Two Weeks = Changes

In the past two weeks, I spent very little time online after work.  I spent the evenings decompressing after my kids went to bed instead of researching Alzheimer's or writing a post here.  I also didn't call Mom very much.  Mom knows the situation here and was patient while I sorted things out to get my youngest the sense of security and additional that are currently needed.  We're sorted here for now and I'm engaged again with Lyn's care and the blog.

When I spoke with Mom and Lyn via Skype before they attended the wedding this weekend, I noticed a couple of changes.

First, the dementia face is way more pronounced with Lyn than it was last month.  You can see it in yesterday's posted picture.  There's no emotional engagement and her facial muscles are slack.  It is this expression that I most closely associate with dementia.  I see it in so many pictures of dementia patients from around the world.  It seems a universal trait of the more advanced stages.  This is the lack of expression that makes people think that the body is just a shell and the person they knew is gone.

The second change is the use of the phrase "You know."  Lyn has those two words on high repeat.  She is using it to fill space as she tries to connect the words she's just said with the though she's struggling to get out.  In one sentence in our call, I counted 8 repeats of "you know" before the sentence was terminated.

Both of these issues have been there for a bit.  However, they either got worse in the last two weeks, my hiatus made them more noticeable to me or both.

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