Last Stage?

The roller coaster continues. I’m up one week and down the next. Will it ever stop? I think only when Bob is no longer on this planet.  As dire as it was looking dealing with dehydration two weeks ago, Bob is back and doing well enough. 

(http://alzworld-susantereba.blogspot.com/2013/08/dehydration-and-alzheimers.html ) 

Granted there is a big change from before he had pneumonia in May. We went out to lunch for his eighty-first birthday on April 26th. but we can no longer have these lunch dates. He’s just too compromised by the disease. Each crisis seems to drag him down deeper into Alz World and this time I fear he’s sliding into the final stages of the disease- stage seven.

(For all seven stages of the disease see:

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_stages_of_alzheimers.asp )

Bob now spends most of his time in a wheel chair often trying to get himself up. He so wants to walk but his strength has declined too much for this feat.The caregivers help him stand and make a few tentative steps. I figure this will at least give him some exercise and something to do. 

 Behind Bob:: Wayan, Gusti, and Nyoman

He seemed happy when I stopped by to see him a few days ago. He was at the village warung (like a small rustic mini store) watching the world go by with his caregiver Gusti. Nyoman, the owner of his cottage, and Wayan, who owns the warung and also cleans Bob’s house, were also hanging out.   Everyone was chatting in Balinese. Bob smiled and laughed when they did. 

He called me Suz, a nickname he gave me years ago. I don’t think he has used any form of my name in a very long time. I was surprised by this and saddened. 

A bent over old man came shuffling by aided by a stick and gave us the thumbs up.  Bob smiled. Then an old woman sauntered past giving Bob a double take and asking if I was his wife. Children played in the dusty street. And an ‘egg lady’ with flats of fresh brown eggs stacked and tied to the back of her motorbike came to sell to Wayan. I bought a flat too.  It was an enjoyable afternoon watching the village parade in front of us and hanging out with Bob.