Dementia: Bananas In Pyjamas

Maureen often wears her pyjama trousers underneath her clothing: yesterday she went commando and revealed all.  For large periods of the day she was openly clad in pink and white checked pyjama pants.

We got off to a hilarious start to the day when she decided that it would be a good idea to cultivate bananas in our neighbours garden. On the second of the day, around 8 am, she lobbed a banana skin over our neighbours fence.  She returned to the house in hysterics over her antics.  Little did I realise at that stage how much  we would need several of our neighbours to get through the day unscathed.

I should have known early on that we were in for quite a day after posting Barrie’s birthday card.  When we returned from posting her brother’s card she thought we had arrived at his house in Nottingham.  She refused to get out of the car and slept in the passenger seat for a while as I remained vigilant by I tidying up the borders in the front garden.

In the afternoon I had to seek Kate’s intervention to enable us to get home in one piece. Maureen had taken off towards Grimsby following my medical appointment and nothing I could say could persuade her to get into the car.  I hate to think what would have happened if Kate hadn’t come to our rescue on such a warm day.

At 10 pm I returned downstairs from cleaning my teeth and there was no sign of Maureen.  I summoned help from two doors away and Zak and Lydia returned from their search empty handed.  Ten minutes later I saw Maureen making for home but lost her at a neighbour’s doorstep.  Paul and I  found her in his back garden excited to tell us she had been out ‘on an adventure’ – we wondered if she was secretly checking on the germination of the banana   She was keen to show me where she had been and to relay her disappointment that ‘none of the other girls would play with her’.

Maureen woke me at 2.30 am to say she was worried that she had lost the little boy who had been in her bedroom.  As I tried to console her she told me that her husband would be home from work soon.  She then slept in an armchair for a short while

At 6 am Maureen planned to make her way home then had a change of heart deciding it is a little cool to walk: not surprising when you are in your P J pants!  She is now sitting in a chair looking perplexed I have no idea what is going on or what to do.   The one thing she needs at the moment is rest and who knows who I’ll be when she wakes up.  I’m hoping that absenting myself by going upstairs will do the trick.

I’m hoping that Maureen’s cold is creating significant changes in her presentation.  We were warned early on that any infection creates havoc with her condition: only time will tell.