Irony

"Humor brings insight and tolerance. Irony brings a deeper and less friendly understanding." Agnes Repplier

Irony.  Within the past two weeks, the director of the assisted living facility where Dwane lives has told me -- in what seems to me to have been a knee-jerk reaction to a bad weekend he was having -- that Dwane could not stay there any longer and would need to be moved to a nursing home.  Then, just days later, Dwane told me he thought it was time he moved home, since "no one does anything for me any way."  (We need to remember that he also expressed the opinion that I did nothing for him when he was home.)   A dear friend had warned me (having experienced Lewy Bodies Dementia with her father) that Dwane might continue to off and on insist on going home, but, still, it took me by surprise -- especially with the threat of the director saying he needed even more services than they could deliver.  I have changed the tide of the director wanting him to be moved by getting PT started again (which I had already been trying for several weeks) and getting his medication changed.  Amazingly, in an error between the assisted living facility and the pharmacy, there had been an omission of one of his meds.  Now I will be consulting with the nurse regularly to avoid further problems, but it still amazes me that the error occurred.  I know Dwane would rather be home.  Most people would prefer being home.  But, that is not to be, and it is very difficult for him to understand the need for assisted living -- especially when he seems to believe that "no one does anything for me any way".  As caregivers, this dissonance is something we can expect, but it is still very, very difficult to hear and deal with.