Strange Night

Dad was in a strange mood yesterday. It was eat-out night, and he loves eating out. Eating is one of his major hobbies. Or maybe his only hobby. Anyway Mom had dressed him in his special eat-out clothes--clothes with no stains or food stuck to them. This is usually his signal that it is eat-out night. Most of the time, he is waiting eargerly for us to come home so we can go eat. I have even found him waiting at the door for me to come. However, last night when I turned off his TV and told him it was time to go he said, "Go where?" I explained that we were going to eat out. He responded, "Why?" I explained that he had to come if he wanted to eat dinner.

Once we got to the restaurant, he immediately pulled out his billfold and asked us to find the credit card he needed to pay with. We found it for him and he took it out and set it on the table like he was ready to pay. Even before we ordered! This is more evidence that he doesn't have normal sensations of hungry and full. When he eats out, he orders one thing and one thing only--chicken fried steak. Some nights he orders for himself, but last night he didn't even acknowledge the waitress. We cut his food for him because 1) his Parkinson's keeps him from gripping the knife and bearing down and 2) even when he could cut his food, he cut it into giant pieces. He would stuff a huge piece in his mouth, chew only once or twice (he doesn't like chewing) and try to wash it down with tea. Needless to say, he choked a lot. His response to choking was to stuff more food and drink into his mouth while he was still coughing. Not a pretty sight. Since we've been cutting his food into reasonable sizes, most of the choking has stopped.

Last night, this worked against us. Instead of eating the reasonable size pieces of meat, he tried to chase the tiny bits of crust with his fork around his plate. In an effort to get us out of the restaurant before midnight, my husband got a second fork, loaded it with a reasonable amount of food, and handed it to him. Dad finished his meal trading off forks.

Leaving the restaurant, Dad tried to get into every car we passed. I drive a small, red car. He usually only tries to get in to red cars, but last night he didn't care. He just wanted to get into the CLOSEST car so he didn't have to walk any further.

Then, in the night, he woke up at 1:00 and got into the shower. We don't know why he felt the need to shower in the middle of the night. Fortunately (I guess) we slept through it, but poor Mom didn't.

Sigh