Cardinal Hill is a great place to test your sense of direction. I failed my test. Even when I followed the exit signs, I have come out a new door each of the two times I have been to visit Marjorie since they moved her to the Skilled Rehabilitation Unit yesterday. And I won’t even talk about finding her room. I had to have a guide both times I visited, after several failed attempts. There are three major ways dementia can manifest in an individual: person, place, and time. I am definitely wondering if I am getting some dementia in the place category. Time is tricky for me, too. It is good for me to challenge myself in these two areas to keep as sharp as possible. I have never been a time and place person, though. But I am really good with faces. Names are a little more difficult, and they do seem to be getting a little harder to pull up.

I just had a good idea for a new meetup group! We could meet at Cardinal Hill and have a scavenger hunt, of sorts. We would each get a list of places to find at Cardinal Hill, and the last place on the list is where we would all convene at the end. The first person to reach the end, with all his places found, would receive a prize. Each person could chip in a dollar or two. Should asking directions be allowed?

Of course, someone with Alzheimer’s or other serious forms of dementia have much more profound difficulties with person, place, and time. They also don’t recognize objects or know what they are to be used for. I heard of a woman who tried to open her door with a pair of scissors, for example. My mother in law told me that Milford got into his car one day and she handed him his keys and he looked at them and said, “What are these?”. She said, “They are your keys”. And he said, “What do you want me to do with them?”. She then proceeded to give him instructions so he could drive her to the store. She never learned to drive. She enabled him to drive much longer than he should have. She told me about many close calls.

Some people with profound dementia also have difficulty with spacial perceptions. It seems they have no depth perception. And some people with profound dementia see and hear things and people who are not really there. Or they see someone and think they are someone else.

Of course, one of the best ways to prevent dementia is to have lots of social interactions. Even those diagnosed with dementia benefit from being with others (adult day center attendance has been shown to slow the progression of the illness). Come join us!