, he's still going strong and he was in a great mood today. When the nurse said he had beautiful daughters, Dad replied, "Well, I'll deal with it, I guess." I also asked him to guess how old I was and he said, "Better not. I'm gonna get in trouble, I think." That made the other patients in the waiting room laugh.
Right before we left, they requested a urine sample, and Megan informed me that since she helped him with it last time, that it was my turn. Hence, the rubber glove. I gotta say, after I whined, squirmed, and wrinkled my nose it could have been worse. I just kind of moved the cup into the stream and viola!! He had good focus and concentration today, so I lucked out. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Megan's experience last time. Sorry Meg.
