Ever since Dad came to live with us I've wondered from day to day if his dementia was progressing. It's hard when you live with someone to see the changes that can be obvious to others. I've taken to asking his visitors after the fact if they noticed any significant changes and so far the answers have all been very positive. Today however "I" noticed a change.
The Dad initiated conversation is basically the same every day "What day is it?" "How long have I been here?" "S [his ex-partner] has gone hasn't she?". Occasionally it varies to how it all happened to him and what happened to the house (which is always the house he owned about four houses back and which he and S sold years before any of this happened) but it's all scripted. So much so that I can now mimic him, voice intonations, facial expressions, the lot - not that I do.
Today something different happened. I was explaining how I'd spilt my coffee at work as I was wiping down my bag which I'd just discovered had coffee splashes on it. Dad said "You don't drink coffee do you?" Then when I answered yes you could see it dawn on him as he said that he must have been thinking about my mum, which is very likely. It's only small and it had sparked from my conversation but I've drunk hundreds of coffee with him over the past 8 months and it has never come up before. He's even made me a coffee without it coming up.
Further to that, this evening, while still presenting his calm demeanour that tells me that he's very relaxed about living with us (even though he is shocked every time you tell him that he's been here more than a week), he had to think hard to come up with that he used to live with S and that mum had died a long time back. It could just be the time of day, it could just be a glitch and things will go back to normal tomorrow, but I thought I'd document it to refer back to.
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