Earl news

I stopped in to see May today and everyone was out on the patio, taking in our first day over 60 degrees in a while. May was sitting on one bench with Eleanor, and Earl was sitting on another bench with Paul. Carmen, the afternoon activities staff person, looked at me and said, "She tells Earl, 'I have a HUSBAND!' She gets mad and walks out of the room. Been doing that for three or four days."

Earl was glaring at Carmen. For some reason, she pointed to me and said, "That's her husband!" I think she wanted to see a rumble.

Behavior change

I haven't been writing much lately -- mostly because we've been in the longest period of stasis I can remember since this whole deal started about six years ago. That still seemed to be the case when I visited her this afternoon. She smiled and laughed. But I was summoned to the nurse's office and asked to okay a new medication. The nurses looked worried. They said May has been attacking the staff. When I asked what that meant, one of them said, "Like she turns into Mike Tyson." I asked how she was at night and they looked at the night nurse -- she said it happened at night too. It's a form of anxiety, they said, like she wants to get out of her skin. They're going to try an anti-anxiety drug. Several of the residents are on this same med, they said, but the look on their faces was not reassuring.