Cerebrovascular Accident
My Grandfather was stubborn, and not just when it came to arguments. When he had some work to do, whether it be in his garden, or fixing up the shed, he would work at it until it was done. If there was something he couldn't do, he would just try harder and harder until it worked.
This didn't work so well after he had a stroke.
My Grandfather didn't lose any motor function or physical ability, didn't even slur his words. But his mental capacity was severely diminished. He could figure things out the way he used to. He would forget things and get confused. And because he was stubborn, he would plough ahead anyway.
My Grandmother tried to reason with him, tried yelling at him, tried pleading with him, but when my Grandfather decided it was time to mow the lawn (even though he had done it three days in a row) there was no convincing him otherwise. When he decided he needed to remove a tree from the yard, no one could talk him out of it.
The result was that my grandparents garden started to deteriorate, their lawn and hedges became a mess, and their yard a disaster area.
After a few more strokes, and people badgering him about how hard he was pushing himself physically, my Grandfather finally scaled back on the yard work. But instead, he took up house work. He vacuumed the house everyday, sometimes twice a day. There was never a dirty dish, because he would wash and dry it right away. He would make up things to work at sometimes, and wouldn't listen to my Grandmother, even though she had done the house work for almost 50 years prior to that.
It was both sad and scary. This was my prime example of male aging.
And the worst part, was one time, after school, when I was prepared to play the chicken game with my Grandfather over the television, I came in the room to find him down on all four, scratching at the carpet like a dog. He looked up at me when I came in with the strangest look of bewilderment and fear that I have ever seen on an old man's face.
So I left the room and got my Grandmother, who promptly told him to get up off the floor. She treated him like a child, and part of it made me uncomfortable, but I certainly didnt have any alternative suggestions on how to treat a stubborn, confused, self-destructive old man.
I wrote a story based on my Grandfather not long after his second stroke. I'll post it tomorrow.
This didn't work so well after he had a stroke.
My Grandfather didn't lose any motor function or physical ability, didn't even slur his words. But his mental capacity was severely diminished. He could figure things out the way he used to. He would forget things and get confused. And because he was stubborn, he would plough ahead anyway.
My Grandmother tried to reason with him, tried yelling at him, tried pleading with him, but when my Grandfather decided it was time to mow the lawn (even though he had done it three days in a row) there was no convincing him otherwise. When he decided he needed to remove a tree from the yard, no one could talk him out of it.
The result was that my grandparents garden started to deteriorate, their lawn and hedges became a mess, and their yard a disaster area.
After a few more strokes, and people badgering him about how hard he was pushing himself physically, my Grandfather finally scaled back on the yard work. But instead, he took up house work. He vacuumed the house everyday, sometimes twice a day. There was never a dirty dish, because he would wash and dry it right away. He would make up things to work at sometimes, and wouldn't listen to my Grandmother, even though she had done the house work for almost 50 years prior to that.
It was both sad and scary. This was my prime example of male aging.
And the worst part, was one time, after school, when I was prepared to play the chicken game with my Grandfather over the television, I came in the room to find him down on all four, scratching at the carpet like a dog. He looked up at me when I came in with the strangest look of bewilderment and fear that I have ever seen on an old man's face.
So I left the room and got my Grandmother, who promptly told him to get up off the floor. She treated him like a child, and part of it made me uncomfortable, but I certainly didnt have any alternative suggestions on how to treat a stubborn, confused, self-destructive old man.
I wrote a story based on my Grandfather not long after his second stroke. I'll post it tomorrow.
posted by deadwriter at 10:31 a.m.
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