Been a while since I posted but nothing was really new. Mom is tolerating
the Aricept but too soon to tell if it helps.

Both parents have been told by doc and nutritionist they should walk 30
minutes a day. They go to a large community park which has a 1-1/2 mile
walking trail -- no cars, lights, one big loop, seems perfect. I walk there
myself as I am training to walk a half-marathon in February. Thursday night
they went after dark for the first time. There are lights, as I said, but a
few spots seems a bit dark -- I think the lights may need some maintenance.
Dad gets upset at Mom's slow pace, so he walked on ahead, and would turn
back to spot her before he would take a turn -- or at least that was the
plan. Thursday night he went too far ahead and she became concerned that she
wouldn't know "which turn to take." (It's all one loop with a few parallel
stretches, but she hasn't figured that out.) "I must have turned the wrong
place because I never saw him again. I walked an awful long time, and I
didn't see anyone and it was dark." She must have walked about a quarter
mile and then found a bench and sat down and cried.

Dad says he told her to walk to a certain sign and turn around and come back
and he would meet her at the start. So he went the rest of the way around
and became concerned that she was not at the start point. He flagged down
one of the park rangers in a golf cart, who had spotted Mom but didn't
realize she needed help. So he took Dad back around to her. Mom was so
scared she was trembling and could hardly walk back to the car. Dad doesn't
understand 1) why she didn't do what he told her 2) why she thought she was
lost 3) why she wasn't immediately OK when he showed up.

The next morning Mom read in paper about a rapist arrested in an atatck near
that area. (Attack was two years ago and they just found him through DNA but
that didn't matter.) That set off another flood of tears over the previous
evening's episode.

Dad is still defensive that he did nothing wrong, but he agrees they should
not walk after dark any more, and that he needs to always have her in his
sight. (Why he can't walk WITH her -- I haven't figured out.)  I suggested
to Mom that maybe she could carry a whistle she could blow if she ever
needed help because she thought she was lost or became ill while walking
(trying to empower her so she wouldn't feel so helpless) and she just
responded that Dad shouldn't go off and leave her. I couldn't argue with
that one!

Then Saturday morning she was feeling very weak and woozy. He went out and
bought a blood pressure monitor to check her but couldn't figure it out to
use it. Her blood sugar was very low when she checked it -- she doesn't know
what is low or high, just how to check it if she reads the directions I gave
her step by step. As soon as I gave her some peanut butter on crackers, she
perked up. Dad never thought to check it, though he is diabetic too.

I am very angry with him because he can't see what is going on with her. He
is still expecting her to be *normal.* I can help, but he LIVES with her. I
have been trying to give them as much space as possible, but I may need to
get in a routine of going over there on an every other day basis (they are
less than 5 miles from me now) just to check in on what Dad is not telling
me.

I took her shopping with me yesterday to give them a break from each other
and she kept saying things like "Let me push the buggy, at least I can be
useful that way. I'm not much use for anything any more." (I told her that
she was very useful, and that if she ever stopped being useful, she could
relax and be decorative. That make her chuckle for quite a while.)

Anyway thanks for letting me rant. When I vent to my husband, he just tells
me the various parts of the anatomy my dad resembles, but that's not the
support I need just now!!

Songbird