Hangering and Bench Identifying 101

I may have written about this previously but last night I realized that for Gregory, the concept "hanger" is mostly gone.

We have three types of hangers: Regular, Shirt, and Shorts.

The Regular Hanger is white plastic and is used for most shirts and long pants. The Shirt Hanger is also white plastic, has plastic shoulders, and is used for soft, knit shirts that will show hanger marks. The Shorts Hanger is wooden with metal clips.

Shirts are placed on the Regular Hanger with the top buttoned closed so the shirt will stay in place. Long pants are folded in half and looped through the Regular Hanger with approximately half of the pant on each side.

Sometimes soft, knit shirts are placed on the Shirt Hanger with the top buttoned closed so the shirt will stay in place and other times the hanger is slipped through the bottom (on pull over shirts) and again the top button is fastened to keep the shirt in place.

The shorts are folded and then secured upside down to the metal clips of the wooden Shorts Hanger.

Now my guess is that most of my blog readers could pass a "Pop Quiz" on hangers: 1) types, 2) purpose, and 3) hanging method. (A little sarcasm here.)

Lately Gregory stands in the closet at bedtime pondering and studying, what for him must feel like a "Final Exam." Sometimes he will pass the exam, sometimes he is creative and using unorthodox problem solving methods he reaches the correct solution, and sometimes he receives a failing grade.

After Gregory has failed the exam, enter Professor Michael who still tries to "tutor" Gregory in the art and science of "hangering." When will Michael learn?

Actually last night I came to the conclusion that I should (as I do in other areas of our life) gently, lovingly saying "Just leave it on the bench and I'll take care of it." That might bring up the next course of study at AU (Alzheimer's Univeristy) which both Gregory and I are attending in our own ways: "Bench Identifying!" But I'll not think about that for now.

Mini-Mental

Today Gregory took the "Mini-Mental Test." The test was given in our home by a representative from the Rush Hospital Memory & Cognitive Health Clinic to see if Gregory would qualify for an experimental drug study.

It is a brief, easy test used to get an approximate measure of a person's cognitive abilities. A perfect score is 30. Six years ago Gregory scored a 21. Today he scored a 10. While I was not surprised, it was a little sad to have my suspicions confirmed regarding his decline. Needless to say, he did not quality for the study.

Any score greater or equal to 25 is effectively normal. Below this, scores can indicate severe (equal to or less than 9,) moderate (10-20 points,) or mild (21-24 points,) cognitive impairment. This score may also need to be corrected for educational attainment and age so my guess is that Gregory's score was really lower than 10.

The questions included items like: What day is it? What year is it? What floor are you on? Can you name the room you are in? Can you repeat after me, "Neither if and or but." Repeat: "Penny, Apple, Flower." Spell the word "world." Take this piece of paper in your right hand, fold it in half, and place it on the table. Can you copy this design shown here onto the piece of paper. What is this called (pencil?) What is your address? What season is this? Can you write a complete sentence on the paper?

I would have scored a 29 out of 30 because I forgot the word "Flower" after three minutes when asked to repeat the three words mentioned earlier.

In follow up questions for possible future studies, Gregory was asked if he has difficulty concentrating. His response was a refreshing, "I don't have anything  that I HAVE to concentrate on, but I can when I want to."