I might just be getting the hang of this

Grocery shopping day today and for some reason I was feeling exhausted and thinking how much easier it would be if I could go on my own.  However that's no longer an option so we set off complete with list and pen and somehow managed the supermarket in super quick time but it's the checkout which has become the problem as Ash, if you remember, has begun to get confused with what to scan first, what order everything should go through and which bags to use for what.  Today I scanned the items and handed them over for him to put in the bags, I did it slowly so that neither he or the self scanner went into meltdown (and either is a possiblity nowadays), we managed to get everything through without a problem and came home feeling calm and collected.  When we got back I suggested that he walk the dog while I unpacked the shopping and the bonus from that means that this week I know where everything is and won't have to hunt through cupboards to find his random hiding places whenever I need to cook our evening meal.  This is just the kind of life event which shows how much easier everything is since I finished work.  No more getting in, grabbing the bags and racing back out to town just so we can eat on a regular basis; no more irritability because there really isn't enough time to do it all slowly; no more arguments because he feels under pressure to do things exactly as they've always been done.  It's at times like this that I am absolutely certain it's not possible to fit dementia into our old life and that it has been totally necessary to reconfigure our life to fit around that same dementia.  I recently met up with a friend who works in a care home and she said that life only becomes easier for families of those living with dementia when those families accept what's happening.  Today's shopping trip was a fine example of that.

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