Our Evening Drive & Sundowning + A Video

November 10, 2017

There is something about dementia and darkness. Darkness changes my mom's mood. She becomes quiet and doesn't talk or laugh as much, when darkness arrives. My mom doesn't like it when the evening approaches and there becomes darkness. Darkness makes sundowning real for us.

Sundowning Definition from Healthline.com -

"Sundowning is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. It’s also known as “late-day confusion.” If someone you care for has dementia, their confusion and agitation may get worse in the late afternoon and evening. In comparison, their symptoms may be less pronounced earlier in the day."

I had the opportunity to drive my mom around in the evening time, recently. I had a few errands to do and we had a party awaiting us. I thought, "what the heck, I'll bring my mom a long for the errands, and to party." I know those of you that know about FTD, are laughing right now, when you think of FTD and a party. Trust me, I was feeling very brave this day.

We made it to the party. We were there long enough for my mom to eat some dessert, go to the bathroom (I helped her in the bathroom), and leave. We might have been there 10 minutes, and then my mom wanted to get home for her bedtime. She goes to bed around 7-7:30PM lately. I'm so thankful for the people, that know about my mom, and how understanding they are with our FTD life.

Below are the subjects that caught my attention during our drive and that you'll see in the video I recorded. There are times when my mom says stuff unexpectedly and I'm not quite sure what to respond back. Like at the beginning she says she thought she saw golfers, but she didn't see them. Also, the time where a business shut down and moved locations. She was saying they tore it down, when that wasn't the case. The business just moved.

This is the first time that I recorded our drive during the evening time. This is just to show you how my mom reacts to the darkness approaching.

If anyone has some suggestions, that are nice, about the seatbelt issue we keep having, please let me know! :0) You can find the seatbelt issue in the video.

Please subscribe to us here or on YouTube to see our upcoming videos. The next video I am going to share with you is something we contemplated if we should share or not. We feel as if we should share it, in it's entirety, with no edits, no bleeps, to show the real honest truth of Frontotemporal Dementia. Please keep a look out for it next week. (This video is still coming soon. This upcoming video got postponed due to Tiger passing away.)

Thank you for your support!