Another conversation oddity

I've mentioned before that S's 'conversations' with imaginary 'friends' often make some kind of sense though they also contain a high proportion of nonsense words.

Then, every so often, from a stream of nonsense or half-sense pops a fluent and pretty complex sentence:

'Sorry love, it's not your fault but I would have liked to have done it.' (NB the use of the conditional perfect and present perfect tenses  -  I think!)

Extraordinary in its way.  And this kind of thing is not uncommon.

Going home

When my wife was at the lowest point in her decline last autumn, a professional arrived just at the point when she had fallen down and was either refusing or unable to get up.  She kept saying: 'I want to go home.'  'I assume this is where she lives?', he asked.  When I confirmed that it was, he nodded sagely.  I have since learned that this is a common feature in the progression of the disease.

People ask why.  Some conclude that, as so often in the case of older people with the disease (and as often in the case of older people generally) the person is harking back to their early years, safe and secure at home.  They may be.  But to me, it seems more general than that.

Everybody seems to have some concept of 'home' that may have similarities to the home they first knew but may not.  Even people who have had awful early experiences usually pick up the idea of what home is supposed to be.  We all talk of feeling 'at home' in comfortable places and a host will say 'make yourself at home'.  And we have sayings like: 'Home if where the heart is.'

It seems quite understandable to me that when someone's world is falling apart, they would like to 'go home'.

The most important point to me is that I can't remember the last time S said this.  It must have been a long time ago.

New readers' catch-up 3

 As promised, here's a selection of more significant posts from earlier in the year:

How S has improved

Possible explanations for S's improvements

Beacons of hope

Not forgetting the first two catch-ups:

http://adventureswithdementia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/new-readers-start-here.html

http://adventureswithdementia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/new-readers-catch-up-2.html

It is of course possible to read any or all past posts by clicking the links at the bottom and right of the page.