Night Dreams

I'm not entirely sure what's going on, since it's 3:30 in the morning. Michele could tell you better than I could. I don't think either of us will be going back to sleep at this point.

Dee Dee has been up and about for a few hours now. That's not so surprising on its own - she often is just as awake at night as she is during the day. I suppose that makes sense when you take lots of naps and don't know whether it's day or night.

Tonight, though, Michele and I noticed a sound by the front door around 11:00 pm. Michele investigated, and to our disappointment it was Dee Dee trying to walk out the front door. At night. In the rain. On a strange street. Near a busy highway. Without her walker. However, I will give Dee Dee points for being fully dressed and wearing some good walking shoes.

Thankfully, we've got those child-proof doorknob thingies that prevent most people (even most adults, it seems!) from opening them. We've got them on all three doors on the main level. That was a precaution we took early on just in case.

Michele was then up a few times over the next few hours to help guide Dee Dee as she wandered around the house. For extra excitement, she's been trying to do most of this walking without her walker. Yikes! She fell down on our watch that very first night she spent with us and not at all since then. Dee Dee, don't ruin our record! :)

I'm not sure when Michele gave up on sleep, but I gave up around 3:00. I came out to the family room to see what Michele had been dealing with: Dee Dee walking from door to door, trying to walk out, then saying "Oh right, this one is locked." I asked her if I could help her, and she just said "Oh good morning, Brian! No, I'm just dreaming," and walked on to continue trying the doors. She seemed pretty cheerful to me.

As Michele tells me, around 2:00 this morning, in an effort to humor Dee Dee and calm her down, she offered to go outside with Dee Dee. They walked together in the rain. Dee Dee said she was going to a party with her brothers and sisters because one of her daughters just died, and Michele wasn't invited. When Dee Dee got to Highway 141 and started to cross it, Michele brought her back to our house.

We've got a doctor's appointment for Dee Dee this coming Wednesday. Five days away. I think it's reasonable to say that if we can't get her to sleep through the night, we'll have no choice but to bring her back to the nursing home.