Sometimes my postings are my way of getting the heaviness off my chest. Hopefully it doesn't end up on yours. I'll remind you that most of the time our days are good, full, uneventful. Getting there is often the battle.
My guess is that if one reread my postings often or chose to analyze them, one would see the coming and going of abilities with their eventual disappearance. One would see my frustration wax and wane as I learned to cope with and to deal with these ability changes. So here is today's fun!
This morning I tried to help Gregory figure out how to put moisturizer on his face (unsuccessfully,) spent watching him struggle for 5+ minutes to put on his zippered sweatshirt before I helped (successfully,) and advised him in how to turn OFF the toaster once the toast had popped (neither successfully or unsuccessfully since a toaster doesn't need turning off once the toast has popped.)
Re Moisturizer: He can put body lotion on his hands, rub them together, and apply it to his arms, legs, etc but cannot relate that process to doing the same for applying moisturizer to his face after shaving. Recently the shaving has been irritating his face so I thought I'd try the Oil of Olay (which I use so it is a familiar object around the bathroom.)
Gregory's approach is to put some in his hands and then rub his hands together so hard and so long that there is nothing left to put on his face. When I try to coach him through the process, he cannot spread it on both hands and apply to his face without tensing, shaking, and using only one hand at a time and therefore missing most of the necessary area.
On hold, haven't figured out this one yet!
Re Zippered Sweatshirt: It is like putting on a jacket or a shirt which he can do successfully. But for some reason when putting on the sweatshirt he has problems. He holds it up in the correct orientation then puts his hand in the wrong sleeve. He struggles for a while (since the sweatshirt is now incorrectly oriented,) takes it off and begins the process again after studying the garment closely.
Today I watched for +/- five minutes to see if he would get it. In the past I have tried to verbally coach him (which doesn't work,) I have tried to do it for him (which is a little embarrassing for him,) and have also tried to let him figure it out for himself (which he does once in a while.)
Today I figured out a new approach to coaching him through the process. When he was holding the shirt in the correct orientation, studying the lay of the land, I gently got up saying, "Don't move!" Often he physically reacts in a way that sets the stage differently so if I was going to be able to help, he is no longer in the same position and any association to the event under scrutiny is lost. This time he stood still. I pointed to the other sleeve hole and said, "Put your arm in here." He did. Success. "That's all it takes?" he remarked, amazed.
On hold, will see if this one works next time!
No need to discuss the toaster. Makes no sense to me but apparently makes no sense to him in a different way so when he asks, I just announce, "It goes off automatically. You don't have to do anything more." That is all it takes!
Not on hold, easily solved.
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