Crab Bottom

I love the title of this blog because Dad used to call
Megan a 'Crab Bottom' every time she was grumpy. If you know Megan, she's not really a morning person and Dad would try to get her out of bed early and she would not do it. (He also called her 'Dungeon Breath' in the morning. He loved to tease her.)

Okay, enough of Memory Lane. Crab Bottom should be Dad's middle name lately. It's been 2-3 weeks of him being more grumpy than happy. I'm training for a new job this week, so Megan has been dealing with him -- calming him down over the phone and visiting. When she arrived today, Dad was standing in the dining room yelling at the Director of Memory Care and brandishing his address book, "There are all these people who want to see me!" Then he started naming all these people from his past. The director was so relieved to see Megan. I wonder how long they had been having that 'conversation' in the dining room.

As usual he kept saying that people were taking things from him and how he wanted to get out of there BLAH BLAH BLAH.... we know Dad! Then he would obsessively pull out coins from one pocket and put them in another pocket.

After trying to reassure Dad that all of his stuff was still in his room, Megan decided to call Dad's brother Doug. Until last year, Dad and Doug hardly talked. Sometimes 10 years would go by and they wouldn't talk. Don't get me started on the family relations on Dad's side. It's a mess. The important thing is that they started talking again and I called him a couple weeks ago to tell him where Dad was living.

Megan said the conversation went pretty well and Doug wants us to write him a letter with all the information about where Dad lives, so that's just what they did when they got off the phone.

Dad was able to write Doug's name (it looks like a child's hand-writing) and tried to write Brandt but it came out like this: brant d
Not too bad. He told Megan what he wanted to say:
'Doug, Let's get together. From Brother Dave.'

Brother Dave. I just think that's the cutest thing ever.

Dad has a new roommate too which I think is contributing to his grumpy mood. He'll get over it, I hope.

I know we're doing our part to accommodate Dad and to keep his family and friends in the loop, but some days I feel bad that we can't take him to see more people. Our Grandma Olive, Dad's stepmother, is still living in Upland and I feel the need to do a reunion soon. I want to give Dad whatever closure he can get from seeing some of his people again because we all know that it's quite possible there won't be many more visits. People are busy, Dad's getting worse... etc. Maybe I want the closure for him-- Or, at least, I want to feel that we gave him that option. So, next on the list is getting him up to see his extended family in Upland. We'll just have to make the time to do it. (Megan stole his address book today, so we can try to get in touch with more people.)

You Guessed It, Another Lady Friend

Dad's doing much better this week. We realized after Dad's angry outbursts last week that it had a lot to do with his room being locked during the day.

The reason the staff at Whittier locked his room is because he has another lady friend. I am telling you, he must be coated in sugar or something, because he can't go very long without one of these ladies latching on. This lady is the crazy outgoing one that I talked about a few weeks ago... Tabitha. EVERY TIME I see her and sometimes every ten minutes, she says the EXACT same thing, "Oh, is this your daughter? She's very beautiful. She must look like her mother." Then she laughs. Ouch for Dad.

For the most part, she's very annoying and everything that I say or my Dad says, she turns into a song. It's actually kind of funny cause she snaps her fingers and tries to dance to the song that she made up. I especially like the song entitled, "Let's Go Water The Plants." But hopefully Dad doesn't say anything gross like "There's a Squirt In My Underwear". That probably won't be a #1 hit Tabitha. Anyway, she follows Dad around everywhere and is pretty possessive of him. If we weren't his daughters, she would probably be upset that we are spending time with him. I do think she annoys him sometimes, and the staff makes sure that he doesn't have to spend the entire day with her.

Because of the new lady friend, the staff was worried that the two of them would be 'up to no good' in his room, and since they can't be monitored every minute of the day, they locked Dad out of his room. In Dad's eyes, that meant that everything was stolen from him. As the Director of Memory Care said, "I didn't realize, but by locking his room, I am taking away the only part of this place that is his. I apologize, I will go unlock it right away." Ever since they unlocked the room, he's been back to his normal self.

I also brought him a little pouch of Canadian and Mexican coins that we found in his house. I know he likes to carry it around in his pocket and I think that keeps him happy and distracted.

The Scabies is gone! Finally. When Megan was at the check-up, the hyper Dermatologist came in the room and gave her a boisterous high-five. This doctor is so crazy and he reminds me of our Pastor growing up because they both get very energetic over little things. Then the dermatologist actually scared Megan by whispering in her ear when she was leaving, "I hope my daughter is like you some day." Apparently his kids are going to be our age when he is 70.