October update

After disappearing for 5 hours one week - a week later, he did tell me he was going for a walk, but again was gone for hours, he wanted to ride the bus with his friend Tim, but got off at the wrong stop. I am not sure how long he was "lost", but he eventually found his friend and rode the bus with him.

Well, this is a change. Rob has had trouble with words for a few years now, and it is slowly getting worse. He has gotten better about simply asking me what word he means instead of getting frustrated and angry.

But yesterday twice he talked word salad. Full sentences of words that had no relation to each other. I can't even remember what exactly he said, I was so shocked. But he said them as if he was talking normally, and didn't appear to think there was anything wrong with what he said.

Because of what he was doing at the time, I was able to figure out what he meant and didn't react, just did what I figured he was asking.

Other than those two episodes, he has been fine. Just back to not being able to think of certain words.

We were putting food back into the freezer, after cleaning it, when he called me "mum".

"Is there anything else, mum?"

Just the way he would speak to his own mom.

Was it just a slip of the tongue? He never normally uses my name when speaking to me.

I asked him later if he was aware that he called me mum, but he said he didn't. And if he did, it was because he was British. (He is Canadian, his parents are Canadian, his grandparents were Canadian)

Rob was supposed to have a root canal, but I couldn't get him to take his antibiotics as often as he was supposed to before the surgery.

The dentist said the tooth was too infected to do the root canal, so they pulled the tooth.

I am not sure if it was because he didn't take his meds?

Rob "stole" a box of kitty litter.

He bought one box, but it had a hole in it and made a mess all thru the store.

So he took it to customer service, asked for a refund, and said he would go buy a different box.

He went and grabbed another box, but then he went out of the self-check area, just showing his receipt to the clerk supervising the area, as if he had already paid, and then walked out.

I asked him later to see the receipt and told him he never paid, but he was convinced he did.

I think Rob has lost his sense of pain?

He told me the dentist wanted him to have a root canal, so I asked if he was in pain.

No, no pain.

He goes in for the procedure, and they cannot do it because the tooth is so severely infected, despite taking antibiotics.

Are you sure you aren't in pain, I ask? No pain.

So they pulled the tooth instead, and when he came out, I asked several times if he was in pain. No pain.

I go to pick up his prescription, and they give him 2 kinds of painkillers, one Tylenol with codeine and another one Ketorolac - and the pharmacist says he can take them both together.

This makes me think they expect him to have a lot of pain.

I am having trouble getting him to take all of his pills each day, and I wonder if it's worth the effort, since he seems to feel no pain?

Rob's sister asked if he would come to Florida for a month, to help give his parents one more trip to Florida. His father has colon cancer, his mom has vascular dementia, and she sundowns in the evening.

At first, the thought of a month's respite for me sounded wonderful. But then I thought about the effect on Rob would not be fair, and how much help would he really be?

I decided to let him decide, but I was worried because he was spending a week with his sister and parents, and she can be very persuasive and he can be very suggestible.

But he decided he did not want to miss his ADP program and the music program this month, so he said no.

She said that was fine, she could manage on her own, but I could hear the anger in her voice. I am worried because she is the one who helps coordinate his visits to his parents, meets us halfway, and does all the driving for them now.

So no respite for me for two months while they are gone since they are leaving about 1 month after his last visit. (October 12th)

But now he tells me, they were planning on driving down, and expected Rob to help drive once they crossed the border!

Sometimes I think he has more sense than they do! He knew that if he got pulled over while driving he would be in so much trouble, and now I wonder if that doesn't have more to do with him not wanting to go?

His sister was trying to get him to take Ivermectin to "clear the Covid vaccine" and tried to get him to stop taking his meds. Makes me worry about sending him to stay with them at all.