My vow of silence lasted one and one half days. It was terminated sooner than I had hoped but did serve the purpose of calming me down. Also, as Gregory regained his health, his daily functioning improved somewhat. Another lesson learned for the future.
Then I got the same flu he had (not a bad) and was forced to take care of myself a little more than taking care of him. I did get him to sit on the toilet every two hours (with success) and prepared his meals. I was forced to "calm down" even more by my being ill.
After the first day of silence, I decided that perhaps a next step would be ONE WORD AT A TIME. Since complex directions, statements, or questions confuse him, maybe one word communications would help. It didn't.
As he was leaving the bathroom and I was in bed not feeling well, I said, "Light." meaning please turn off the bathroom light. He was not able to connect the word "Light" with the room he was in. So I added, "Bathroom." Still no connection. Led to "Bathroom light." Still no connection with asking him to turn off the light as he was leaving the bathroom. So I finally gave up on the "One Word" concept and asked, "Please turn off the bathroom light?" He did.
The one word thing about Alzheimer's? "Insidious" and it always wins no matter how closely you follow or create the rules!
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