The Color of the Floor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 There is a stage when an Alzheimer’s disease patient needs 24-7 care. At this stage, the patient can go out by themselves, but they can’t come home by themselves. Someone has to keep watching the patient 24-7. But the stage would end in a few years.

 In the next stage, the caregiver will be released from watching duty. The patient will lose energy to go out by themselves. In my mother’s case, those were easy days. But they were short.

 In the next stage, we had to face another difficult problem. We needed help in my mother’s toileting. She couldn’t recognize a toilet. She started using inappropriate places as her toilet. Cleaning up my mother’s toilet’s fault was one of the most disgusting jobs I’ve done in my life.

 To avoid this, we had to lead her to a toilet very often. But it was better than 24-7 care. At least, we could rest for a while during non-toilet time.

My mother’s disease became worse. Leading her to the toilet became more difficult day by day.

One day, I noticed that she always stops at the same place in our house on the way to the toilet. The place was the borderline between the living room and the corridor. She always stops at the borderline and climbs over it as if there was a difference in level.

The colors of the floor were different on the living room and on the corridor. Alzheimer’s disease patients find it difficult to distinguish the differences between a color change and a difference in level. Doctors call this depth perception disorder.

We can remember the colors of the floors and the differences in level in our house, but a patient with Alzheimer’s can’t memorize them. My mother found a color change on the floor. She worried it could be a difference in level, so she needed to be careful.

That made this job difficult. But we couldn’t renovate our house. Every time she stops at the borderline, I tell her, “It is safe. It is safe. There is no difference in level. It’s flat. Just walk through.”

If I knew it would happen, I would’ve made the floor in the house the same color.

My friends, when buying your final house, please choose one that has floors of the same color.

Picture by Vladfree