In the past we would cook dinner, slowly moved to ordering out, and now have settled into the typical Jewish Christmas - we go out for Chinese! Pine Yard, a great restaurant is just 2 blocks from the condo and that makes it very convenient and allows for no "dinner clean-up."
The purpose of this e-mail was to provide an update since most of them have not seen or been with Gregory for a couple of months.
Dear J, J, I, C, L, W, and E,
Hi. We are looking forward to Jewish Christmas on Sunday, December 22. Arrival time 5:00 for a glass of wine, dinner at 6:15 at Pine Yard. Back to the condo for cookies, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, hot apple cider.
I wanted to set you up to expect the worst so you will probably be disappointed and say, "That wasn't so bad!" Over the last couple of months or so Gregory has really been "progressing" dramatically and I wanted to to be ready for anything and hopefully be surprised that it isn't as bad as it sounded.
Will remember who you are but not be able to say your name
Gets easily confused
Cannot attend to more than one person at a time addressing, suggesting, or helping him (You might want to let me take the lead)
Has real difficulties following simple directions like, "Sit down here"
Needs help getting dressed and undressed
Needs help putting on coat and gloves
Is almost totally dependent on me for everything
Has trouble navigating his dinner plate if contains too many items
Eats a lot with his fingers
Can't really put a sentence together
Will try to make a comment and it will end up being a series of "well, but, then, over, here, there"
without a subject (I pretend to understand what he is trying to say instead of guessing or asking questions)
When focused on one item has trouble getting unfocused
His hands shake, quite noticeably sometimes.
Loud (and sometimes not so loud) noises startle him
I have to monitor his bath-rooming and assist him when he does
Gets emotional easily, usually over good things
So far appropriate social behaviors are holding with the exception of his getting assertive when he feels strongly about something even if we don't know what it is
... only to name a few. Love ya,
Michael
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