Live and Let Live

1. 

   "Allow the world to live as it chooses, and allow yourself to live as you choose." Richard Bach
   
   

   As caregivers we have many opportunities to shape the world of our loved one.  As my loved one spends more and more time in a non-lucid state with increasing hallucinations, I have the opportunity to constantly correct him or to just listen.  Recently he pointed to his carpet and said, "Does that cat have an additional stripe?"  I just responded that I was not sure.  What good would it be to tell him that there is no cat?  He sometimes figures that out himself -- because he will reach for the object he sees and find it not there, and then I can talk with him about his visual hallucinations.  It is good for him to talk, and I can be the listener -- without judgment, without censuring.  Even his vast knowledge of history is being affected.  He said recently, "Clinton only has a couple years left in office."  I merely responded, "That's interesting."  It is hard nowadays to know what year or what era he might be in cognitively.