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Hernando Today

'What Happened To It?'

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By GARY JOSEPH LeBLANC

Common Sense Caregiving

Published: March 25, 2009

"I just put it down here a minute ago. It has to be here." This is something you'll have to become used to being an Alzheimer's patients' caregiver.

You'll find Alzheimer's patients have a habit of hoarding or collecting things. They have hiding places so secretive you'll wish you had thought of them.
Dad loves to hoard any book he can grab. I've learned to go with the flow of things that ease him. He has a pile of books stacked where he sits at our kitchen table.
If it comforts him to eat surrounded by books, so be it. Eventually I had to place a shelf along the wall at the table so we'd have enough room for two dinner plates and still see each other.
He and I having been booksellers for the past 16 years, there are aspects in which he takes comfort and relates, especially pricing them. I've even found our local Yellow Pages priced, ready for sale. So if you're missing a book you just had in your hands, there's a 95 percent chance it's now part of his collection.
I hate to say this, but if you're caring for a person with Alzheimer's, a time will come when you'll have to lock a certain cabinet or drawer for important possessions. Just recently I went through a couple of days checking every crack and crevice in our house for my missing wallet.
After asking Dad several times if he'd seen my billfold only to get the same reply every time, I finally asked him to stand up, and while "patting him down," found mine in his left back pocket and his in his right.
I know you're thinking I should have used common sense and checked his pockets first, but you have to be sensitive how you handle things. I just put my newly rediscovered wallet back in my pocket and told him, "They look almost identical," patted him on his back and left the matter alone, never to be mentioned again.
Carefully try not to upset your patient. Alzheimer's patients are always a hair away from massive depression. They're storing so much sorrow inside their souls that if they could stash all that emotion, they'd need a bigger hiding space.

Gary Joseph Le Blanc is the primary caregiver of his father who has been stricken with Alzheimer's disease for more than 8 years. He can be written c/o Hernando Today at 15299 Cortez Blvd., Brooksville, FL 34613 or e-mailed at us41books@bellsouth.net.

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