The Hope That Springs Eternal

There is a Medication and Care Plan Review on Thursday. I will be there with my son and the psychiatric worker from the Community Mental Health Team, and hopefully the doctor from the same team. And my favourite nurse from the Care Home, who fights hard for Rosemarie and has earned my undying gratitude.

I am not sure what result I want. The adjustment to the medication seems to have had confusing results. Without the sleeping tablets and with the reduction in the dosage of Donepezil she seems to be sleeping longer and getting tired earlier. Initially the crying and upset was reduced but that seems back to its previous levels. Ditto the standing up. 

I have no idea (and haven't had for some time) what the actual expected progress of the disease is. Nobody will tell me. "Every case is different" is all I hear. Or people who show no sign of knowing what they are talking about.

So. Since the Good Nurse came back from holiday Rosemarie has put on nearly two kilos and is being tested regularly for UTI (which she seems to have most of the time). There is more supervision of the care workers and - it seems - more regular changing. 

The warmer weather means we can go down to the garden more. She shows interest in her environment and will point at the flowers and touch them if I wheel her close enough. She notices the pigeons and seems happier to interact with other people. 

And yet. 

There are issues with some of the other residents that have to be taken into account. Some of them can get very noisy and if several of them are in the lounge at the same time they seem to set each other off. Most of the time this startles and disturbs Rosemarie and I am still trying to coach all her possible one-to-one carers that they need to do something about this: reassure her or, if that doesn't work, remove her from the situation. 

Then there is the Sex Pest, a creepy nonagenarian who decided a long time ago that Rosemarie was A Lovely Woman and he would lavish unwelcome attention on her. I caught him once groping her and made it clear to all the staff that I did not want him near her. Unfortunately Rosemarie gives him mixed signals and more than once I have had to resort to shouting at him. The staff are very good about keeping him away from her but this requires constant vigilance. He has even come wandering into her room a few times after she has been put to bed, clutching his pajama bottoms round his fat belly. When I am there I shout at him and heroically refrain from hurting him. When I am not there I set the motion sensors and the door alarm before I leave (and the staff seem pretty good at setting them too) but Rosemarie's room is quite a long way from the Nurse's Station and I have yet to complete a test seeing how long it takes them to arrive after the alarm is triggered. There are only two staff on each floor at night and one nurse covering two floors, so they could easily be busy with another resident if the alarm goes off... it makes my skin crawl. 

So quite a lot to cover in the meeting. 

But it is just stuff to handle. I seem to have found again a guttering flame of hope.

I love her so much.